Overview of Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a social media management platform where you can control all your social media channels from one dashboard. On this dashboard, you can schedule posts, manage incoming direct messages, monitor your content, advertise your content in a social media marketing campaign, or analyze your results across all your social platforms.
Pros
Here are the best things you get from getting a Hootsuite business subscription.
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FREE TRIAL
Hootsuite offers a free trial period for those who want to try it out before fully committing to one of its paid plans. The free trial lasts for 30 days, and you get access to the following features:
- Manage up to 10 social media accounts
- Access for 1 user
- Unlimited scheduled messages
- Access to the publishing calendar and bulk scheduling posts
- Have recommended times to publish content
- Access to content apps
- Monitor conversations from your social inboxes
- Up to $500 worth of post boosting
- Custom reports and analytics
- Access to free apps
These are also the features you get when you avail of the professional plan, which is $99 monthly.
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Integration of Social Channels
With Hootsuite, you can manage your social accounts like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. This social media marketing tool aims to give managers a single dashboard to easily handle all the accounts.
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TEAM COLLABORATION TOOLS
Hootsuite helps the team to get things done efficiently and effectively. As a manager or supervisor, you have the ability to assign tasks and deliverables per team member within the Hootsuite dashboard, making it easier to get projects running.
Your team will have access to common libraries and access to different parts of the dashboard, making collaboration between team members simple and straightforward. Do not that this is only available with the Hootsuite Team, Business, and Enterprise plans teams.
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MOBILE SOLUTION
You can easily access your Hootsuite dashboard either on your laptop/PC or mobile device. Check in with your team and your campaigns with ease.
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HOOTSUITE ACADemY
Tools usually have a learning curve for beginners and first-timers, of course. With this in mind, Hootsuite has created the Hootsuite Academy. This will help you and your teammates learn more about the tool’s capabilities. It’ll also be a great way to train new members to navigate the management tool.
Hootsuite also offers academy certification courses like:
- Hootsuite Platform Certification Course,
- Social Media Certification Course,
- Advanced Social Media Strategy, and many more.
Cons
Here are a couple of possible dealbreakers about Hootsuite.
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PLAN PRICES
Compared to other social media marketing management tools (like Zoho Social), Hootsuite does have pricier plans. These plans range from $99 to $739 or more monthly. And, of course, you’ll only have access to more premium features as the plan increases.
This may not be ideal for small businesses that have a strict budget to adhere to. However, the most prominent enterprises can fully utilize and afford Hootsuite.
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User Interface and User Experience
Hootsuite operates in a dashboard filled with columns. Despite being an efficient way to see more content on your screen, this is an outdated format. Not everyone may like this about Hootsuite.
Hootsuite Features
There are many features you are getting if you choose the Hootsuite platform. Hootsuite has categorized its features into six main branches, which are the following:
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PUBLISHING AND SCHEDULING
Hootsuite has a feature that allows you to schedule posts in advance. This way, you won’t miss posting your content. You can create these posts directly on Hootsuite, and these scheduled posts are automatically published on the day and time you are assigned. Talk about convenience!
What’s more, Hootsuite can even help you generate new ideas for your future posts. They’ll also give suggestions of the best time you should post on your different social media platforms. Oh, and did we mention the hashtag generator? All these will help to increase your reach and engagement rate.
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ENGAGING CUSTOMERS
Hootsuite knows the best way to engage with customers is by being proactive in social media. For more context, customers and consumers appreciate fast and helpful responses from the brands or businesses they enjoy. Now, this isn’t limited to direct messages. Brands should be ready to respond to posts as well.
Hootsuite’s dashboard setup allows you to see any queries easily your consumers have about your product or service. You’ll also see what topics related to your business are trending right now. This will give you a better sense of your next post or campaign.
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MONITORING ACTIVITY
To move your social media presence forward, you should be monitoring your accounts. Hootsuite allows business owners and social media managers to do this conveniently. With Hootsuite, you will immediately see real-time audience insights.
In addition, Hootsuite has a feature called social listening. This feature will let you know how people feel and react to your products or services. You’ll also be aware of the trending topics related to your business. This will help you shift your focus as needed and find the right direction for maximum success.
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ADVERTISING CONTENT
Ads management has become so easy with Hootsuite. You can now boost posts for different social networks right from one place… your Hootsuite dashboard! This tool will also easily show you all the analytics and reports for these ad posts. You won’t need to produce separate reports for each and every platform you’re managing.
Furthermore, Hootsuite helps you to constantly improve and target more of your audience with each passing boost post or paid ad. Lastly, Hootsuite has a $500 ad credit for users who promote on LinkedIn.
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ANALYZING RESULTS
As mentioned, Hootsuite produces analytic reports for all your social media accounts. And these aren’t just generic reports. You’ll receive customized reports explicitly crafted for the growth of your brand.
These analytics features can help you achieve the following:
- Brand awareness
- Increased engagement rate
- Drive more traffic to your accounts
This management tool also has Hootsuite Impact. This calculates your estimated return on investment so you can know where you are at with your social media journey. You’ll see your leads, conversions, and sales to see whether or not you are reaping the seeds you sow on social media.
Hootsuite’s advanced analytics are presented in graphs and charts that are easy to comprehend.
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INTEGRATIONS
Hootsuite has a wide social media landscape. Here are the following network integrations available on the management tool:
- TikTok
- YouTube
And here are some of the most helpful app integrations Hootsuite provides:
- Google My Business
- LinkedIn Hashtag Analytics
- Cloudview for Hootsuite
- Panoramiq Insights
- MailChimp
- Hubspot
- Canva
To see the full list of app integration Hootsuite offers, check this page.
Overview of Zoho Social
Like Hootsuite, Zoho Social is a social media management tool. Zoho Social calls itself the “all-in-one social media marketing software,” which you’ll see is true. They provide managers and marketers with a tool that helps with content ideation, monitoring, and performance evaluation.
Zoho Social is a branched-out tool from Zoho. Apart from Zoho Social, Zoho offers tools for sales, marketing, customer service, finance, people & culture, email & office, project management, collaboration, custom solutions, BI & analytics, IT, and legal. Zoho Social falls under the Marketing section of Zoho.
Pros
We’ve listed the main benefits of getting a Zoho Social plan below.
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REASONABLY PRICED
Zoho Social prides itself on offering budget-friendly rates for its plans. They offer 5 different Zoho Social plans that cater to different types of users. Their prices range from $10 to $40 for business plans and $230 to $330 for agency plans.
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SEE THE ENGAGEMENT RATE INSTANTLY
Zoho allows managers and analysts to see live data of various posts and campaigns immediately. This will help your team make the necessary adjustments needed to drive your campaigns to success.
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MOBILE SOLUTION
Zoho Social is available on both PC and mobile devices. You can even enable notifications for social notifications, engagements, and impressions. They call this “social media listening on the go.”
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DIRECT MESSAGES MANAGEMENT
Zoho makes it possible for team members to manage direct messages from different social media platforms in one place. This way, you’ll never miss a message from potential clients and customers. This will help increase your conversion rates.
Cons
Nobody’s perfect. Here are Zoho Social’s downsides.
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WEAK ANALYTIC REPORTS
Zoho Social does have custom and advanced analytics. However, compared to other tools, these reports are not completely comprehensive.
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FEW INTEGRATION OPTIONS
Zoho Social is limited when connecting different social networks and integrating apps and other programs. They do allow you to connect and manage well-known social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. However, they have yet to include smaller and lesser-known platforms. The same goes for app integrations.
Zoho Social Features
With Zoho Social, you’ll be getting all the features listed below.
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PUBLISHING
Zoho Social’s publishing calendar helps social media managers keep up with the demand for releasing content daily. You get to see your entire content pipeline in one place. This makes the Zoho Social dashboard so easy to navigate and use.
What’s more, you have different publishing options. You can immediately post your content in real-time, schedule it for another day, or add it to your queue of content.
A unique feature of Zoho Social is its “pause button.” When something unexpected happens, you can pause the publication of all scheduled posts until further notice. In addition, you can also “repeat posts.” Now, you can relax while Zoho Social publishes and reposts your content on social media networks.
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MONITORING
There may be times when you find it difficult to search for the best keywords and hashtags for your content. With Zoho Social, you’ll have additional help to improve further and optimize the content you release.
Zoho Social can easily help you manage and quickly respond to engagements and messages and stay on top of your social media notifications. Never miss a single message on your page, and increase your engagement rate significantly.
Furthermore, Zoho Social makes it easy for you to practice social listening. They help you curate your very own social listening dashboard. This way, you can easily see what people are currently saying about your product or service. You can even filter the results per social network like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
Lastly, Zoho Social can also help with competitor research as well. Social listening works both ways. You can easily see who your competitors are and what people say about them too.
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ANALYTICS
Zoho Social has advanced analytics too. This management tool prioritizes analytical reports on your audience, posts & engagements, performance, and reach & impressions.
As a social media manager, learning about your audience is important. With Zoho Social’s analytic reports, you can determine whether your content is reaching your target audience. Learn more about your customers and plan your social media marketing strategies based on gender, age group, location, and many more.
Regarding your posts, Zoho Social will let you know which are performing well and which you should improve on. This will help drive up your engagement rate, reach, and impressions.
Zoho Social can also provide analytics per social platform. Your data can be synthesized separately for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google. Lastly, you can schedule Zoho Social to produce custom reports for you and your team, making it convenient to process data during specific times of the day, week, month, or year.
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COLLABORATION
Zoho Social makes team collaboration a walk in the park. You can help define roles and give out assignments for each team member to avoid confusion and streamline processes.
Working with clients also becomes easy with the help of Zoho Social. With the custom sharing features of Zoho Social, you can easily update clients and help them see parts of the processes in Zoho Social. You’ll lessen the back-and-forth with clients to focus more on the work to give the client amazing results.
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FACEBOOK ADS AND LINKEDIN ADS LEADS
With Zoho Social, you have the option to connect your Facebook and LinkedIn ads accounts and see all your leads in one place. You will be able to see which ones are paid or organic leads. You can automatically sync leads on Zoho CRM, which can optimize your workflow. You’ll also have access to Leads Forms to organize leads better.
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INTEGRATIONS
Zoho Social has integration for the following:
- Zoho CRM
- Zoho Desk
- Canva
Integrating Zoho Social with Zoho CRM aims to bring together two different departments. With this integration, the Marketing and Sales teams can easily work together in a shared space.
Your Marketing and Creatives team also greatly benefits from the Canva integration. Different team members can easily make and access publication materials, thus improving workflow and streamlining the publication process.
Hootsuite Vs Zoho Social Comparison
Now that we’ve thoroughly discussed the advantages, disadvantages, and main features of both the Hootsuite and Zoho Social tools, let’s see where they mainly differ. These are key aspects that may sway your decision to commit to one social media marketing tool over the other.
Pricing
Hootsuite offers a free trial for potential users. You get a 30-day free trial of the management tool. Once you choose to avail of their plans, you can choose from any of the following:
- Professional plan – $99
- Team plan – $250
- Business plan – $739
- Enterprise plan – contact Hootsuite to get an estimate
To learn more about Hootsuite’s plan inclusion, check out their plans here.
Zoho Social offers monthly or yearly payment plans for its users. They also have a free trial period of 15 days for those who want to test the waters before fully committing to the social media management tool. Zoho offers the following plans:
- Standard plan – $10
- Professional plan – $30
- Premium plan – $40
- Agency plan – $230
- Agency Plus plan – $330
To gain all the features, you’ll have to pay a subscription. You can learn more about the inclusion of each plan on Zoho Social’s pricing page.
Now, depending on your company’s budget, one of the two management tools will surely be more favorable.
Features
Hootsuite and Zoho Social have similar features, but they also have distinct and unique ones that could make or break your decision between the two.
- User Interface. Hootsuite uses a column setup which is an old format. On the other hand, Zoho Social has built a modern dashboard.
- Integrations. Hootsuite has access to more app integrations, while Zoho Social has limited integrations.
- Publishing. Zoho Social has a pause button for all scheduled posts.
- Collaboration. Zoho Social makes it easy for agencies to share certain project information with clients right within the tool.
- Tutorials and Certifications. Hootsuite offers free tutorials for the tool on their Hootsuite Academy. They also offer different courses about Hootsuite and social media marketing. You can gain certificates after accomplishing these courses on Hootsuite Academy.