Hootsuite Reviews | Clutch.co

Reviews

4.2

80 reviews

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the review

Client Interview

Nov 10 2016

Efficient Post Scheduling

"Hootsuite has more features than other tools, and it makes it easier to manage multiple accounts."

Nov 10, 2016

Recommendations

A digital agency uses Hootsuite to manage their clients' social media accounts. They like that Hootsuite allows them to aggregate and schedule posts for a variety of social networks and clients from one interface. They recommend getting to know the tool well and using all of its features to get the most out of it.

4.5

Features:

5.0

Ease of use:

5.0

Support:

5.0

Willing to refer:

5.0

the reviewer

$0 - $50/mo. spend

Marketing and Advertising

11-50 Employees

Coral Gables, FL

Digital Marketing Expert, Digital Agency

$0 - $50/mo. spend

Marketing and Advertising

11-50 Employees

Coral Gables, FL

Verified

Digital Marketing Expert, Digital Agency

Verified

Recommendations

Background

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are an agency that offers web design, web development, and digital marketing for different types of businesses in different industries. I’m the digital marketing expert.

What was the business challenge your clients were facing that initiated the need for this platform?

It was really just to be able to easily manage different accounts since we do have a lot of clients that utilize our social media management services. We needed to consolidate all of them in one place to easily schedule posts.

Solution

How does your company implement this platform or software?

We use it a lot for scheduling. As far as networks go, we schedule on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn. We use Hootsuite mostly just to schedule and then be able to see what we have lined up for the month or for the week. Sometimes, we’ll use some recording to be able to track differences in follower counts. That’s mostly it. We do not do social listening.

What we usually use it for is just to monitor the difference in the previous period because we do provide clients with reports. Sometimes, it’s just easier to check on Hootsuite for, let’s say, the Facebook follower difference between last month and the other month. That’s what we would normally use them for. There are other metrics as well, and you can download reporting. I know that in the past, the reports didn’t really give too much information, or it wasn’t really as easy to read, so I haven’t really used reporting in a bit.

Was your company considering other platforms? Why this platform?

Hootsuite has more features than other tools, and it makes it easier to manage multiple accounts. I’ve tried other software before, just a trial account or the basic free version, and it didn’t seem like it was as comprehensive as Hootsuite.

On an annual or monthly basis, how much does your company spend to utilize the platform?

We’re on the pro plan, which I believe is about $8 a month or so.

Results

Do you have any results that came out of your use of the software?

It saves us time as opposed to having to go to specific networks and post there. It’s just a timesaver for us more so than necessarily benefiting.

Features

Were there any software features or tools that really impressed you?

For me, it was more about the interface of it. It just seemed easier to be able to control different aspects for different clients. I guess it would just depend on how many accounts you’re managing. It seems like it would be a lot easier on that tool versus other ones to manage them all in one place.

Looking back, are there any areas of the software upon which you feel could be added or improved?

Sometimes, some of the link previews might be a little fussy, but I’ve contacted their support before and they’re pretty responsive.

Have you had to interact with the platform's support team or reference their support resources?

I’ve only contacted them maybe twice before about link previews that weren’t working correctly, and they were able to get back to me. It was just an issue that some people were having with Facebook linking, and they were able to take care of it. They gave me a workaround in the meantime.

Do you have any recommendations or advice that is considering the tool?

You really just need to get familiar with it and understand all that it can do before diving into it. You can get a feel for how to set up profiles and how to add other users to your account if you have different members of your marketing team. Take advantage of the features.

4.5

Overall Score

5.0 Features

5.0 Ease of Use

5.0 Support

5.0 Willing to Refer

I’ve recommended it before.

the review

Client Interview

Sep 08 2016

Holistic Social Media Management

"The best thing about it is the interface, which allows a very easy visualization of performance, as well as what’s taking place on each network."

Sep 08, 2016

Recommendations

An app development studio uses Hootsuite to manage all of their social channels from a clean interface and save time. They added 1,000 new page likes on Facebook in a matter of 6 weeks organically tahnsk to Hootsuite. They recommend looking into Hootsuite's online resources and tutorials to fully grasp all of the tool's functionality.

4.0

Features:

4.0

Ease of use:

4.0

Support:

4.0

Willing to refer:

5.0

the reviewer

$0 - $50/mo. spend

IT Services

11-50 Employees

Venice, California

Founder, App Development Studio

$0 - $50/mo. spend

IT Services

11-50 Employees

Venice, California

Verified

Founder, App Development Studio

Verified

Recommendations

the review

Background
Solution
Features
Ratings

Background

Can you provide a brief description of your company?

We are a mobile app development studio based in Venice Beach with a presence in San Francisco and New York City.

What role do you play there?

I am the founder and CEO.

What was the business challenge your clients were facing that initiated the need for Hootsuite?

We were looking to manage multiple social media feeds from one central location.

Solution

How does your company implement Hootsuite?

Hootsuite is used as a social media hub, and we have our Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts all put in there. Hootsuite makes it very easy to push content to all of our networks from one central hub instead of going into each individual network, opening up the page, and going through the formatting to push content out.

We get analytics when we log in. We can look at how our campaigns are performing. Then we also get weekly analytics reports from Hootsuite on how we’re doing on each one of our networks. We have multiple users in the account; two, to be exact. We use Slack to chat.

Was your company considering other platforms? Why Hootsuite?

There were a couple others that we’ve looked at here and there, nothing of note. I’ve done digital marketing campaigns previously to getting into the mobile technology space, so I had familiarity with Hootsuite and felt comfortable working with the interface, and the pricing was reasonable.

On an annual or monthly basis, how much does your company spend to utilize Hootsuite?

I think we spend $6 a month.

Features

Were there any software features or tools that really impressed you?

The best thing about it is the interface, which allows a very easy visualization of performance, as well as what’s taking place on each network. It’s hard to quantify because I can’t tell you we saved X amount of hours per month in social media management; I can just tell you our results on Facebook have been pretty good using Hootsuite. We added 1,000 new page likes in a matter of 6 weeks organically.

Looking back, are there any areas of the software upon which you feel could be added or improved?

It takes a little while, I feel, to dig into the settings and make changes to the account. I remember when I tried to upgrade from free to paid, it was kind of a pain to add a new user and go through the process.

Do you have any recommendations for someone who is considering the tool?

It’s pretty self-explanatory. I would recommend going into some of the tutorials and getting a crash course on some of the more advanced features. It can be unlocked pretty easily. As far as advice, content is the most important portion of the puzzle, and Hootsuite isn’t going to create more engagement; it’s just going to save time. Managing expectations is probably important for people new to the digital marketing arena.

4.0

Overall Score I’d say it’s 85% the way there, and that next 15% gap they just have to figure out. I know that it can’t be everything to everybody, but there are some areas that can still be rounded out for improvement.

4.0 Features

I feel like there’s always a little bit of room for improvement.

4.0 Ease of Use

It’s pretty straightforward. There were some hiccups and annoyances that I had connecting with our Twitter accounts, and LinkedIn was a little tricky too.

4.0 Support

Only because I haven’t had much interaction with support. The tutorials and workshops are pretty powerful tools. You can create a learning zone around them.

5.0 Willing to Refer

I think there’s value there. It saves time and a lot of energy, and it’s reasonably priced.

the review

Client Interview

Aug 17 2016

Social Media Management for Inbound Marketing Company

"The major thing that we like about it [Hootsuite], and the feature that we use the most, is the auto-scheduler."

Aug 17, 2016

Recommendations

An inbound marketing company uses Hootsuite to track social media engagement. They like the auto-scheduling tool that Hootsuite provides. Other than that, because they are using the tool primarily for social media engagement, they like its analytics capabilities.

5.0

Features:

4.0

Ease of use:

5.0

Support:

5.0

Willing to refer:

5.0

the reviewer

IT Services

11-50 employees

Hyberabad, India

CEO at The Smarketers

Enoch Pakanati

IT Services

11-50 employees

Hyberabad, India

Verified

CEO at The Smarketers

Enoch Pakanati

Verified

Recommendations

the review

Background
Solution
Features
Ratings

Background

Introduce your business and what you do there.

At The Smarketers, we do hybrid inbound marketing which is a combination of generating unique content, promoting it, generating inbound leads, and at the same time, running outbound campaigns in parallel. We’re able to generate leads from an equal mix of sales and marketing. I’m the CEO.

What was the business challenge your clients were facing that initiated the need for this platform?

One of the things that we do is generate a lot of content. This content can be in the form of blogs, e-books, white papers, or infographics. We also can write specific content for social media. We have a bunch of clients and promote this content across different social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and so on in a specific language. We have to keep track of all the different followers. For us, having a professional account with Hootsuite really helped so we could get all the content on a weekly basis. We can post it, schedule it, and we can also auto-schedule posts or schedule them for whatever time we want. It was a decision made after viewing a couple of other tools. That helped us to go with Hootsuite. We’re happy with it so far.

Solution

How does your company implement this platform or software?

For each client that we bring in, we add a new account and add streams for those clients. Those streams can be different social media accounts for that particular client. We keep a track of how the content is doing. That includes content engagement, likes, and followers. At the same time, we have to understand which type of content is helping us drive more engagement so we can start focusing on generating that type of content. The major aspect of the tool is helping us to schedule across multiple social media platforms at once so we don’t have to do each of them manually. That really really saves us a lot of time.

What kind of metrics or analytics are you able to see from this platform?

The analytics we pull are centered on social media engagement. That could be user engagement of posts or increase in followers. We are able to see what kind of content was posted, what time it was posted and therein see when we get maximum traction. These type of analytics really help us make crucial decisions in terms of what ;type of content to create, time of day, and day of the week.

Features

Were there any software features or tools that really impressed you?

The major thing that we like about it [Hootsuite], and the feature that we use the most, is the auto-scheduler. I think that’s the only one that really stands out for us at this point. We still keep a track of analytics, streams, and so on, but for us, the most important element of Hootsuite is the auto-schedule feature.

Looking back, are there any areas of the software upon which you feel could be added or improved?

I think overall, it's good. We also have Hootlet and the Chrome extensions, so that’s helpful. Maybe being able to kind of monitor specific groups or being able to moderate members or even being able to create lists and so on from Hootsuite would be helpful. One more thing more that could be better is regarding Twitter. Being able to automatically follow people or send a thank-you message to any new followers and stuff like that would make it more like a complete platform.

Have you had to interact with the platform's support team or reference their support resources?

It’s been good. We really haven’t connected with anyone from Hootsuite. They have a number of videos on YouTube and training material that really help. For us, that’s been more than enough for us to be able to understand what we need to do.

What recommendations or advice would you give to someone considering this platform?

Any B2C [business-to-customer] or B2B [business-to-business] company can definitely use Hootsuite. From a cost standpoint, it’s very, very affordable even for an enterprise professional level user like an agency or anyone who’s managing multiple accounts. I think their pricing packages are really good. We’ve had a good experience. We’ve done quite a bit of research before choosing to go with Hootsuite. Whether it’s a B2B company or a B2C company like an e-commerce company trying to do social media, I think it’s a good platform.

Can you share any results that have come from the use of the platform?

Overall, we’ve seen at least a 200% increase in post engagement, likes, followers. We even use Hootsuite for our own internal marketing as well. We’ve organically gone from zero to almost fifty followers within a two to three-week period on Instagram. All the clients that we are currently working with, have seen an increase in the number of followers. I use Hootsuite for my own personal Twitter account as well. The moment I started using the auto-schedule feature, it actually helped post those tweets at the right time when a lot of people are on Twitter. It really helped boost my followers as well.

5.0

Overall Score

4.0 Features

5.0 Ease of Use

5.0 Support

5.0 Willing to Refer

the review

Client Interview

Jul 27 2016

Social Media Management for Video Marketing Company

"Being able to utilize Hootsuite to grow an audience and to reach out past that, to targeted people, has been powerful."

Jul 27, 2016

Recommendations

Slate and Main is a video production company that primarily uses Hootsuite to manage their social media posts. They are very happy with how easy Hootsuite makes it to manage their content. The only thing that Slate and Main does not like is how users schedule social media posts. They wish it was a little bit less complicated.

4.5

Features:

5.0

Ease of use:

4.0

Support:

4.0

Willing to refer:

5.0

the reviewer

Advertising and Marketing

1-10 employees

St. Paul, Minnesota

Director of Sales at Slate and Main

Jake LeVoir

Advertising and Marketing

1-10 employees

St. Paul, Minnesota

Verified

Director of Sales at Slate and Main

Jake LeVoir

Verified

Recommendations

the review

Background
Solution
Results
Ratings

Background

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Slate and Main is a video marketing company. Our job is to partner with organizations and provide them with both videos and campaigns pitches, along with concepts to achieve their goals. We describe ourselves as a video-centric content agency, meaning that every recommendation we give is going to start with video as the center of it. The other pieces that fall off of that, which include stills, radio, podcasts, and other types of audio or still assets are already created because when you create a video, you create them all by default.

I am the Director of Sales.

What was the business challenge your clients were facing that initiated the need for this platform?

We needed something that could cut out the time it takes to publish on social media. Writing a posting schedule is a strategy, and that takes some skill and some know-how, but executing that requires a lot of button-pushing, and to be frank, it just takes a lot of time. We needed something that could curb that effort.

Solution

How does your company implement this platform or software?

With Hootsuite, we use a few different social networks and then schedule our content to publish the month prior. We upload natively to Facebook and YouTube, so we actually don’t really use Hootsuite for those. We use Hootsuite to publish directly to our company page on LinkedIn, Instagram, and we also run our blog posting out to Twitter.

We don’t get as many analytics as we could. It’s a pretty robust platform. We can certainly see a number of exposures because we have a pro account, which has been really nice. You can see just about everything you’d ever want to know and a lot of stuff you didn’t even know that you wanted to know. You can use it to monitor how the social media pages are doing, or to monitor any competitors. We use it almost exclusively for social media management.

Was your company considering other platforms? Why this platform?

A big reason why we chose Hootsuite was because of the interface. It’s really functional and it’s easy to learn. I like their panels. Hootsuite is set up where not only can you go in the publisher, but you can go to your homepage and set up panels. The publisher display is really beautiful. You can easily scan and see all the Twitter posts that you’ve put out in the past month, and all the Facebook ones in a different window. The functionality of the platform is really nice. We looked at Buffer and some other ones and just didn’t like the interface as much.

Results

Were there any software features or tools that really impressed you?

Outside of the ability to manage your content, nothing has been super exciting to me. It’s a great platform, and it certainly can manage the bulk of your postings. You don’t have to go there every day and worry that something won’t happen as scheduled.

The advice I have for anyone considering using Hootsuite is that when you’re using it, make sure that you engage with someone, whether it’s a company or an independent contractor, who is a social media manager and can actually write you a content strategy because just throwing out content is half the battle. It has to be content that actually engages and does something.

We’ve gotten business from our social media marketing. I don’t know if it gets much more straightforward than that. Infrequently, we get business from Twitter, but we’ve actually made a couple of agency connections from Twitter, which was cool. We get most of our business from Facebook. LinkedIn has been incredibly effective for us. Being able to utilize Hootsuite to grow an audience and to reach out past that, to targeted people, has been powerful.

Looking back, are there any areas of the software upon which you feel could be added or improved?

The one thing that really frustrates me is their batch uploader for content. If you want to schedule more than one tweet at a time or one LinkedIn post at a time, you have to go and put them all in an Excel or a CSV-type document and then upload that to the thing afterwards, instead of just being able to go in and say you want to tweet or publish on a certain day. It’s not a deal-breaker obviously, but it’s certainly frustrating.

Have you had to interact with the platform's support team or reference their support resources?

I have reached out to them in the past via submitting tickets, and they’ve always been very responsive, which I like. It’s one of the reasons we stuck with them actually.

4.5

Overall Score

5.0 Features

4.0 Ease of Use

4.0 Support

5.0 Willing to Refer

the review

Client Interview

Jun 27 2016

Increased Social Audience with Hootsuite

"The number of followers and fans have grown exponentially since we've started using Hootsuite. Hootsuite has provided us the tools needed to execute and manage our social media strategy easily."

Jun 27, 2016

Recommendations

The user is HMG Creative, a digital agency in Austin. They started using the free version of Hootsuite to organize their social media content better. The user likes that Hootsuite allows them to schedule a lot of content far in advance across various social media channels, but would like the analytics to be more robust. The user highly recommends Hootsuite as a tool to support a company's social media efforts better.

5.0

Features:

5.0

Ease of use:

5.0

Support:

n/a

Willing to refer:

5.0

the reviewer

$0 - $50/mo. spend

Marketing and Advertising

11-50 Employees

Austin, TX

Social Media Marketing Coordinator at HMG Creative

James Trumbly

$0 - $50/mo. spend

Marketing and Advertising

11-50 Employees

Austin, TX

Verified

Social Media Marketing Coordinator at HMG Creative

James Trumbly

Verified

Recommendations

the review

Details
Ratings

BACKGROUND

Can you please provide a brief description of your company and the role that you play there?

HMG Creative is an award-winning digital agency with a focus on web design, brand development, and interactive marketing services. My role here at HMG Creative is the social media/marketing coordinator.

OPPORTUNITY/CHALLENGE

What was the business challenge your company was facing that initiated the need for Hootsuite?

We began using Hootsuite about five years ago in order to organize our social media content better. As our business and the importance of social media channels continue to grow, we needed a product that would allow us to schedule our content and keep a better pulse on our various platforms.

SOLUTION

How does your company implement Hootsuite?

We use Hootsuite to schedule out our weekly posts to Twitter and Facebook. We also use Hootsuite to organize and search for relevant content.

Was your company considering other platforms? Why Hootsuite?

We were looking at TweetDeck as an alternative option, but since Hootsuite is cloud-based, we found that platform best served our needs.

On an annual or monthly basis, how much does your company spend to utilize Hootsuite?

We are currently using the free version of the platform.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any success, metrics, or overall results of your implementation of Hootsuite?

The number of followers and fans have grown exponentially since we've started using Hootsuite. Hootsuite has provided us the tools needed to execute and manage our social media strategy easily.

Features

Were there any software features or tools that impressed you?

The main reason we enjoy using Hootsuite is because of the option to schedule content far in advance. In addition, we also like how we can customize the content shown on our dashboard across a multitude of social media channels, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Looking back, are there any areas of the software that you feel could be added or improved upon?

Other than providing more analytic tools to the free version of Hootsuite, we are happy with the platform.

Have you had to interact with Hootsuite's support team or reference their support resources?

Thankfully, we have never had to contact a member of the Hootsuite support team.

RATINGS

To sum up: We have a few quick questions, and for each question we ask you to rate the software on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the best.

What would you give Hootsuite for functionality of the features available?

What would you give Hootsuite for ease of use or ease of implementation into your business?

For support, as in responsiveness of the team or helpfulness of the resources available?

N/A – We have never reached out to their support team.

Overall, satisfaction with Hootsuite?

How likely are you to recommend Hootsuite a colleague or similar business?

5 – We are very likely to recommend Hootsuite to a colleague. Hootsuite is a great tool for any business that is looking to support their social media efforts better.

5.0

Overall Score

5.0 Features

5.0 Ease of Use

N/A Support

5.0 Willing to Refer

the review

Client Interview

May 26 2016

Easy Content Scheduling with Hootsuite

"It would be nice if there were different ways to visualize that content within the calendar system. It’s a little bit limited in terms of the different social profiles that you can add into it. Overall, I think it’s just not as easy to digest the information visually."

May 26, 2016

Recommendations

The user is Thrive Internet Marketing. They use Hootsuite to schedule posts and monitor social media for their clients. The user likes its ease of scheduling, but would like the content calendar to be updated and more complex. The user prefers Sprout Social over Hootsuite.

3.0

Features:

3.0

Ease of use:

4.0

Support:

n/a

Willing to refer:

2.0

the reviewer

Marketing and Advertising

11-50 Employees

Dallas/Fort Worth Area

Social Media Specialist at Thrive Internet Marketing

Christy Hughes

Marketing and Advertising

11-50 Employees

Dallas/Fort Worth Area

Verified

Social Media Specialist at Thrive Internet Marketing

Christy Hughes

Verified

Recommendations

the review

Details
Ratings

BACKGROUND

Can you provide a brief description of your company?

I work at Thrive Internet Marketing. We offer web design services in WordPress format, search engine optimization, email marketing campaigns, social media management, blogging content development, and so forth. We’re a full service digital marketing agency.

What role do you play there?

I am the Social Media Specialist at the company.

OPPORTUNITY/CHALLENGE

What was the business challenge your company was facing that initiated the need for this platform?

This kind of platform gives me the ability to bring all our social media accounts into one place where I can easily view workflow, the content calendar, have the ability to post directly via RSS feed from the tool, view reporting formats and the ability to customize those, and for those to be fluid. Those were all super important things to me.

SOLUTION

How does your company implement this platform or software?

Our use of Hootsuite is a bit limited. We’re just using it for scheduled posting and a little bit of inbound social media engagement monitoring. The majority of our clients are using Sprout Social for now. The only reason we’re still using Hootsuite is for those who are familiar with it and want to share access to the scheduling platform. We’ve kept using that tool for them.

Was your company considering other platforms? Why this platform?

Hootsuite was something that we were using before I even came on the team. I can’t really comment on that. We were probably using it because it is a well-known tool that a lot of our clients were familiar with.

FEATURES

Were there any software features or tools that really impressed you?

The capability of the platform with Hootsuite is pretty standard. We’re mainly using it for the ability to schedule and curate content within the platform, the ability to tag different people from their handles and social media profiles within the posts you’re creating, monitoring across your channels, as well as any followers you have plugged into.

Looking back, are there any areas of the software upon which you feel could be added or improved?

I would like it to have a better content calendar system. It would be nice if there were different ways to visualize that content within the calendar system. It’s a little bit limited in terms of the different social profiles that you can add into it. Overall, I think it’s just not as easy to digest the information visually. It could use a little bit of a facelift.

Have you had to interact with the platform's support team or reference their support resources?

I haven’t had to reach out to Hootsuite at all. I do know they have a ton of information on their blog.

RATINGS

We ask that you rate the software on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the best score.

What would you give the software for functionality of the features available?

What would you give the software for ease of use or ease of implementation into your business?

How likely are you to recommend the software to a colleague or similar business?

For overall satisfaction with the platform?

3.0

Overall Score

3.0 Features

4.0 Ease of Use

N/A Support

2.0 Willing to Refer

the review

Client Interview

May 17 2016

Effective Twitter Scheduling with Hootsuite

"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."

May 17, 2016

Recommendations

The user is a science research facility in Maryland. They use Hootsuite to create and schedule posts for Twitter, one of the few social networks that does not have scheduling capabilities on the site itself. The user likes that Hootsuite is easy to use, offers great analytics and allows for different permission settings to be assigned to different team members. The user highly recommends Hootsuite to anyone looking for a simple, easy–to-use social media tool.

4.0

Features:

4.0

Ease of use:

4.0

Support:

n/a

Willing to refer:

5.0

the reviewer

Research

201-500 Employees

Maryland

Science Writer, Science Research Facility

Research

201-500 Employees

Maryland

Verified

Science Writer, Science Research Facility

Verified

Recommendations

the review

Details
Ratings

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?

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.

4.0

Overall Score

4.0 Features

4.0 Ease of Use

N/A Support

5.0 Willing to Refer

the review

Client Interview

Apr 13 2016

Great Social Tool for Small Businesses

"Not including the enterprise plan, their regular rates are very attractive. It allows you to plug in 50 platforms and search feeds easily."

Apr 13, 2016

Recommendations

The user is Viral in Nature, a social media marketing agency. They use Hootsuite to manage many of their clients' social media accounts. They like that Hootsuite allows them to reply to comments on Instagram directly from the platform. They highly recommend Hootsuite for small businesses with small budgets.

4.0

Features:

4.5

Ease of use:

5.0

Support:

4.0

Willing to refer:

4.0

the reviewer

Marketing and Advertising

11-50 Employees

Calgary, Canada

President at Viral In Nature

Shawn Alain

Marketing and Advertising

11-50 Employees

Calgary, Canada

Verified

President at Viral In Nature

Shawn Alain

Verified

Recommendations

the review

Details
Ratings

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

My company is a social media marketing agency in Canada. We also build websites and do some reputation management.

What is your position?

I am the president of the company.

OPPORTUNITY/CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Hootsuite?

We used Hootsuite for our clients, who could have a number of different goals – each client is different. The most common goal is increasing sales. Being part of the social media conversation about their industry is second on the list next to sales.

SOLUTION

How do you use the platforms for your clients?

We are basically a social media department for our clients. We manage all their social media with as little or as much input as they want to give us. We get them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube, and sometimes a few more, depending on what their business is. We put all of their accounts on Hootsuite so we can manage all of them from one place. It allows us to post the same content onto multiple platforms, and we can schedule it way in advance. Our main goal with Hootsuite is to get our customers involved online and communicating with their potential audience and industry.

Why did you choose Hootsuite?

It seems to be the most popular tool out there, so we gave it a shot.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What distinguishes Hootsuite from other tools?

Not including the enterprise plan, their regular rates are very attractive. It allows you to plug in 50 platforms and search feeds easily. Their Waterfall dashboard is good, too.

I believe Hootsuite are the inventors of the Waterfall dashboard. I don't know any other program that came out with that, and I know many of them have since copied that. Now you can post comments and send replies on Instagram directly from Hootsuite, which you can't do from many other tools.

Is there anything that would make Hootsuite more useful?

One of the things that many of these tools are missing, and one of the reasons I built my own social media management tool, is that it's hard for an agency managing multiple clients to keep up with everything that is happening on social media.

On Hootsuite, you have to scroll through all the tabs to see the latest notifications. It'd be great if the program could notify us of any changes, rather than have us go through it to see looking for updates.

Do you have any advice for anyone using one of these tools?

If they do need more than what the free platform allows for, rather than go up to the Enterprise plan, I would look at purchasing extra subscriptions of the free version. I'd strongly recommend Hootsuite to small businesses with small budgets.

OVERVIEW

We have a few quick questions and, for each question, we ask you to rate Hootsuite on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best. What would you give the software for functionality of the features available?

4.5

What would you give the software for ease of use or ease of implementation into your business?

For support, as in responsiveness of the team or helpfulness of the resources available?

I have not interacted with their support team or resources.

How likely are you to recommend the software to a colleague or similar business?

For overall satisfaction with the platform?

4.0

Overall Score

4.5 Features

5.0 Ease of Use

4.0 Support

4.0 Willing to Refer

the review

Client Interview

Sep 22 2015

App Builder Company Implementation of HootSuite

"The main thing with HootSuite is it that allows us to schedule our target number of daily posts. Each week, HootSuite sends an account activity report to my email address, and that gives me a great idea of how we're performing. "
— Social Media Assistant, AppInstitute (App Builder Company)

Sep 22, 2015

Recommendations

The client is AppInstitute. AppInstitute provides an online application creator that allows individuals with no coding skills to build a mobile application. This client was in need of a social media management tool that would enable their team to easily manage their social media accounts and limit the necessity of signing in and out of different accounts. AppInstitute found that HootSuite best fit their needs at a very affordable price. This client highly recommends HootSuite for its reporting functionality and looks forward to improvements with the auto-scheduling capabilities.

4.0

Features:

4.0

Ease of use:

4.0

Support:

5.0

Willing to refer:

5.0

the reviewer

$250 - $1,000/yr. spend

Information Technology and Services

11-50 Employees

London, UK

Social Media Assistant, AppInstitute

Taylor Smith

$250 - $1,000/yr. spend

Information Technology and Services

11-50 Employees

London, UK

Verified

Social Media Assistant, AppInstitute

Taylor Smith

Verified

Recommendations

the review

Details
Ratings

BACKGROUND

Can you provide a brief description of your company and the role that you play there?

AppInstitute provides a simple online app builder for small businesses and individuals to build their own mobile apps with no coding or tech skills. I am the social media assistant.

OPPORTUNITY/CHALLENGE

What was the business challenge your company was facing that prompted the need for this platform?

There aren't too many social media accounts associated with AppInstitute, so I'm comfortable handling it all by myself. Before I started using HootSuite, I found myself constantly signing in and out of different profiles to post updates and monitor engagement, and it would just take me too long. I looked for a better tool that takes stuff off my hands, allowing me to go on with other jobs. I needed something that would let me monitor conversations and mentions and shouts, as well as updates, and schedule updates for each day.

SOLUTION

Was your company considering other platforms? Why this platform?

I looked at HootSuite and Falcon Social, and I read various reviews and asked different questions. Although it was a little biased of me, I went for HootSuite just for the 30-day trial. I liked the overall user interface of HootSuite. I think it's pretty slick, and easy to navigate. I don't like it when there's too much happening on one page, but you can edit the layout as you like and create streams and organize it.

On an annual or monthly basis, how much does your company spend to utilize the platform?

We subscribe to the Pro plan and pay monthly. I think it's about £11 [approximately $17] month. That's kind of the best plan for us since we're a small business, but we are growing and, at the moment, it's only me that handles the social media.

RESULTS

Can you share any success, metrics, or overall results of your implementation of this platform?

The main thing with HootSuite is it that allows us to schedule our target number of daily posts – like 10 a day, but it varies. We reach other countries as well, not just the United Kingdom. Each week, HootSuite sends an account activity report to my email address, and that gives me a great idea of how we're performing.

Since I started using HootSuite, we've gained more than 200 followers. It definitely helped me be more efficient in managing social media, and I'm much more aware of any interactions because I have created streams for new followers, likes, and all sorts of different things. It's much easier to keep on top of it all by narrowing it down.

FEATURES

Were there any software features or tools that really impressed you?

I just love how I can have everything in one place. It saves me so much time. I also like that you can create different reports. Although I haven't created anything yet, I probably will in the future. Being able to have everything in one place is helpful.

Looking back, are there any areas of the software that you feel could be added or improved upon?

One thing I'd like to see is similar to the auto-scheduling feature. I'd like HootSuite to generate posts from a list of posts that you created on the platform. For instance, you could create a list full of potential Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn posts that you'd like to send, and then HootSuite would pick one at random and schedule it. That would be good for keeping your account active when you're out of the office on the weekends and evenings.

Another thing I would improve is the auto-scheduling feature. It seems that it doesn't base the time it generates on anything in particular – just a random time in a day. However, it does say that it generates the time from the best performing posts. I don't know if there's more or less engagement when you auto-schedule it, but I still use it.

Have you had to interact with the platform's support team or reference their support resources?

Nothing in particular, but if I did need tips on anything I usually find them on YouTube, that's kind of how I first started using HootSuite. Even though I haven't really directly contacted them, I know they have a great social media team on hand who help you out whenever. There are tons of training materials, and there's formal training you can do with the university option, but I've never really needed that so far.

OVERVIEW

We have a few quick questions and, for each question, we ask you to rate the software on a scale of one to five, with five being the best. What would you give the software for functionality of the features available?

Four because I think they can improve on a couple of features.

What would you give the software for ease of use or ease of implementation into your business?

Four.

For support, as in responsiveness of the team or helpfulness of the resources available?

Five.

For overall satisfaction with the platform?

Four.

How likely are you to recommend the software to a colleague or similar business?

Five. Definitely.

4.0

Overall Score

4.0 Features

4.0 Ease of Use

5.0 Support

5.0 Willing to Refer

the review

Client Interview

Sep 08 2015

Mobile App Marketing Agency Implementation of Hootsuite

"We love that with Hootsuite almost all existing social media accounts can be added, and the dashboard can be modified for a user's liking. We also like the various settings that let teams within our company customize the dashboard based on project."
— Manager, ComboStore (Mobile App Marketing Agency)

Sep 08, 2015

Recommendations

The client is ComboApp, a full-service mobile and app marketing agency headquartered in Chicago. The ComboApp brand has more than 20 different social media accounts and was in need of a tool that would allow them to manage and track all of the accounts efficiently. This client implements Hootsuite within their business to help solve this challenge. This client enjoys the ease with which they are able to track all of their social media in one dashboard, but highlights that even after Hootsuite's most recent dashboard update they believe there is still a lot of room for improvement.

5.0

Features:

5.0

Ease of use:

4.0

Support:

5.0

Willing to refer:

5.0

the reviewer

Less than $250/yr. spend

Marketing and Advertising

11-50 Employees

Chicago, IL

Manager, ComboStore

Julia Kravchuk

Less than $250/yr. spend

Marketing and Advertising

11-50 Employees

Chicago, IL

Verified

Manager, ComboStore

Julia Kravchuk

Verified

Recommendations

the review

Details
Ratings

BACKGROUND

Can you please provide a brief description of your company and the role that you play there?

ComboApp is a full-cycle marketing app marketing agency for a global mobile app marketplace. We provide clients with everything from creative development to product/campaign strategy and analytics to media placement and traditional public relations campaigns.

What role do you play there?

Working at ComboApp, I've had various responsibilities including account management, project management, social media management, lead generation, and sales. My responsibilities were different, so the tools needed for the best results were different.

OPPORTUNITY/CHALLENGE

What was the business challenge your company was facing that necessitated the need for this platform?

We needed help managing our social media profiles, tracking replies and our followers. We needed a tool to help manage the ComboApp community. We have more than 20 social media accounts for the ComboApp Group managing all of the accounts was the challenge we were facing.

SOLUTION

How does your company implement this platform or software?

We've added all of our social media accounts so the responsible team members can use the platform simultaneously. Now, we are able to plan posts for weeks ahead as well as see recommended content from Hootsuite to share it via our channels.

Was your company considering other platforms? Why this platform?

I did research on similar platforms, and tried about three of them. Hootsuite appeared the most functional and had the capability to add almost all social networks we needed to manage, except Instagram, but now it is available as well. The minus was Hootsuite's complicated interface and old-school design but, some time ago, they've redesigned the dashboard and it's become much more user-friendly. I just loved their promo campaign dedicated to the new design, and their funny video.

On an annual or monthly basis, how much does your company spend to utilize the platform?

We've chosen the PRO plan, which is around $100 per year, at a one-time payment.

RESULTS

Can you share any success, metrics, or overall results of your implementation of this platform?

All of our accounts are gathered in the one handy dashboard and can be tracked and managed by two administrators. There is no longer a need to login and logout hundreds of times to check the status, share updates or gather feedback. Our Hootsuite status reports show our progress.

FEATURES

Were there any software features or tools that really impressed you?

We love that with Hootsuite almost all existing social media accounts can be added, and the dashboard can be modified for a user's liking. We also like the various settings that let teams within our company customize the dashboard based on project.

Looking back, are there any areas of the software that you feel could be added or improved upon?

We still feel the design of the dashboard could be simpler even after the update.

Have you had to interact with the platform's support team or reference their support resources?

No. We haven't had to reach out to their team.

OVERVIEW

Five.

What would you give the software for ease of use or ease of implementation into your business?

Four.

For support, as in responsiveness of the team or helpfulness of the resources available?

Five.

For overall satisfaction with the platform?

Five.

How likely are you to recommend the software to a colleague or similar business?

Five.

5.0

Overall Score

5.0 Features

4.0 Ease of Use

5.0 Support

5.0 Willing to Refer

Hootsuite

Get serious about social

Product Demo & Screenshots

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Hootsuite Dashboard

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Features

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Integration

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Reviews

Reviews

the review

Client Interview

Client Interview

Nov 10 2016

"Hootsuite has more features than other tools, and it makes it easier to manage multiple accounts."

Nov 10, 2016

the reviewer

the review

the review

Client Interview

Client Interview

Sep 08 2016

"The best thing about it is the interface, which allows a very easy visualization of performance, as well as what’s taking place on each network."

Sep 08, 2016

the reviewer

the review

the review

Client Interview

Client Interview

Aug 17 2016

"The major thing that we like about it [Hootsuite], and the feature that we use the most, is the auto-scheduler."

Aug 17, 2016

the reviewer

the review

the review

Client Interview

Client Interview

Jul 27 2016

"Being able to utilize Hootsuite to grow an audience and to reach out past that, to targeted people, has been powerful."

Jul 27, 2016

the reviewer

the review

the review

Client Interview

Client Interview

Jun 27 2016

"The number of followers and fans have grown exponentially since we've started using Hootsuite. Hootsuite has provided us the tools needed to execute and manage our social media strategy easily."

Jun 27, 2016

the reviewer

the review

the review

Client Interview

Client Interview

May 26 2016

"It would be nice if there were different ways to visualize that content within the calendar system. It’s a little bit limited in terms of the different social profiles that you can add into it. Overall, I think it’s just not as easy to digest the information visually."

May 26, 2016

the reviewer

the review

the review

Client Interview

Client Interview

May 17 2016

"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."

May 17, 2016

the reviewer

the review

the review

Client Interview

Client Interview

Apr 13 2016

"The main thing with HootSuite is it that allows us to schedule our target number of daily posts. Each week, HootSuite sends an account activity report to my email address, and that gives me a great idea of how we're performing. "
— Social Media Assistant, AppInstitute (App Builder Company)