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!
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