Hootsuite Review—Let Your Social Media Strategy Take Flight
Written by
Branko KrsticUpdated · Mar 31, 2022
Some or all of the products/services listed on this page are from our affiliate partners from which we receive commissions. This, however, does not influence the evaluations in our reviews. Learn more by reading our .
WebTribunal.net is an independent review site dedicated to providing accurate information about various tech, financial, and business-related services. WebTribunal.net remains financially sustainable by participating in a series of affiliate partnerships - if a visitor click on link toward a product and purchases it, WebTribunal.net receives a commission that covers the expenses of running this site. Affiliate partnerships may affect where a particular product is listed within a ranking page, but they don't affect the reviews' content in any way. WebTribunal.net's in-house writing team creates all of the site's content after in-depth research. Advertisers have no control over the personal opinions expressed by team members, whose job is to stay faithful to the truth and remain objective.
- Helpful analytics
- Easy post formatting
- Content management
- Social media management
- Pricey
- Clunky Facebook analytics
Individuals and companies frequently interact on more than one social media platform. This means they have to manage various social media identities to gain more likes, followers, and online engagement.
This is where social media management solutions such as Hootsuite come into play!
As you’ll read in our Hootsuite review, the platform is a time-saving, flexible tool that will help you make the most of all your social-media-related activities.
What Is Hootsuite?
Hootsuite is a social media management tool that helps you do anything from curating great content and scheduling articles, to managing team members and analyzing ROI with just one platform.
The Hootsuite app allows you to post updates, evaluate replies, and engage with your client base across 20+ prominent social networks, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, WordPress blogs, Foursquare, and other third-party apps such as Reddit, Vimeo, Mailchimp, and Tumblr.
Interface
Hootsuite has both a desktop and a mobile application. The interface is decent compared to other social listening tools.
Hootsuite's dashboard has primary tool groupings, product controls, and other services organized in a slide-out menu on the left side of your screen.
There's a lot of information there, which might be confusing at first. If you struggle to get the gist of the solution, clicking on the Help button on the dashboard might be a good idea.
Features
The ability to handle numerous social media networks in one place is perhaps the most convincing argument to use Hootsuite, but that’s not all the platform can do for you.
We at Hosting Tribunal prepared a selection of our favorite Hootsuite features for you:
Social Media Scheduling
The timing of social media posts is critical. Hootsuite allows you to pre-schedule posts so they are automatically published when they’re more likely to be seen, so more people notice your content and you can attract more followers.
The planned posts are shown in an easy-to-read calendar format. With Hootsuite’s help, you can map out campaigns, preview posts before publishing, and cancel them in case you change your mind.
Plus, Hootsuite’s software includes the Bulk Composer and Auto Scheduler features to make the posting process more efficient—the former allows you to schedule multiple posts at once, while the latter helps you automatically fill gaps in your posting timetable.
Social Listening
Hootsuite can make consumer research incredibly easy—you can monitor trends, set up alerts for unusual spikes in brand mentions, track brand sentiment, and get insights into your customers’ perceptions.
Hootsuite can integrate with social listening tools such as Brandwatch, NetBase, Talkwalker, and more. You can choose your favorite from the Hootsuite App Directory.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
One of the reasons why many businesses avoid social media platforms is because they find it difficult to handle online customer service efficiently.
However, Hootsuite's Social Inbox is designed to help you view client inquiries in one location instead of having to monitor several social media sites. Plus, it allows you to tag the right team member to address clients’ specific concerns or use chatbots to answer common queries.
Hootsuite is HIPAA compliant, so you may use it in your healthcare organization without a problem. You can choose CRM apps from the Hootsuite Directory and integrate them; for example, Salesforce, Zendesk, and Mailchimp.
Team Collaboration
Hootsuite allows you to add numerous team members to your preferred social media accounts and monitor who is publishing what information. You may restrict who can assign tasks, add collaborators, and modify postings.
As one user stated in their Hootsuite review, the platform provides “a really simple way for connecting all of the teams that are working in social media and also all of the networks in one place.”
With the Enterprise plan, you can set up message approvals to ensure consistent brand voicing. You also get Team Productivity Reports that allow you to monitor response and resolution metrics.
Analytics
Hootsuite's unique analytics tool provides you with a detailed breakdown of how well your social media plan is doing. The program monitors clicks across all your preferred platforms and displays the metrics in an easy-to-read set of charts on your Hootsuite dashboard.
Hootsuite also has comprehensive monitoring and reporting capabilities that allow you to produce professional-looking, printed reports on your company's social media progress.
You can filter your posts by different criteria (or tag them) so that you can get more accurate reports with little effort.
However, Hootsuite analytics have pros and cons.
On the one hand, they are excellent for tracking Twitter account performance through audience insights, recommendations from influencers, and suggestions for the best times to post.
On the other, the tool’s effectiveness varies across other social media platforms. For example, it can’t generate analytics reports for Pinterest; it can only help you schedule and publish content there.
Also, many of the more powerful Facebook and Instagram reports are only accessible at the Enterprise level. As such you should consider which monitoring templates you’ll want when choosing your subscription plan.
Integrations
You can find all kinds of Hootsuite integrations on the website’s App Directory.
It works with over 150 applications, including various project management, image editing, social selling, and ecommerce software. Naturally, there are multiple social media platforms, Google My Business, and even self-hosted WordPress blogs.
They might lack a bit of power compared to the best solutions in the niche but are sufficient for blogging.
Plans & Pricing
Hootsuite’s pricing structure includes three preset paid membership options, and the customizable Enterprise plan.
All paid memberships are annual (but the price reflected is monthly) and include access to:
- Social Inbox
- Report templates for Hootsuite analytics
- Premium integrations from the App Directory
- Social Media Scheduling features, such as unlimited scheduled posts, the publishing calendar, the Bulk Composer, and the Auto Scheduler.
Pricing Plans
The annual subscription for this plan costs $49/month and it allows just one user (you) to manage 10 social accounts.
This plan includes three users, 20 social accounts, a $2,000/month boosted post spend, one custom branded URL, and customizable reports. Plus, you can suspend scheduled posts, control employee permissions, and assign tasks to different teams. The Hootsuite free trial is also available for this plan.
This plan allows just five users to manage 35 social accounts. It grants you all paid membership perks of the previous plans. It also grants 24/7 support.
This is a customized plan, so you need to contact the support team to get a quotation. Its features include over five users, more than 50 social accounts. It also boasts unlimited boosted post spend, at least five custom branded URLs, and team productivity reports. Plus, you can approve messages before they’re sent, plan ad campaigns, automate team assignments, get security notifications, and 24/7 priority support.
While Hootsuite’s price at entry-level is certainly attractive, many social media teams will discover that they require an Enterprise subscription in order to enjoy the setup they want.
Support
Hootsuite's preferred method of handling customer inquiries is via specialized Facebook and Twitter accounts.
The company doesn’t have a telephone number for you to contact them. However, every page on the website includes a feedback option that may be used to open a support issue.
Plus, the Hootsuite Help Center includes a search feature and information regarding significant platform upgrades.
Fortunately, our interactions with the Hootsuite online support team have always been pleasant, but there are numerous complaints from other customers who have not received the same level of service.
Ease of Use
Setting up a Hootsuite account setup is easy. It comes with several suggestions and recommendations to assist users in locating the most crucial features.
Although the UI is not as sleek as its desktop counterpart, the Hootsuite mobile app is easier to use and is available for both iOS and Android.
There’s also the Hootlet Chrome extension. With it account holders have access from anywhere without installing anything else.
Hootsuite User Reviews
Hootsuite reviews are mostly positive.
The platform has a 4.1 rating on G2 (based on 3314 user reviews) and a 4.37 rating on Software Advice (based on 2687 user reviews). Hootsuite users praise its easy-to-use features, its analytics tools, and the overall excellent social media experience it provides.
There are a few complaints here and there about the platform.
For example, one Hootsuite user points out that the price is quite expensive for more than a single user.
Another user complains that Facebook analytics don’t integrate well with the platform. Also, some users had to wait for over 24 hours to get a reply from a customer support representative.
Still, based on the reviews, Hootsuite is one of the most useful social media management tools in the market.
Is Hootsuite Worth It?
Hootsuite excels in the basic aspects of social media management.
It can integrate with a wide range of social networks, and has team collaboration tools. Plus it offers analytics reports so that you can easily keep track of all aspects of your online performance.
It can give good value for companies who know what they need, but expenses do increase for firms who join up at a lower level only to discover they need to upgrade later.
Alternatives of Hootsuite
Although Hootsuite is one of the most well-known digital marketing platforms, it’s certainly not the only one.
Here are a couple of solutions that could also help you boost your brand reputation:
Hootsuite vs LiveAgent
LiveAgent is a full-service help desk that concentrates all your support issues into a single dashboard, allowing you to be more efficient and earn customer satisfaction.
It’s not a direct competitor for Hootsuite, as LiveAgent focuses on customer services. Hootsuite, on the other hand, helps you manage your social media profiles.
In fact, you can find various customer support solutions that can integrate with Hootsuite in the App Directory. Although LiveAgent is admittedly not one of them.
LiveAgent subscriptions start at $15 per month, but there’s a free version available as well.
Hootsuite vs Sendinblue
Sendinblue is meant for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMB) that wish to run email marketing campaigns with a tight budget.
Sendinblue is useful for building stronger customer relationships and sending promotional content via email. It offers various templates, automation, and even split testing, for just $25 per month.
Hootsuite, on the other hand, helps you reach your customers through social media posts. It can integrate with marketing automation apps (such as Mailchimp, which is a more expensive alternative to Sendinblue), but it doesn’t have any emailing features by itself.
Final Verdict
As we highlighted throughout our Hootsuite review, the platform grants you post scheduling, team management, and analytics tools that enable you to make the most of your social media activity.
One of the best things about Hootsuite is its ability to integrate with numerous apps. Take full control of your online presence from one single platform!
Plus, Hootsuite's flexible plans allow you to test features for free and then upgrade your subscription based on your needs. This makes Hootsuite a popular choice among social network management solutions.
Hootsuite’s cost per month depends on the subscription you choose. Hootsuite offers a free version and two preset paid plans: the Professional Plan, which costs $19/month, and the Team Plan, which costs $99/month (these prices don’t include taxes and correspond to annual subscriptions).
There’s also a customized Enterprise plan that has no fixed cost—you can request a demo and get a quote by filling out the simple form on the website.
Yes, Hootsuite is an amazing company that has been in the market since 2008. The platform is loved by 18+ millions social media marketers.
User reviews for Hootsuite regard it as a great solution that will allow you to manage multiple accounts at once and grow your social media following.
Yes, Hootsuite helps you manage all your social media accounts from one place. As we’ve highlighted throughout our Hootsuite review, the platform makes it easy for you to plan, analyze and improve your brand’s online presence.
Some users have complained about not getting refunds or having trouble canceling their plans after a drastic change in price, so you might want to try out the limited free version and see how you like it before you make an annual commitment.
Branko is a round-the-clock tech geek and loving it. His ideal vacation destination is the Akihabara District (or really any place he can take his computer). If there’s a server out there, count on him to find out what it’s made of… and tell you all about it.
Your email address will not be published.