HootSuit to manage social media

[Hariet Waffenschmidt]

Has anyone have experience using Hootsuit? Pros and cons?

[Andrew Grohowski]

We have used Hootsuite for more than a year now. I think it's great for the most part. It does well with its user interface and the layout is semi-customizable depending on your priorities.

The question we had here was whether to go with an all-in-one package that tracked facebook, youtube, and whatever else or have individual setups for each network. So, give that some thought before Hootsuite. We enjoy it here.

[Hariet Waffenschmidt]

Many thanks Andrew! Which package did you go for?

[Andrew Grohowski]

We have the silver package I believe. At that rate, it was worth expense to even just test. And, there's usually only one of our team using it at any one time.

[Bruce Floyd]

Pros:

* One interface can update Facebook, Twitter
* Time/scheduled posts. Great if you have a bunch of material that you'd like to plan out.
* Group management. You can give multiple people access to one Twitter account w/o giving out the original password.
* Facebook link auditioning. In other words, you can post to Facebook and see what will show up below your written content. It also allows you to select the image you want to display, if any.

Cons

* Current free service ending. They have developed tiers with different monthly costs which is expensive if you have multiple people managing multiple accounts.
* URL Shortening. The interface only uses Ow.ly for shortening and image tweet-ifying. You can add your own links to the tweet/Facebook post instead but must be done manually.

If I think of some more, I'll post. Anyone care to add?

[Andrew Grohowski]

I agree to an extent about Ow.ly. It seemed limiting at first, but now (as with most technological limits) it's easy to live with.

I do like their analytics setup, too. Plainly laid out and no-nonsense. Trends are easy to see.

[Bruce Floyd]

We opted for our own URL shortener, mainly because Facebook was blocking bit.ly and ow.ly at random a few weeks ago.

[Hariet Waffenschmidt]

Thank you all!! Apart from their url shortener it sounds like it is a good option... was the Facebook blocking of ow.ly just a 'random block' or is it permanent?

[Bruce Floyd]

Not entirely sure. Bit.ly was blocked for a time, too, and although it was fixed fairly quickly, it still made me uneasy that it happened.

On Facebook's blog, they mention how they may temporarily block URL shortening services due to spam, another reason we spun our own as our links will never have a spam issue. (Knocks on wood.)
http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=403200567130