Blog by Matt Young
Keeping up with Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and the rest of the social media channels is challenging on your time.
So, managing all of these accounts from one central place can make perfect sense. We’ve trialled a few of them here at Cosmic and in our humble opinion there seems to be a clear winner… HootSuite.
Now I think it needs to be said from the get go, we are not endorsing HootSuite, but from experience and we have a fair bit of that in this office, we feel that what they offer (for free!) is difficult to match elsewhere.
Its features include managing up to 5 channels (including Google+ & LinkedIn) and being able to schedule messages to go out at a time convenient for you and more importantly, your audience. You can attach photos, images and documents or insert links (which are shortened using HootSuite’s own link shortening software ow.ly) simply and easily and it will even give you basic analytics.
There is a paid for version (£7.99pcm) which will allow you to connect unlimited social networks and give you an enhanced analytics report but for most SME’s managing their own social media, the free version is certainly adequate enough.
Now, nothing is perfect and HootSuite comes with its own flaws (the set up could be more user-friendly) but compared to some other platforms we’ve tested like Crowdbooster, MarketMeSuite or Sprout Social, it comes out on top for a free platform.
We think ‘Buffer’ is also worth a mention for scheduling alone.