Just like you, we are a small business and we love tools that make our marketing efforts simpler and more efficient. Enter Hootsuite.
 
We’ve been using Hootsuite not just with our own social media strategy, but with our clients too. It allows us to be fast on our feet, stay engaged more easily, and keep track of what is being shared in relevant online communities.
 
There are a number of reasons why Hootsuite works perfectly for us and our clients as a small business. Keep on reading to learn why you should incorporate the tool into your own social media strategy as well.

 

Free vs. Paid Plans

 
Budget is definitely a priority when it comes to new tools. Well, have no fear! Hootsuite has a range of paid plans, but also offers a great permanently free plan.
 
The free plan includes 3 social media profiles, 30 scheduled messages at a time, and 1 user. We will use this plan for the vast majority of our clients – at least to get them started.
 
Most small businesses have only 3 social media profiles making this plan a perfect fit! And remember, being active on social media goes beyond scheduled posts: engaging with other users is just as important, and Hootsuite allows for unlimited engagement.
 
If you’re a bit larger and are managing a higher number of accounts and scheduled posts, consider the Professional plan. At $29 a month with 10 social profiles and unlimited scheduling, this will fit any business looking to grow their existing social media base.
 

Keeps All Social Media Accounts in One Place

 
Being able to see the latest on all your social media accounts in real-time, in one place, is a massive time saver. For example, take this screenshot from our personal Hootsuite.

We are able to search ‘vapartners’ on Twitter, track our latest retweets, and see what we have scheduled for Twitter. This would take a number of queries and clicks to access the same amount of information natively in Twitter.
 
We also tend to have a couple different people involved in a social media engagement: either on the client side or from our own team. Instead of managing admin security levels, sharing account credentials, and keeping track of who has access to what, Hootsuite removes this barrier completely.
 
When you connect all your social media accounts to Hootsuite, anyone logged in is able to post, keep track of engagement, and reply to users across all accounts. This not only saves you the headache of constantly sharing credentials, but also helps keep your online voice consistent because you aren’t jumping between platforms.
 

Create Posts Directly in the App

 
As I’ve mentioned, the main feature in Hootsuite is the ability to post directly to all your connected social media accounts at once.

Usually in our social media calendars, we’ll share a mass social media post whenever we publish a new piece of content. This function allows us to simplify this process by drafting a single post, and sending it to any account we want.
 
Hootsuite also has the same functionality if you were posting natively in a social network, and then some: it allows you to attach photos and videos, tag other users and accounts, shorten URLs, and save drafts if you frequently post similar content, such as a newsletter signup link.
 

Schedule Your Posts Ahead of Time

 
Here’s another great time saver: Hootsuite lets you schedule your social media posts ahead of time! Instead of taking time every day to draft posts and send them to the appropriate channels, we are able to take time at the end of each week and schedule all of our social media posts for the upcoming week.
 
This way, we are able to keep track of all the content we want to share, and take the stress of maintaining active social media profiles away.
 

Track Topics Of Interest

 
In our social media calendars, we always incorporate third-party blogs and posts. There are a number of reasons why, but overall it helps improve your subject matter authority and increase your audience size. Hootsuite helps us do this!
 
We keep ‘lists’ of industry leaders, businesses in our space, and active blogs directly in Hootsuite. These lists automatically update with the latest posts being shared by these accounts, which you can then share, reply, or even edit to post the content directly to your own social media channels (make sure you give the original poster credit though)! We are also able to track hashtags, upcoming events, and what our customers are sharing all in one space.
 
Through this, we are able to find third-party content much quicker, and are also able to stay active in our communities much more easily.
 
Hootsuite lets us work faster and more efficiently to keep on track of our social media planning and engagement. Are you looking for more social media assistance? Sign up for our newsletter, or follow us on Twitter to keep up with the latest news.