Ask a Website Design Company

11 June 2012
Well Katherine!!
Social Media Marketing is no different from any other form of Marketing and I suggest you should rely on experts on this as well. Though there's a plethora of Programs in addition to HootSuite- like Shoutlet, Sprout, Spredfast .. I would name just few so that I'm not seen as the one endorsing them :) Best would still be the SEO company with reputation in Social Media Marketing like Seomp etc.

Have a look around and little research as well before signing up any services or companies!!

Best of Luck

13 June 2012
HootSuite's very good and easy to use, but it's browser based. If you want something that works when you're not browsing, you might want to look at TweetDeck.

I've also heard good things about SocialBro.

Hope this helps!

18 June 2012
Hi Katherine

It's going to totally depend on what and how you want to manage in your Social Media.

HootSuite is excellent, especially if you want something web-based that you can share in a team and have timed messages too. We use this with some of our clients.

Alternatively TweetDeck can be okay but it does install software on your machine... so it's not as portable (you can use it with your iPhone!!!)

My suggestion would be to:

1. Think about what your social media objectives are
2. Consider what 'success' is to you - is it more sales, more traffic, or building up a following
3. How can you achieve this... do you need to give something away to incentivise your community
4. How do you keep this going over a long period of time
5. What are the best social Media Outlets - LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are easy-wins on the mass market... it' doesn't mean they are the best ones for you

Hope that helps and gives you a bit of food for thought :)

Darren

20 June 2012
Hi Katherine,

Just a quick word of warning here - We often speak to companies who feel their efforts in social media are not paying off. When we get into the bare bones of their strategy, 9 out of 10 are using a HootSuite/TweetDeck type platform.

So why does it pose a problem? You need to make sure that you treat each network's demographics as they expect to be treated... Differently! So there is a balance to be found between streamlining social media and keeping your messages audience-specific.

I have a document that outlines some general social media ettiquette tips, strategic advice etc... If you fancy reading it over, just pop an email to paul@attaindesign.co.uk and I'll be happy to send it through for you.

Regards,

Paul

21 June 2012
Hi Katherine,

I would suggest to do it yourself and not to use any companies, the reason being it will give your company a more personal touch.

Regards Che

23 June 2012
Hi Katherine,

Be careful – there are programs and websites galore that claim to manage your social media for you, but at the end of the day it needs the personal touch and you’ll never achieve this with software alone.

I have a few documents regarding social media and marketing in general that help help steer your efforts.

Alternatively you can give me a call on 01782 479441 and pop in to see us and I’ll give you some tips :D

Many thanks,
James

28 June 2012
Hi Katherine

When I started looking for a social media manager, I tried several that where recommended by friends before settling on Hootsuite. Because of my positive experiences with it, I pass this on to my clients.

I particularly love the monthly report and the fact that it can be downloaded as an App for your phone. It's never been so easy to update either one or all accounts quickly and easily. It also seems to be a very organic program, in that there are regular updates (which I found lacking in some others).

Hope this helps!

9 August 2012
I agree with Che Designs, if you use a program you risk losing the personal touch that I consider to be absolutely essential to a great social media profile.
Hootsuite is all singing and all dancing, but unless you have the time to spend analysing all of its special features such as analytics and stats I wouldn't say it is essential.
Good luck!

13 August 2012
Paul from Attain Design has hit the nail on the head. In the same way as a particular marketing initiative requires a specific strategy and employment of specific tools and resourses so too does a social media based initiative.

The onestop resources out there have their place but if you want to see tangible, targeted success you must play each social-network to it's strengths.

17 August 2012
Hi Katherine
At Zine we use Hootsuite as it allows us to manage posts across multiple platforms and gives us the analytics to understand what we're doing right (and wrong).
Others you could also look at are Tweetdeck and Sprout Social.

23 August 2012
HootSuite is good for time releasing posts and simple to use but since social media is tied to the moment automating may not be the best option. We've all seen companies getting bad press for a poorly timed automated tweet or update.

30 August 2012
Hi Katherine,

Looks like you've had some great answers from other folk but one tool we find absolutely invaluable is Buffer - http://bufferapp.com

Buffer will tie in to your Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and App.net accounts and let you que up a number of posts which it will then send out during the day.

It's a great way to help you manage your schedule - allowing you to focus on your social media content in one part of your day or week - without producing a splurge of posts all in one go.

One your posts go out they provide really clean/clear analytics to help you see which posts get your audience excited.

Hope that helps,

Jim

5 September 2012
Hootsuite is the best one i ever seen for social media dashboard.

11 September 2012
Another vote for Hootsuite. But as others have said, you don't necessarily need a program to manage social media accounts. Facebook, Twitter and others all have very good built-in reporting facilities which you would be wise to look at regularly. Hootsuite is good for overall monitoring of your accounts and engaging with your followers / clients, especially if you are managing more than one account!

16 September 2012
Buddypress and S2 Member. Buddypress is a Facebook clone that open source freeware.