Item: Hootsuite
Rating: 7
Author: Rob Bynder

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I used Hootsuite for social media marketing management on behalf of one of our clients. The software allowed us to plan and schedule social media posts as part of a larger marketing engagement supporting this client. The software worked great for us until they restructured payment plans, at which point, the software exceeded the budget allocated by our client.

Pros and Cons

Social media planning and publishing
customer engagmeent
activity monitoring

Some parts of the UI could use improvement. It was somewhat confusing.

Return on Investment

Improved effieciency
increase social media reach
Content curation

Usability

While generally user-friendly, I did find that parts of the user interface were overly complex and confusing. We only used a subset of their extensive features and found it a bit overwhelming.

Social Media Impact

We used Hootsuite as a tool within a suite of other marketing automation tools for our client. Hootsuite allowed us to plan and schedule our social media marketing across multiple channels very efficiently.

Alternatives Considered

Zoho Social

Hootsuite's free account was sufficient for use on behalf of our client. When they restructured their pricing model and eliminated free and affordable subscriptions suitable for a small business, we found that Zoho Social was an excellent replacement. The interface was simpler and the pricing was affordable and suitable for a small business.

Key Insights

Do you think Hootsuite delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Hootsuite's feature set?

Yes

Did Hootsuite live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Hootsuite go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Hootsuite again?

Other Software Used

Zoho Social, HubSpot Marketing Hub

Likelihood to Recommend

I feel that Hootsuite would be well-suited for a marketing team to manage multiple accounts and get deep analytics. It would also work well for team collaboration and content curation. Hootsuite might be less appropriate for small-scale or personal use or for marketing teams with a limited need for analytics. It also seems to be less agile than other platforms for real-time engagement.

Former Hootsuite free account suited our needs

Software Version

Overall Satisfaction with Hootsuite