Is Hootsuite Hurting Your Social Media Efforts?

In the past few years, social media has become a giant in the marketing world. Having your business connected to these outlets (such as Facebook, Google+, and Twitter) is becoming more and more of a necessity. Because of this, businesses are trying to cut down on the time they have to be active on these outlets by using tools such as Social Media Dashboards.

A Social Media Dashboard is a means to manage multiple social media accounts under one medium. The most popular of these dashboards is Hootsuite. Subscribers of Hootsuite can schedule posts, view analytics, and update on all mediums simultaneously. While it may sound convenient and easy, most do not realize they are losing a great deal by using these services.

As more of our clients have asked us about these, we feel like we should be sharing this to our entire subscriber community and let you know what you are getting into when you use these services.

#1 - You are missing the point of social networks…You’re not being social!

While it is most definitely easier to schedule a handful of Facebook posts or tweets, you are missing out on the idea of what social media brings to your business. These scheduled posts are like an automated message when you are calling customer service, nobody likes or appreciates them.

Once you start using Hootsuite, it is easy to get complacent and not check your social media pages individually and you may miss questions or complaints your customers may have, making you look like you do not care about your customer’s opinion.

#2 – You’re being forced to only use HootSuite products

A feature that seems the most appealing to Hootsuite users is the availability to track link clicks and views. The downside to this is that Hootsuite forces their users to use their custom link shortener (ow.ly) to track these links. Other links such as bit.ly, buffer, or even your direct website are unable to be analyzed by Hootsuite.

Another reason why this can hurt your posting is because people recognize posts using an ow.ly link as an automated post. While many may not notice it, the ones that do notice tend to lose faith and followership in your company.

Lastly, if you plan on buying a vanity shortened link for your website be ready to spend an upwards of $49.99 a month to maintain your link!

#3 –You can be penalized for using Hootsuite! (The BIG Problem!)

The biggest issue with social media dashboards, is that Facebook recognizes 3rd party applications as potential spam. A recent statistic posted by Hubspot stated that Hootsuite user posts get up to 67% less likes and 60% less clicks than manually posted updates.

What can you do?

That is the big question for businesses that ask us about Hootsuite. The CWS team recommends that you take the time on each individual social networking page to post, comment, and share. It may take more time out of your day, but it helps send a clean and concise message to all of your audience…In the end your customers appreciate that you take that extra time to respond to their questions.