Hootsuite vs. Buffer: The Showdown

Tech and Systems

Jul 13

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Hello again! Thanks for joining me! I'm so glad you're here!

Are you feeling overwhelmed with social media these days? I certainly do not blame you. There are SO many platforms to be active on. It can seriously take HOURS to find posts and coordinate them across all of your accounts. Who has that kind of time?

Well, I am here to help you with that! So let's get started, shall we?

There are many, many options available out there for scheduling social media posts. All can help save you TONS of time out of your daily or weekly schedule if you plan ahead a little and set up your posts for the week. Here, I am going to go through some differences between two of the more popular scheduling programs and you can decide which one will work for you!

HOOTSUITE

Hootsuite works with pretty much all major social media platforms.

Twitter
Facebook
Google+
LinkedIn
WordPress
Instagram
YouTube

The nice thing about Hootsuite is you can view your scheduled posts in a calendar view. (Looking at your Dashboard, click the paper airplane on the left, then select week or month view This is a paid upgrade). This is personally one of my favorite features because I tend to sit down and add tons of info into my queue. This lets me see when things are scheduled in a more visual way so I don't end up scheduling everything at once.

The downfall to this is that all of your social media streams show on the calendar at once and all with a blue color. Currently, Hootsuite does not offer an option to color code your streams so it can get a little confusing trying to figure out which post is schedule for which stream using the calendar view.

Hootsuite is fantastic if you are scheduling a series of posts for a group. Maybe you are offering a coaching or a training through a Facebook group. You can add that group's stream to Hootsuite and schedule all of the posts for the day you need them to be published. This is a super easy and effective way to host a month long coaching with only an hour or so of work!

BUFFER

Buffer is another great social media scheduling tool. With Buffer, you can schedule:

Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIN
Google+
Pinterest (requires subscription upgrade)

One of the great things about Buffer is that it will auto-schedule your posts for you at the times your audience is online! They offer a browser add-on that allows you to add content to your queue as you are browsing the web! SUCH A TIME SAVER! And yes, you can add the content to multiple social media queues at the same time. WIN!

As you set up your account, you can choose how many times a day you wish to post to each social media account. For example, its recommended to post to Twitter 5-10 times a day. Buffer automatically chooses the best 10 times a day to post based on when your audience is online. Then, as you add content to your queue, it is auto scheduled to post at those times. The same goes for each other social media queue you choose to manage with Buffer!

You can, of course always review your content queue and rearrange the content to the order you wish them to post, either keeping the schedule recommended by Buffer, or at times you prefer.

Ultimately, it is all personal preference and which tool works best for you and your business. I find that my clients typically have already established a routine with one or the other so I continue to use the one they prefer. But each one certainly has their benefits depending on your needs.

Do you have preference for social media schedule? What other tools do you use? Comment below and let me know!

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