What is the best social media management tool? I come across this question almost weekly, and I don't think there is a right answer. There are many good tools and the best tool is the one that best supports your business.
So I am not going to respond to this either, which is the best tool for social media management, but I present one of the most versatile services, which I am using now for several years.
According to its introduction, Hootsuite is a "to manage all your social media in one place" and that is indeed true.
With Hootsuite you can easily and efficiently manage Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn business pages, Pinterest and Youtube. Depending on your channel and the size of your subscription, you can publish and advertise on these services, track conversations on your own channels and external media, and measure how you reach your audience on social media.
I introduce Hootsuite's Enterprise level usage and features, which are not all available at other levels. You can view the differences between the licenses here and opt for the free version . Since the Hootsuite interface is not available in Finnish, I use English terms here to distinguish features.
User Management
In Hootsuite, users are divided into teams. This allows teams to share only a limited portion of their accounts. The Administrator manages both Teams and Users and assigns permissions as needed.
The background can be created eg. automations that automatically flag messages to a specific channel to a specific team. This is how you connect your corporate customer service to Hootsuite. Through integrations, this can be expanded, e.g. Zendesk .
Streams
The contents of the somethiles added to the Hootsuite will be displayed on the Streams tab. In English, the "content stream" is certainly the best representation of this. Streams can be built for different uses in the best way for you, either on a blank surface or using pre-made templates.
Depending on the site service, the stream may be:
Facebook
Timeline (Page wall, own and visitor publications)
My Posts (own publications)
Mentions (mentions on other pages)
Messages (Private messages)
Unpublished (publications that have been removed from the publication)
Activity (all comments and comments)
Pages (any other page you want to track as a specific page)
Scheduled (Scheduled Incoming Mail)
In Facebook Streams you can like, comment on or post to other Facebook pages linked to Hootsuite. Posts can be ticked to other users for review and comment.
You can also create a new stream from the comments, which makes it easier to follow the comments on a specific post, even if somebody hits the spot.
Publications can be sent directly to email for information or to Hootsuite Ads for promotion. I use Trello a lot myself, and through the Trello integration of
Hootsuite I can send mail to Trello as a todo list for processing and archiving.
Twitter
Home (Twitter feeds)
Mentions (mentions)
Retweets (my own)
Followers (new Followers and their latest Tweet)
Lists (any of your own lists)
Likes (own likes)
My Tweets (own Tweets)
Search (any Twitter search)
Scheduled (Scheduled Upcoming Tweets)
In Twitter streams, you can like, reply to and retweet. Tweets can be ticked by other users for review and comment. Tweets can be tagged with Hootsuite's internal tags or emailed (or eg Trello , as in the case of FB).
My posts
Scheduled (scheduled incoming mail)
Hashtag (hashtag search)
Instagram Streams lets you follow posts and share, or regram them. Currently the API is blocking direct likes and comments. Mail can be tagged with Hootsuite's internal tags or emailed (or, for example, to Trello , as in the case of FB).
Due to IG's API restrictions, Hootsuite does not display the mailer name / account when hashtag searches. However, you can click on the “view on Instagram” link and check this out directly on IG.
Updates (my own posts)
Scheduled (scheduled incoming mail)
You can like and comment on publications on LinkedIn streams. Mail can be tagged with Hootsuite's internal tags or emailed for verification. Comments can be created in Comment Stream just like in FB Streams.
Youtube
My Videos (own releases)
Published Comments (published comments to my own publications)
moderate
Likely Spam
Search (any search term on YouTube)
Playlist (any custom playlist)
YouTube Streams lets you like, comment on, and share posts. Mail can be tagged with Hootsuite's internal tags or emailed (or, for example, to Trello , as in the case of FB).
Mailings can also be sent to Hootsuite Ads for promotion. Comments can be created in Comment Stream just like in FB Streams. There is also an Embed code and the ability to add videos to playlists.
Pinterest
Latest Pins
Draft Pins
Pin Calendar (Calendar of upcoming Pinne)
Scheduled Pins
Content suggestions
Pinterest works on Hootsuite with a service called Tailwind . A free Tailwind plug-in will be installed for this purpose. Tailwind is a paid service, you can get to know Tailwind here .
You can publish to Pinterest from Hootsuite without a Tailwind account.
Change
Streams can be imported eg. From an external source of RSS feeds such as Media Tracking. That way, all your company content, as well as content and conversations produced by others, are on the same desktop.
An RSS feed that includes content that can be shared, scheduled, tagged, added to 'read later' lists, saved and added as a favorite. You can also add notes to each content.
If you use Hootsuite Ads , you will also get it as a stream. The Ads stream lets you quickly view running campaigns and make quick changes to campaigns. However, it in no way replaces the actual Ads interface, but serves as a support for it.
Inbox
Inbox is the "customer service" section of Hootsuite. Inbox gathers Private Messages from all your Facebook pages, LinkedIn business pages and Twitter accounts into one box. It is possible to filter messages by channel and to tick for different users and teams. Messages are grouped under Unassigned, Assigned, Assigned to me, and Done.
However, once the message has been processed and moved to the Done section, it will not go anywhere on Facebook, but will remain in the inbox. If the message is answered on Facebook, the reply will also appear in the Hootsuite Inbox.
If the message is answered in Hootsuite, the answer will of course also appear on Facebook.