BACKGROUND
Can you provide a brief description of your company, and the role that you play there?
I am a science writer at a science research facility. My job includes social media, blogging, newsletters, and website content creation.
OPPORTUNITY/CHALLENGE
What was the business challenge your company was facing that initiated the need for this platform?
We wanted to increase social media reach and efficiency.
SOLUTION
Was your company considering other platforms? Why this platform?
My organization arranged an enterprise contract with Hootsuite. It was a decision made by our executive team, and everyone in our organization had access to Hootsuite. I was still new to social media then, so I started using the tool then and have kept on using it ever since.
How does your company implement Hootsuite?
I use Hootsuite for Twitter more than any other social media account because I can post to and schedule things directly on other social networks. Twitter does not have any kind of scheduling option that I'm aware of. With Hootsuite, it's quick and easy. This ability to schedule tweets in advance is one of the features I love about Hootsuite.
That way, I can log onto Hootsuite and spend maybe an hour doing social media and plan six, seven tweets out for the entire day. I don't have to be on Twitter the entire time that I'm at work. Usually, when I'm at work, I'll have two or three tweets that I'm planning out, and I'll schedule them at various points throughout the day. I can choose which photos, links, and captions should go together on one tweet. Then, I'll schedule them throughout the day at specific times, or I'll use Hootsuite's auto-schedule feature, which tracks the times when your followers are most engaged. It is a handy tool.
We use analytics sometimes so we can see which tweets were most popular. Hootsuite does have a fairly good suite of analytics to choose from where you can customize your own data reports.
RESULTS
Can you share any results of your use of Hootsuite?
The main benefit is that it saves me time. Once I have scheduled everything I want for the day, I don't have to think about it anymore. I know that it is taken care of.
FEATURES
Were there any features or tools that really impressed you?
Beyond the auto schedule feature, they have their own link shorteners, which make life much easier. I don't have to use Bitly to fit links in my Tweets. Hootsuite does it for me, which is really convenient.
Looking back, are there any areas of Hootsuite upon which you feel could be added or improved?
I wish you were able to embed tweets in Hootsuite. Right now, you can't do that. It would be nice if we could embed tweets in Hootsuite because, that way, we could schedule them out. Right now, if I'm embedding a tweet, I have to go through Twitter directly, and it has to be shared right away. I wish I could schedule embedded tweets on Hootsuite.
Twitter requires images to be a certain elongated style that, right now, we have to format them on our own in Photoshop to make them the right size and dimensions. It would be nice if Hootsuite did that, too. Right now, we'll just crop them to the right dimensions but it'll arbitrarily choose what you want to focus on. If there were some added feature where you could have more control of how your image appears within Hootsuite – not having to go through Photoshop – that would be nice.
Right now, when you compose a tweet in Hootsuite, it'll have an icon for attachments. It's a paperclip. It'll also have "Upload an Image," "Drag and Drop," "Content Library," or "YouTube Video." If you upload a video, it will automatically try to upload it to YouTube as well as Hootsuite which, if it's already on YouTube, you can't do. It makes no sense.
Do you have any recommendations for someone using Hootsuite?
In terms of advice, I would definitely say take advantage of the analytics. Some of the reports require some kind of charge, or they require you to accrue a certain number of point or credits. There are also some free customizable reports as well.
You're also able to have more than one person managing an account, but not everyone has to have the same privileges. Someone can schedule a tweet out, but have a pending approval. You could have people working with you and doing social media for you, but then you would still have final approval capabilities.
OVERVIEW
We have a few quick questions and, for each question, we ask that you rate Hootsuite on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best. What would you give Hootsuite for functionality of the features available?
4 - There is room for improvement, but it is definitely easy to use.
What would you give Hootsuite for ease of use or ease of implementation into your business?
4
For support, as in responsiveness of the team or helpfulness of the resources available?
I have not used any of their support resources, but it's an easy-to-use tool.
How likely are you to recommend Hootsuite to a colleague or similar business?
5 - I do it all the time.
For overall satisfaction with the platform?
4 - I'm very happy with it.