Hootsuite vs TweetDeck? I love them both here at Super Secretary

However, I seriously wish someone would blend the best of both of these platforms and make a multi-client account management tool that does everything one needs, in ONE place for Pete’s sake!

Best Things About Hootsuite:

1. The multi-tab layout to manage all of your accounts. So much easier than working with 3 million columns on TweetDeck! OK, so slightly exaggerating but you know what I mean. Navigation on TweetDeck is a tad cumbersome.
2. You can add multiple accounts: Facebook, LinkedIn, WordPress, Google+, Foursquare and ahem, GhostSpace…oops sorry, MySpace!! TweetDeck is purely for Twitter. Which I kinda think is super ineffectual for business social media marketing. Is your business only using Twitter for social media? It would be very rare to find a brand using one social media channel these days.
3. You can view all of your “Past Scheduled” posts via the “Publisher” button for all accounts.

Worst Things About Hootsuite:

1. No easy way to find out who has ReTweeted your posts. You can only see how many times a post has been shared in your “My Tweets, ReTweeted” stream. The very fiddly way to see who has been kind enough to RT is to click on your profile username link. The profile box will appear. Click on the “@” mentions symbol – you will now see the account names. You can compose thank you replies. A circuitous route and time wasting. **UPDATED** Now fixed & you can see your RTs.
2. Lack of notifications for new followers, just the awful “Contacts” interface. You can have email notifications but they don’t arrive in a timely manner and sometimes not at all. Borders on useless.
3. Social media reports are very basic and you have to buy expensive credits to generate in-depth reports: we recommend Google Analytics, SproutSocial or Tweriod.
4. The Filter function is extremely limited. Rarely used.

Best Things About TweetDeck:

1. The “Interactions” stream. At a glance you know who has ReTweeted, added you to a List, Favourited and followed you – fab!
2. The new pull-out tweet composer: perfect for writing your thank you tweets to those who have mentioned you, because you can now scroll down any selected column and find their account names. Especially handy if you can’t remember the account name and the “@” Autofill draws a blank.
3. Notifications are a joy! You can filter by a particular user or keyword and you can choose what type of Alert you prefer.
4. Loving the “Mute” setting – you can remove any pesky timeline content of your choosing. Ideal if you are not a fan of all those networking “business hours” that have cropped up.

Worst Things About TweetDeck:

1. Obviously it’s the lack of being able to add different social media accounts such as Facebook pages and the like. If TweetDeck were to introduce this feature and make it premium, I would be perfectly happy to buy it if it was better than Hootsuite Pro. Although it probably would need a name change from TweetDeck!
2. Column navigation is cumbersome. TweetDeck may have added the new black sidebar navigator but it’s still nowhere near the super simple to use multi-tab interface that Hootsuite offers.
3. Zero analytic reporting. Nada. Zilch. Nowt. **UPDATE: There is now a new Twitter Dashboard for analytic reporting but I dislike that I have to enter my credit card details in there before I decide to buy [unimpressed eyes].

Have I missed something that you hate or love about Hootsuite and TweetDeck? Please do let me know and I will update the blog post with a mention to contributors. Don’t forget to provide your Twitter handle when commenting!

Super-Secretary.com is a provider of excellent marketing virtual assistance in Darlington: key offering being sparkling social media management and training. I work with many businesses throughout the UK to build their online presence, build better client relationships and increase turnover. Not only a @Jacqueline_Gold #WOW winner but have helped two of my clients to win the coveted @TheoPaphitis #SBS twitter award and another client has recently become a Jacqueline Gold #WOW winner.