One task I handle for my clients is social media. I take the content that they give to me and get it out to their social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn mostly). The content-gathering process is for another day, another article!
Dealing with multiple social media accounts and requires using a social media scheduler. I mostly use two tools for this process – Buffer and Hootsuite. There are many other tools available for varying costs (Meet Edgar, Planable, CoSchedule are a few I’ve heard of). I will preface this by saying the reason I use both is because my clients use both! Each one has its benefits and I’ve been known to use both for one post. I also use the free versions.
According to an article in thedigitalmerchant.com, the main differences between Buffer and Hootsuite are:
- Buffer merely centralizes post scheduling, while Hootsuite centralizes timelines, replies, and shares
- Buffer has a cleaner social queue compared to Hootsuite
- Hootsuite features more integrations than Buffer
- Hootsuite has more robust data analytics compared to Buffer
Hootsuite was founded in 2008 as a social media management tool for Twitter. Currently you can use it across a variety of platforms – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and WordPress. One of its most popular features is the auto-scheduler which can automatically post to social networks at a set time. You can manage multiple accounts across multiple channels on one screen. Some things I don’t like are that you can no longer post to personal Facebook pages, the tagging is hit-and-miss, and you can only tag business pages on LinkedIn.
Buffer was designed as a platform for social media scheduling and publishing content across networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest. It gives you analytics and statistics to give you an overview of how your strategy is doing. I love that you can choose the best scheduling times for each platform and set them up in your dashboard. However, I’m not fond of how clunky the posting is to Instagram. That often requires having the Buffer app on my phone.
For a long time, I used Hootsuite exclusively, but I’m starting to use Buffer more and find its overall features are more in line with my needs.
For me, the decision to use a tool always lies in its user-friendliness. But there’s a whole lot more to both Buffer and Hootsuite. You can read the article mentioned above for a more in-depth comparison.