We use Hootsuite to schedule posts for our company. We have it linked to our LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram accounts so we can post to those accounts. The recommended times are beneficial on their end to know the most optimal time to post. I wish they had a better system for learning about the product. Most software companies have a representative you work with who can teach you how to get the most out of the program, and I think my company and I would benefit immensely from having a client success manager of some kind from Hootsuite.
Pros
Scheduling Posts
Recommending optimal posting times
Intuitive user interface
Calendar view of posts scheduled to go out
Cons
Educational tools on the product
Having a client success manager who helps you learn the product better
Better functionality in posting videos
Likelihood to Recommend
While Hootsuite is useful, Meta now offers a business suite where we can schedule and plan posts ahead of time. So, using Meta's in-house system when it is free sometimes seems to make more sense when scheduling posts. Hootsuite shines best for platforms like LinkedIn, where I am unaware of any business suite. Its also excellent for holiday posting when the post is the same across all platforms.
My business uses Hootsuite for social analytics and management! I am the primary user and I use it 3 to 4 times a week.
Pros
Engagement analytics
AI inspiration
Suggested analytic metrics
Cons
LinkedIn tagging capabilities
Publishing issues
Likelihood to Recommend
Great for beginner to intermediate social media managers, an example when Hootsuite is perfect is when you are still learning campaign management targets, the analytics are really great.
I schedule the content on our main channels, ask for approvals, share it with the subsidiaries, and monitor the content plan implementation of our company group. Also, manage the community (messages and comments), extract reports for the ads, and use the social media listening tool to be informed and updated.
Pros
Scheduling content.
Reporting ads.
Social media listening.
Cons
Technical issues.
More info about annual roadmap.
Better support and problem solving.
More custom options.
Likelihood to Recommend
It's excellent for a small business to start with the free version, to see the benefits and see its business growing by using Hootsuite. In the case of a big company with more than one team collaborating on Digital marketing, Hootsuite is a must (sharing, scheduling, monitoring, and saving time).
Everyone knows Linkedin has an algorithm and Hootsuite is a great tool that allows you to make the most of the Linkedin algorithm. If you are regularly posting on Linkedin, the ability to schedule, duplicate and move posts around on the publish allows you to always be active in your networks. The ease with which you can reschedule posts and repost old posts makes creating content almost thoughtless. It is almost plug and play in terms of its ease of use and I would fully recommend to anyone looking to take a more structured approach to their social media
Pros
Suggest timings for posts
Ability to duplicate old posts
Ability to move pre written posts if something comes up
Cons
Ability to schedule more than 5 posts on the free version
Allows you to tag people in the posts
Suggest hashtags
Likelihood to Recommend
Hootsuite is great for being able to schedule posts to go out at the exact key times that work with the Linkedin algorithm Hootsuite is great for moving posts around with ease if you have a last-minute post come in Hootsuite is great for people able to copy and paste old posts on the publisher to help you create more content.
The service that Hootsuite provides us is invaluable. It helps me create easy-to-understand social media reports, schedule posts, and change the copy for each platform as tailoring content is key! I use it every week in my role and will often also interact within the streams I have set up as it saves me time trying to search on the platform itself.
Pros
Scheduling content
Optimising release times to publish content
Offer great tutorials and courses
Cons
Suggesting tags tailored to the individual post
Offering a meter of how good the quality of the post is in the planner to give users an idea
Likelihood to Recommend
Hootsuite is great for scheduling content and tailoring it to best suit different social channels. I would say that it is least appropriate for editing image/video content, for live tweets, or live videos.
Gathering and presenting all of our social media output to one easy-to-access and navigate dashboard, allows all sales teams members to promote the business and services with speed and ease. Detailed analytics provide the data to pinpoint information sent out at the right time to the right audience.
Pros
Shared content easily accessed in one place on a user friendly dashboard
Scheduled content for pinpoint promotion
Management overview of social media
Cons
Management of content for each selected SM platform - Automatically convert to more than one post if the original content is too large - too many pictures or characters
Push forward suggestions to help optimise your account and user experience
Likelihood to Recommend
Keep all your social media together in one place with posts shared across all formats at the push of a button. Excellent platform for designing social media content and sharing company updates and products. Less user-friendly for larger posts that don't convey across every SM platform leading to a small amount of editing that may detract from the original content.
We use Hootsuite to manage our Social Media blogs for multiple platforms. We not only generate our own blogs, but we also repost articles by our partners through Hootsuite so we may view our entire Social Blog calendar in one easy location, view results/reports on the blogs, and respond to any communications on the post in one location.
Pros
Hootsuite's single calendar for blog posts on multiple platforms is awesome
Hootsuite's review/reports are brilliant, easy to understand, and easy to drill into
Modifying scheduled posts is simple as well
Adding or replacing images in posts that are going to multiple platforms is simple
The media library is helpful when we run out of images
The Customer Support Department is understanding of newbies and very helpful
The Help Center is easy to navigate and understand
Cons
It would be great if Hootsuite could connect with more social media platforms as they continue to increase.
It would be great if the social media sites could be color coded on the scheduler for easier identification of the platform post.
Likelihood to Recommend
I would highly recommend Hootsuite for its price, ease of use, and reporting features. This system is welcoming for newcomers and can handle experienced marketing professionals as well. The only large downfall I've experienced is when they lose the ability to post on a social platform, so it would be great if they'd start adding more social platforms.
We use Hootsuite to manage and track our clients' social media profiles. Hootsuite has helped us push into social media management. After running multiple accounts without Hootsuite, the change made everyone's lives so much easier. The ability to schedule posts and generate reports under the same platform was genuinely life-changing; anyone asking us for numbers or last-minute posts gets an accurate response or a scheduled post ASAP.
Pros
Ease of use
Post scheduling
Social media monitoring
Cons
Schedule reels/videos separately
I wish reports were slightly more in depth
I wish I had a better understanding of automatic replies
Likelihood to Recommend
If you manage multiple accounts and would rather schedule posts ahead of time than post individually, Hootsuite is unmatched. Hootsuite makes it extremely easy to post across multiple channels and report results without any extra nonsense. If you've never used anything for monitoring/scheduling, HootSuite's intuitive design makes it easy to get started. Their social media classes are also perfect for anyone new to the program.
It is being used by our Marketing department, specifically our social media team. The problem that it addresses is that in today's age of constant information overload, we as a company do not want to be drowned out of the social media picture, but we don't want to have to employ someone to constantly be posting and/or monitoring.
Hootsuite specifically allows us to develop a strategy for the day, week or month, including holiday messages and other posts that can be planned in advance. We then develop and prepare the posts and let Hootsuite do the actual posting at appropriate times so that our team members can move along to something else. We know that the post will show in our company feeds at the predetermined time, sometimes, for example, on holidays when no one is working, which is, in fact, the origin of our Hootsuite usage.
Pros
Schedules social media posts - it is easy and efficient and once you have completed you can walk away knowing it will be done properly.
Links easily to social accounts - this is important for the tool to be effective, if it was a challenge or had to be updated every time, it would take the ease of use out of the product.
Communicates - If there are problems, they are communicated quickly so that they can be addressed prior to anything "not being posted" on your behalf.
Cons
I cannot think of anything that comes to mind that would really improve functionality. I would love to see a redesign that was easier to "look at" but that is simply a design preference on my part.
Likelihood to Recommend
I think it is really well suited to businesses that are developing a social media strategy. I also think that it is likely well suited for small business owners or individuals with an eye on becoming a social media "influencer." The tool allows you to develop a post and schedule it, and then you can walk away and get on with your day. You can spend a certain time focusing on this important marketing tool, and then move on with your day, but appear to your "viewers" or "followers" to be constantly in their feed.