Here’s another post by Smirk intern Allie Carrick

On October 5, a Huffington Post article talked about the “digital addiction” in America. According to the Nielsen Social Media Report for Q3 2011, Americans spent 53.5 billion minutes on Facebook in May 2011. In this modern age, using social sites to reach people is comparable to airing commercials during I Love Lucy in the 1950s; you have a large, built-in audience. Social media tools like HootSuite and TweetDeck help you consolidate and manage different social media on one dashboard. These programs eliminate logging into multiple sites and provide alternative posting options to simplify usage. Both programs have pros and cons. This guide will explore some of their features.

HootSuite

HootSuite runs in a web browser. You can link Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace and Foursquare accounts to one dashboard. If you have multiple clients, you can manage them all without having separate HootSuite accounts for each one. This tool has paid options called HootSuite Pro and Enterprise. With Enterprise, you receive VIP service and the complete selection of tools. HootSuite Pro offers a 30-day free trial on their site. An example of this dashboard can be seen here.

Features included in the free version:

  • Account Ownership for up to 5 social network profiles

  • Ability to schedule tweets and status updates

  • 30 days of link click-through statistics reporting

Features included in HootSuite Pro:

  • Own unlimited social network profiles

  • Unlimited historical archive of link click-through statistics

  • Unlimited access to social insights tools

  • Team workflow

  • Access data from Google Analytics

  • Access data from Facebook Insights

  • Bulk Message Scheduling

  • Create Custom Analytics Reports

  • RSS feed from your website

TweetDeck

On May 25, Twitter acquired TweetDeck, and it’s now fully supported by the company. TweetDeck is a downloaded, desktop application. Personally, I’ve used this application to manage my personal profiles for a couple of years. With it, I’ve linked my personal Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. TweetDeck’s best feature is that it is free. For smaller companies, groups or personal use this is a big plus. An example of this dashboard can be seen here.

TweetDeck features:

  • Custom Retweet style
  • Customizable appearance
  • YouTube Videos supported within TweetDeck
  • Manage multiple Twitter accounts
  • Create and mange Twitter and Facebook Lists
  • Save topics, searches or tags in their own column and follow them in real-time.
  • Image upload and hosting feature in the status update bar

Smirk’s take

Smirk uses HootSuite for its social media management. Managing multiple profiles within one account is a primary benefit of this tool.  The HootSuite dashboard separates accounts with tabs to make organization easy. Analytics and monitoring features cater to a marketers needs. Its Post Scheduling feature opens up your calendar and improves time management. If you’re a marketer managing multiple profiles, HootSuite is your best bet. TweetDeck is ideal for personal or single-company use. If you are managing less than three accounts, it’s simple, efficient and straightforward. Overall, having either dashboard tool will improve and simplify your social media organization. Test them out and see which fits you. If you have any questions on either tool e-mail me at allison@smirknewmedia.flywheelsites.com.