Hootsuite vs Buffer: Which is the better Social Media Management Tool?

In today’s digitalized world, a strong social media presence plays an important role in online business growth. With so many options of social media channels, sometimes, it becomes quite complicated to manage them all. This is where social media management comes into the picture. Whether you want to do brand promotion, boost user engagement, increase followers, sell products online; the social media management tool can help you with all. Among a variety of options available, Hootsuite and Buffer are considered to be the best social media management tools. With these tools, you can manage social media accounts with ease and comfort using a single interface. Social media is not only a high priority for internet marketers, but has also become the priority for agencies providing Digital Marketing Services, independent consultants, and marketing freelancers. As a business owner, or social media manager you might be wondering which social media management tools are best for your project. Here is how to choose the right solution:

Table of Contents

Hootsuite VS Buffer: A Brief Introduction

Hootsuite and Buffer are the leading marketing tools for social media management. Although, both tools are similar, cater to different audiences:

Launched in 2008 by Ryan Holmes, Hootsuite is a social media management platform that comes with astounding features like post scheduling and content curation. The tool provides a clear interface and comes with a single dashboard to access the data of social media campaigns. It also incorporates features like ROI measurement, team management, third-party app integration, and more.

On the other hand, Buffer is a user-friendly social media management tool that allows users to publish content on different social media channels. This tool is easy to set up and use. Buffer comes with features like report creation, data analysis, and integrates with the latest social media features like Instagram stories. If you like to use any of these tools for your brand promotion, you can hire SMO services for your business and make it possible.

Hootsuite VS Buffer: Most Prominent Features

Hootsuite

It offers options for Content Management and Social Scheduling.
Detailed analytics features to track and improve Social media ROI.
Integration with multiple third-party applications.

Buffer

Supports dedicated applications for content publishing analysis.
Plan social media campaigns visually with Buffer.
Insight to measure the social media engagement

Hootsuite VS Buffer: Pros & Cons

Pros of Hootsuite

A complete toolset for social media management.
Supports most of the social media channels.
Freemium payment model.
Built-in social conversation management and advertisement.

Cons of Hootsuite

A little complicated user interface.
Not robust in terms of content creation.

Pros Of Buffer

Idle tool to publish social content.
Powerful yet intuitive user interface.
Features like teamwork and easy collaboration.
Social scheduling and publishing.
Integrated security platform.

Cons Of Buffer

No paid advertisement feature.
Not robust like Hootsuite.

Buffer VS Hootsuite: Which Is the Best?

User Interface

The user interface is the most notable difference between the Hootsuite and Buffer. Buffer has a sleek and clean dashboard where you can check the scheduled social media post appearing in the queue. It let the users focus on the important aspect; scheduled content.

Whereas, Hootsuite is feature-rich. Unlike Buffer, Hootsuite does not have an attractive dashboard, however, it supports great capabilities. For example, users can use the Hootsuite to follow social media accounts, check the social timelines, and track mentions across multiple channels.

The user interface of Buffer is more attractive and user-friendly. The minimal dashboard is easy to manage and schedule posts. The user interface of Hootsuite is customizable, whereas the Buffer is easy to learn and more intuitive.

Supported social networks

Buffer supports social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Linked In, Twitter, and Pinterest. It allows users to manage their Facebook pages and groups along with their LinkedIn profiles and pages. If you have an approved version, you can simultaneously work on 8 different profiles.

Buffer supports multiple social media channels, but not YouTube. So, if you want to integrate with YouTube or WordPress, you need to rely on Hootsuite. Hootsuite also allows users to schedule content and posts, manage timelines, keep eye on social media feeds, and supports other social media channels like Tumblr, Reddit Foursquare, etc.

Teamwork and collaboration

The number of people collaborating with you in your social media team can determine whether you should choose Hootsuite or Buffer. If you are using Buffer for collaboration, you need to manually choose the Social Media Account that your team will manage. Buffer is suitable for small companies or organizations having limited social media profiles. For bigger collaborations and a massive social media presence, Hootsuite is the idle option.

With Hootsuite, you can break the team into individual groups or members, and create a team on an organizational level.

Paid social media content is an important aspect of any social media strategy. Without hiring digital marketing services for advertisement and paid promotion, it becomes difficult to maximize the reach.

Although paid campaigns demand detailed post customization, geolocation selection, ad placement, and more. Hootsuite provides a single dashboard from which users can create and manage ads across multiple social media platforms.

This provision of handling the social media post is not available in Buffer. If you are using Buffer to manage social media content, you will stick to the native social interfaces.

Analytics and Reporting

Social analytics and reporting play a significant role in social media strategy. It is important to keep track of everything working to stay at the top. Both Hootsuite and Buffer can help you to analyze the response of the audience to social media activities.

Hootsuite provides the complete snapshot of how social media posts are performing across multiple channels, however, Buffer is mainly used for content publishing.

Platform Security

Security plays the most significant role in the working of any social media management tool. Fortunately, both Hootsuite and Buffer come with robust security features. You require a valid email address or social media account to log in with these tools. Both the tools provide role-based control of users’ accounts which is beneficial in the case of onboarding and offboarding employees.

Among both the tools, Hootsuite provides a better granular level of access permission than Buffer. Thus, Hootsuite is idle for larger organizations and a Buffer for smaller organizations.

Integration

Buffer supports 60 integrations whereas Hootsuite supports more than 140 integrations. Hootsuite provides digital marketers with applications for marketing automation, ad management, influencer marketing, and many more. With so many SMO services at your fingertips, there is very little that you cannot do to promote your content.

Wrapping up

We hope that these detailed comparisons guides for Hootsuite and Buffer will help you to come up with an informed decision. Both platforms are best for social media content management. If you are in search of a tool that helps you to publish social content, then Buffer is your idle option. Whereas, if you are looking for a complete social media management solution for the business, Hootsuite is your best choice. If necessary, you can also use a combination of both. So, which social media management tool are you planning to use? Hire digital marketing services for your business today and discover which tool can do the best for your business.

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