I continue to be fascinated by the social media craze and the many ways that innovation surrounds it. Businesses are creatively promoting their priorities while others are carving new paths and creating new revenue generating opportunities for themselves. One such example are the companies that are developing new applications and tools to help us all interact more easily and efficiently in the world of social media.
Two such tools are Social Oomph (http://www.socialoomph.com/) and HootSuite (http://hootsuite.com/) created specifically to help you manage your Twitter accounts and communications. I happen to use both tools and would like to share my comparison, so you can determine which best fit your needs. The Valentine Consulting of South
My caveat: There is an overlap in the features both platforms provide, so I will focus on the distinctions, both positive and constructive.
Social Oomph
Auto replys - set up a message that will be automatically sent to those who follow you. This is a great customer service touch and an automated way to manage your network of followers.
Replies Daily Digest - you receive a daily email, usually sent within 12 hours of all your @Replies. Have you ever tried combing through posts to find your @Replies? I absolutely love this feature.
Auto Follow/Unfollow - This platform has a setting that allows you to automatically follow those who follow you and unfollow those who unfollow you.
Vetting - You get to manually approve a new follower
Layout not easy to navigate - This layout is not the most user-friendly or attractive I have seen.
Pricing levels - There is a FREE package and a Professional package. The Professional package includes more comprehensive features but for most, the FREE package has a lot of what you need especially if you are just getting started.
HootSuite
FREE - Right now the entire platform and all its features are FREE to use
User-friendly, easy to navigate, and attractive layout - the dashboard is customizable and makes it easy to organize data and add tabs of information.
Track conversations in twittersphere - This feature allows you to follow and track conversations based on keywords...another great way to make technology work for you.
Easy to find people to follow - You can choose to follow people based on interest, brand, etc., but this feature makes it very easy to keep up and manage.
Groups- You can organize your followers into groups to more easily keep up with tweets (i.e. friends, clients, celebrities, etc.).
Feed your blog to Twitter - This feature allows you to automatically feed your blog to Twitter when it is updated...an easy way to go viral.
Ow.ly Link - This integrated resource allows you to shorten your link on the site for inclusion into your tweet and then it tracks and provides stats on these links. Measure, measure, measure!
No auto reply, auto follow, or auto unfollow - I really hope they plan to add these features because they are the biggest draw for me to use Social Oomph.
Both of these platforms boast many more features but these are the options that stood out to me the most, outlined based on what is most distinctive about each tool. I use both of these tools because the automated features on Social Oomph are priceless to me. Likewise, the customization, tracking, and user-friendly features of HootSuite make my life much easier and streamline the management of my clients' accounts.
I encourage you to take a look at both. If you are so-so when it comes to using technology, start with HootSuite. If you have a high level of comfort navigating technology, include Social Oomph in your toolkit. Let us know your take on these tools and feel free to share your Twitter tricks with us.
Next week, I will review a couple more of the Twitter resources, such as Ping.fm and TweetDeck, so come back and visit us.
Written by Suzzette Turnbull
President/CEO, Valentine Consulting of
Follow me: www.twitter.com/suzyturn
Email me: suzzette@solutionsmavens.net
Fan us: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Valentine-Consulting-of-South-Florida/96215061265
Suzzette Turnbull: Really appreciate your comparative analysis of SocialOomph & hootsuite (that's how I found you; now I think I'll follow you & be happy to tweet your praises) - I'm a newbie on Twitter (even newer on Facebook) Think I like Twitter better & looking for ways to be productive/efficient. I want to track some keywords: "green, sustainable, Slow Money" because these have become my passions in life and work; want to be able to be found/followed by those interested in a socially conscious "green real estate broker." and want to follow those with same values; also focus on those who are: techsavvy, provide techtips such as yourself - Thanks and how can I help you?
Great "google juice" for this hootsuite v. socialoomph post (I found it by googling socialoomph). On my browser, there's a bunch of junk before each bullet point. You might want to mention it to the administrator. FWIW. I'll also be pointing my social media clients here to learn more.
Sorry about that Julie, just took care of those weird symbols. Should be o.k. now. Thanks!
Hi Susan,
Thanks so much for the kind words and the follow. How can you help me? Keep on retweeting and spreading the word about my work and passion for social media and how we can all leverage it. You can also join my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Valentine-Consulting-of-South-Florida/96215061265. I am trying to increase my fans to keep sharing lots of great information and truly support entrepreneurs and small businesses. Most of all, keep in touch and let me know if you have any burning questions...I would love to answer them.
Best,
Suzzette
Hi Julie,
Thanks so much for the support...and the motivation to keep on sharing my thoughts on social media.
Best,
Suzzette
The auto features (@reply, follow/unfollow) are totally against Twitter's suggested common practice. Twitter doesn't like that, and may suspend your account if you do it too often
Check out this Twitter Rules: http://twitter.zendesk.com/forums/26257/entries/18311
doing all those Auto-xxxx things is very close to spamming, even if that's not your intention
Hi Beier,
Thanks so much for your comment and your point. Social Oomph does talk about spamming and deters its users from spamming. I have also read the Twitter rules and have carefully crafted my auto response to be a clear thank you and welcome to my tweets which to me is much more about building relationships rather than selling something or promoting my company which is much more about spamming. The benefit of auto responses, when used responsibly, is that it helps us all to manage this new arena where many people have hundreds and thousands of followers. It's just not feasible to reach out to everyone one by one. But to your point, you cross the line of spamming when you are sending direct mails or auto responses promoting your business or selling your product.
Once again, thank you for your thoughtful response.
Suzzette
Thanks for this comparison, Suzzette. I switched from HootSuite to SocialOomph because of SocialOomph's "Channels" capabilities (browsing selected users in groups, and a user can be a member of more than one group) and because I didn't like the fact that pre-scheduled tweets in HootSuite always said "HootSuite."
I like the fact that SocialOomph will search potential people to follow by certain criteria but not follow them until I've vetted them. I like the customer service; every single one of my suggestions and complaints got a response within 24 hours.
I currently have over 4000 followers and was desperate for a way to filter info and tweets, depending on what I was looking for at any particular moment. I tried out half a dozen services before opting for the Premium (paid) service offered by SocialOomph. So far, the time the service has saved me (in terms of admin) has more than repaid the monthly fee.
I hate DMs and don't use them.
Thanks again for your post!
Debbie
p.s. My Twitter id, if you're interested: @inkyelbows
Writer's Guide to Twitter: http://bit.ly/twitwrite
Thank You for that informative post. I really love to read articles that have good information and ideas to share to each reader. I hope to read more from you guys and continue that good work that is really inspiring to us. Great Job!
Thank you for this informative reply! My website uses a lot of social media tools to stay in touch with our customers and fans. We in the office use a variety of things - Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, Social Oomph - to manage both our personal and company twitters. I was wondering what was the best, since I keep an eye on several twitters. Thanks for the post! :)