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Home » The Famous Blog » Is Automated Social Media Software Worthwhile?

Is Automated Social Media Software Worthwhile?

March 21, 2013 - Last Modified: March 28, 2013 by Nat Jones

There are many social media management software out there that are, in essence, designed to make your life easier. With so many tools at your fingertips to manage your social media and keep track of your activity on every platform, it is easy to make the assumption that all the leg work has been removed.

Although this would be a dream come true for many social media moguls, it doesn’t always seem to be the case.

Using Social Media Management Software

The obvious advantage of having such a program is that it brings all of your data together in one easy to access place, thereby removing the need for multiple log-ins and passwords etc. However, on the downside, it appears as though the very intentions of using social media platforms can become undermined.

Hootsuite is one such program that promises to organize your social media and was, at first, widely accepted as a godsend. It provides the tools to update multiple networks simultaneously and with minimal fuss. However as users have continued to use it, some have become disillusioned with the concept and have returned to their old methods of online interaction.

The main cause for complaint is that using Hootsuite to interact with followers on various websites reduces the amount of visibility you have. It is now commonly believed that Facebook and Twitter penalize people for using such sites by sharing your content with less people than if you were to post yourself.

Depending on the aim of your campaign, this could have disastrous effects for traffic.

Another irritating problem with using Hootsuite to schedule updates on Facebook is that the option to ‘share’ the content is removed. This creates obvious issues when it comes to increasing the audience and eradicates one of the core purposes of using social networking platforms. These reasons combined will greatly lower your level of engagement.

To give credit where credit is due..

Hootsuite does have many advantageous aspects that keep many of its users happy and interested in their services.

For a start, the stream which displays all of the up to the minute information from your social networks is very organized and efficient. All of the reports are of relevant use and generally quite informative, however you must have a Pro Hootsuite account to receive many of these features.

Depending on your budget, you may consider Hootsuite to be overpriced and not worth the cash. If you are using it to keep yourself organized because you are short of time and resources, then the money you spent might not be such a big deal. To get access to many of the additional features on the site you will have to open your wallet. For an individual or small business this may be an issue and in that case conducting all of your social media activity on a more personal level might be more advantageous.

However for more well established, big players, Hootsuite could save you time and effort in exchange for what you may consider a small cost.

There are many other programs like Hootsuite that promise to do much of the same. Before investing any money in such a service it is always worthwhile doing some research to determine whether it will be useful for your purposes!

Image : Robot Character in Illustrator

 

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Filed Under: Social Media

About Nat Jones

Follow @_thedigitalguru

Online marketing assistant and social media exec enjoying the world of blogging! Always keen to network with other bloggers and discover new and interesting sites on the web!

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{ 19 Responses }

  1. Dean Saliba says:
    I currently use one on my twitter account to tweet links to old (but still relevant) articles I have published and I have to make sure I don't publish too many or Twitter throws a tantrum and suspends my account for tweeting automated content.
  2. Nat Jones says:
    hey guys, thanks for all your comments, you've definitely raised some valid points! Would anybody else suggest checking out Ping.fm? I'm always keen to hear different platforms that people are using if you're willing to share :)
  3. Mark Ford says:
    Thanks for the post Nat Its interesting to see so many negative comments about the software. I use Hootsuite to send out my Blog posts to my various social media platforms and I cant recommend them highly enough. Visitors can share my content directly from the Blog page itself and ss long as you are logging in to each account throughout the day and interacting with those that reply or comment to your posts I don't believe it can be seen as a negative.
    • Nat Jones says:
      That's cool that you've had such a good experience with it, maybe I'm doing something wrong :D !!
  4. Sarah Harper says:
    Automating Social Media with software or online based tools are not a good idea, but if you know how to properly use it to get perfect outcome, then it is good. I was big fan of free service ping.fm, it was similar to this Hootsuite but was free.
    • Nat Jones says:
      Would you recommend trying Ping.fm as an alternative or do you think it's best to crack on manually?
      • Sarah Harper says:
        The bad news is Ping.fm and Seesmic.com has been acquired by HootSuite and as of March 2013. it is limited to 5 profiles on free account before it was completely free. I've not personally tested hootsuite, but i've heard many good reviews about this service.
  5. Sarah Harper says:
    Great post Nat, automating social media is not a bad idea. @ Above comments that are saying it'll hurt your ranking or it not good idea: Everything has advantages and disadvantages, its all up to your skills how to use them.
  6. Utkarsh Bhatt says:
    I think that automated social sharing is not good by any means. It increases the distance between the writer and readers.
  7. Pankaj Kumar says:
    I agree with yasir.. once your emails, usernames gets black listed you always have a chance to loose your rankings as we know google is so strict against spamming and fake postings on internet, dunno what they could have been cooking after the penguin to make us new problems lolzzz
  8. Rinkesh says:
    I've used Hootsuite till date to post my new blog post automatically on various social networking sites. But, of late I've decided to share my content manually on all the sites. You never know when Google will start penalizing people if they try to do the work automatically.
  9. Mike Carlson says:
    I've been using Hootsuite as well for quite some time already. But I believe that personally engaging on social media to promote your business is equally important as well.
  10. Nikki says:
    I don't know how true it is that Facebook and Twitter penalize you for using Hootsuite by showng your posts to less people. But I can definitely believe it. It's all about keeping the money in the family. Third party apps take away ad revenue. So the companies do things to discourage use of third party apps. Personally, I don't think social media automation software is worth it. It doesn't require much time to build a social media audience. You just have to have content and posts that draw attention. There's info all over the net about optimizing both for more clicks.
  11. Joe Hart says:
    I use Hootsuite..It's convenient..But i do not depend on it entirely because i think automation has its limitations..Lack of variety is one as such...But it will be great to see Social media management software which addresses core issues and reduces the work load.
  12. Aasma says:
    I only use software to schedule my posts on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and for this purpose Buffer is best for me. It also shows your analytics of your sent updates. For Google + I share update manually.
  13. Nishadha says:
    What makes you think that using HootSuite reduces your visibility in social networks like Twitter and Facebook? Is there some research on this or just hearsay. HootSuite does some automation, but it's more of a management tool rather than an automation tool
  14. babanature says:
    Nice post Nat, Well using social media software or tool is not the right idea and you might even get penalized for using such software. As a blogger it is advisable to share out your content manually because a blogger is not allowed to be lazy. thanks
  15. Yasir Khan says:
    Automated Social Media Software is not a good idea. Google consider you as a spam once they caught you using this tool. So, it is better to do the manual process to avoid getting penalized.

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