Buffer vs. Sysomos, now part of Meltwater vs. X Pro

It helps me save hours by devoting only half an hour in a month's worth of posting, in addition to that it is quite simple to use. Buffer for scheduling social posts well in advance, but I have begun using it instead of posting natively on the social apps themselves because it makes it super easy to post the same messages to more than one platform.

Sysomos Expion is best suited, in my opinion, to offices where either you have only one moderator/manager OR where multiple users plan to manage a specific channel. Without live updates, it gets far too complicated for multiple users to manage the exact same workload

Incentivized

TweetDeck is ideal for complex media organisations / newsrooms where you want to keep track of several users accounts, or switch between multiple user and/or title accounts. It is perfect for those who want to follow conversations in real-time via many channels, at a glance. It is also useful for those who want to schedule tweets to provide around the clock coverage even when unmanned. Now that it paid-for is less suited to smaller organisations with tight budgets.

• I can plan and publish content on social channels.
• Buffer's interface is quite tidy and generates the necessary facilities to save us time in publishing consistent content.
• It has a special price; it is pretty affordable.
• It has the possibility of integrating with other tools to improve its functions.

Incentivized

• Ad-hoc research. During planning phase of a campaign it is a helpful tool to understand the marketplace, key influencers and topics that engage a target demographic.
• Post-event hashtag analysis. Rapid generation of reporting on efficacy of a campaign, key voices, topics that resonated, viral reach and more.
• User interface. Friendly and accessible enough to minimize training needs and enable decentralized access, though we have found some hand-holding is still required to get the most out of the platform.

Incentivized

• TweetDeck is the best platform to schedule tweets - it is far better than the website itself. The process is remarkably easy and scheduling a day's worth of tweets takes no more than 10 minutes.
• Tracking news is very easy on TweetDeck due to being able to create multiple columns each focusing on a different subject. Columns can be created using handles, searches, hashtags, and trends, and this makes TweetDeck a great platform as a news editor.

Incentivized

• Expensive Analytics: The upgrade you need to access your analytics is quite expensive, and I have come across other tools that provide the same or even more for a lesser priced plan.
• No Media Library: The one feature I have found on another social media planning tool that I wish Buffer had is a media library. This allows you to upload photos you aren't using right away to have them readily available when you do decide to use them. This is not a feature in Buffer.

Incentivized

• It does not provide a visual for volume over time.
• The visuals aren't excellent, and would require an export to create better looking graphics.
• The interface isn't intuitive and sometimes requires clicking around to find things that seem like they should be under a different title.

Incentivized

• TweetDeck has an editing feature for scheduled posts only if there is no image attached. When a post with an image needs editing, users must instead delete the entire post and reschedule it with the edits needed.
• TweetDeck has a real-time display, however users often need to refresh the window manually to get scheduled posts to appear in the appropriate column.
• TweetDeck users can scroll side to side to view all off the types of columns selected. This functionality often leads to traveling back to a previous page unintentionally.

Incentivized

I am giving buffer this rating because of a couple issues that it has compared to other platforms. It does not always post to instagram and you will need to go in an manually post. Also, one of the biggest qualms that we have with buffer is the price it costs to have robust analytics

Incentivized

There are two differentiating features that Sysomos MAP has that the competitor tools I have experienced (Radian6, Meltwater Buzz) did not: user-friendly Boolean queries for searches and near-real-time results. The former is important because, of course, your results are only as good as your search/campaign. With Sysomos, once you master Boolean queries (which isn't terribly difficult) you're set for creating any kind of listening report. I strongly prefer this to the "campaign creator" forms that other services provide. Second, Sysomos MAP returns results almost immediately - like a Google search. So if you get your results and see that you need to tweak your query - no big deal. Or if you have a last-minute request for a client - not an issue. Meltwater can take up to 48 hours for a search to fully populate. This is a major issue if you get your full set of results back and see that you need to adjust the query; you're looking at another two days of wait time. A long wait on results can also prove problematic in agency settings where clients or prospective clients often need results with a quick turnaround.

As I previously mentioned, if TweetDeck were to increase some features and integrations, cleaned up its interface, and developed a tool to measure ROI, it would remain competitive with HootSuite and Hubspot. Altogether, it is an effective tool for the job of scheduling and monitoring your impact on Twitter, it falls behind other competitors that offer a more robust solution.

We use Buffer for certain website content that should be shared on social networks, having this tool helps us to do it faster and easier since we can send the publications from the internet browser and the stack of scheduled messages. It is really fast and easy for all team members who share access to the account, so at the same time that we analyze the information that we can share, the message stack is prepared

Incentivized

The product is very easy to use. The platform is visual and data is easy to read. Boolean construction can sometimes be difficult, but the boolean constructor tool is helpful for boolean beginners. For more experienced boolean constructors, the boolean display at the top is very helpful in identifying where there may be holes in the construction

It's a pretty easy tool to use I find a few of the columns to be a bit repetitive. If you are managing more than one account you'll start to find yourself having easily 10 plus columns all tracking all different information which creates nice track lanes to keep all that relative information in one column or "view". With the amount of data that is pushed out, if you are following a large number of accounts, it's extremely easy to lose valuable posts in your feeds. As you begin building out your columns they get the point where you only look at one or two and the rest seem to be lost. Overall, this a free tool and there are other social monitoring tools that are out there but are in the multiple thousands of dollar range

Buffer is always on hand and very reliable, their software suite rarely has outages

Incentivized

Not really an availability issue, but concurrency licensing rules mean that only one user can be logged in at a time.

TweetDeck tends to be available for use majority of the time...however, I've had times where it would get stuck in a loop and then post my Tweet multiple times.

Buffer performs well on both desktop and mobile platforms. The one area as I have stated before is that it does not always want to automatically push to Instagram and the user will have to go do it manually. Buffer works very well pushing to other platforms. The instagram issue is the only reason buffer does not get a 10 on this section

Incentivized

This has not been an issue. It is actually beating TweetDeck when we are tagged within a post that TweetDeck is monitoring.

Besides posting multiple times when stuck in a loop not other real issues.

1. It really helped to my business to grow online.
2. I was able to take actions mindfully as the analytics are damn good.
3. Also used for managing clients social media accounts and it proved to be a best resource.
4. Clients were really happy as they got high demand and growth on internet and the secret is Buffer.
5. The user interface is really easy to understand and manage. Support is 24/7 available to help.

Incentivized

Unfortunately, we have not had a great experience with customer support from Klear. In the sales process, they were very responsive and helpful, but when onboarded, it definitely changed. We are based in the US and our customer service rep is based in Israel, meaning our work hours barely overlap. Oftentimes we're waiting 24+ hours for a response, and when it's a time-sensitive issue (like the platform not pulling in Instagram Story data) we want it to be resolved as quickly as possible. Klear also has a chat feature for more immediate help, but we've experienced a similar situation there where it takes 12+ hours to get a response and it's usually from our customer service rep. Our rep is very nice, but also doesn't seem very knowledgeable about the platform, and usually can't provide an immediate answer to a question we ask and has to "check with her team."

Incentivized

I've never had to contact customer support. Tweetdeck has always worked like a charm for me. And, if I have had a problem, I've simply deleted the column, then recreated it and it worked again. While it's not without its glitches every once in a great while, it's worked like a charm.

Incentivized

We had a kick-off training with the whole team where they walked us through the functionality. This was a pretty effective and comprehensive training.

We were very satisfied with the implementation of Buffer. We had no issues switching from the platform that we were using over to buffer. Our staff did not even miss a beat when it came to posting content. It was an easy transition and I feel that is something that buffer has really done well. They have an "out of the box" usability platform

Incentivized

Implementation was so easy I dont even remember it!

Incentivized

Easy download and launch of application.

I also used Combin which is easy and free to use. However, Combin only posts when the computer is active and connected to the internet. So, posting while you are not actively using your computer at that moment is not possible, therefore Buffer is much more efficient as you can even post while being on vacation without working.

Incentivized

We've used Sprout Social & Hootsuite in the past -- and they all stack up pretty evenly. Sysomos has the same features as Sprout or Hootsuite, except their reports and analytics are a little more detailed. Hootsuite has a better social media management software and dashboard though

Incentivized

Several years ago I used the Hootsuite Free service. I found Tweetdeck to be preferable because of its user interface, and greater functionality. Moreover, I recall Hootsuite bombarding me with emails that were just irrelevant. TweetDeck just does what it does, without hassle. Its UI and functionality for multiple accounts seems to be the best I've tried.

Incentivized

Buffer does what it say on tin as they say! you can always count on Buffer. Buffer can be scale to 25 social account with 2,000 scheduled post which is enough for most agencies or businesses

Incentivized

• It has saved money by allowing us to automate our social using one person
• It allows us to connect one channel at a time instead of wasting money on larger account management tools
• We are making money, because it has already delivered several clients

Incentivized

• Lowered costs and overhead when Expion got introduced as we now use one centralized solution for all of our social media work
• We can finally calculate ROI with ease and understand our campaign performance through proper tracking and analytics
• Competition tracking was never easier

Incentivized

• Positive: User-friendly and therefore easy to teach new members.
• Positive: Easy team management (when there are multiple users/managers for one channel).
• Positive impact on well being - You can take a break from social media and go on holiday even when you are working as a social media manager.

Incentivized