Hootsuite: Review for small businesses

Here we put Hootsuite under the microscope, and help you decide whether it’s right for your small business, as part of our look at the best social media management tools on the market today.

In this article, we’ll cover:

• How would Hootsuite suit my small business?
• How much would it cost me?
• What features does it offer?

HOW?

How would Hootsuite suit my small business?

Pros – user-friendly, great for beginners, deep-dive analytics, top customer support
Cons – platform can have glitches when posting URLs, some analytics can lag behind
Price from – £25/month
Value for money – ★★★★

Used by over 18 million people worldwide, Hootsuite is probably the most popular social media management tool on the market today.

This all-in-one platform allows users to curate and schedule content, measure social ROI, run social media ads, and much, much more. Hootsuite provides all the tools you need to manage your social profiles from a single dashboard, and automatically find and schedule the most effective social content.

Unlike many other social media management tools, Hootsuite uses streams rather than an inbox to manage engagement. Streams can be set up for each social network in order to monitor its content. Below you can see how intuitive this system is for digesting all your social media activity:

What’s more, the platform comes with a default report that shows key metrics on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. But you can also build customised dashboards, or just use Hootsuite’s handy templates to monitor engagement.

And, as it’s used by over 800 of the Fortune 1000 companies, this social media management tool has got to be doing something right.

HOW MUCH?

Hootsuite’s pricing

Hootsuite offers a number of packages catered to different needs and budgets. Its current selection is:

To help you decide, here is a more complete break-down of these pricing options:Limited Free Plan

• Manage three social profiles
• Schedule 30 posts
• One user

Professional Plan

• Manage ten social profiles
• Unlimited scheduling
• One user
• Automated scheduling
• Key metrics
• Unlimited RSS integrations
• £25/month

Team Plan

• Manage 20 social profiles
• Unlimited scheduling
• Three users
• Custom analytics
• Team assignments
• Set templates or make your own
• Export reports
• Limit of £1,600 per month ad spend
• £99/month

Business Plan

• Manage 35 social profiles
• Unlimited scheduling
• Five-ten users
• Analytic data exports
• Publishing approvals
• App integrations
• Custom branded URLs
• Social media certifications
• 24/7 priority support
• Extended training
• £520/month

Enterprise Plan

• Fully tailored
• Price upon request

WHAT?

Hootsuite’s key features

• Monitor multiple accounts in one place
• Find and track your top keywords
• Connect with up to 35 social profiles
• Bulk schedule social media posts in advance
• Get the lowdown with reports and analytics
• Manage and respond to customers
• Target posts based on location, language, and demographics (only available on certain plans, with conditions)
• Test drive the software with Hootsuite’s limited free plan

Is Hootsuite for me?

In a nutshell, Hootsuite offers small business owners solutions for most budgets. If you go for them, you can feel safe in the knowledge you’re with one of the most trusted providers, getting the tool, support, training, and analytics to help manage your business’ social media output.

To see how Hootsuite compares to the other leading social media management tools for small businesses, you can read our full review here.