TweetDeck vs. Hootsuite – Which Do You Like Better?
By Kevin M
Using a tool to control the flow on the social media
One of the things that can make the social media seem a bit intimidating is the constant flow of messages. How do you get a handle on a flood tide of information, and channel it into a more limited form that will be of practical use? Or more specifically, how do you separate the relevant from the clutter? Doing it manually is beyond comprehension, but fortunately, we’re not without options.
To streamline Twitter or any other social media, there are applications that will simplify the process by separating and organizing incoming messages, as well as enable you to categorize your own messages. And best of all, you can get them for free.
A social media tool can make networking much easier. Hootsuite and TweetDeck are two of the most popular. I have both and use each at different times.
What I’ll describe here will pertain mostly to Twitter, since I’ve chosen to concentrate my efforts on one social media at a time. Both tools can work with multiple social media, including Facebook.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite neatly categorizes your messages by type. Columns include Home Feed (all messages), Mentions (when someone else mentions you in a message), Direct Messages In, Direct Messages Out, Sent Tweets, Pending Tweets (enabling the scheduling of messages ahead of time) and other columns as needed.
Because each category is assigned to a certain, specific column, there’s no guess work as to where a message might be, all you need to do is scroll down a column to search. You can add or delete any column you like.
The Mentions and Pending Tweets columns are especially important. Mentions enables you to see when anyone on Twitter is referencing you so not only can you monitor the network conversations that mention you, but you can also respond.
Pending Tweets allows you to schedule your messages hours or days in advance. This gives you the ability to space your messages over the course of the day keeping you active on the media even though you’re not sitting at your computer typing. You can schedule tweets freeing you to just check in every few hours to see what’s going on.
The Hootsuite application is completely free, and extremely user friendly.
TweetDeck
TweetDeck performs the same functions as Hootsuite, but does so with a different look and feel. It’s also free and very user friendly.
One of the features that can be most attractive to the user on TweetDeck is the fact that it combines both mentions by others, and sent tweets by the user, into one column. That creates a conversational column in which open exchanges with others display in sequential order. It does the same with direct messages. This arrangement means you can get by with two fewer columns than with Hootsuite.
TweetDeck also highlights select messages with a box that opens in the upper right hand corner of your screen at regular intervals. One or more of your messages could appear in the same way on the screens of other TweetDeck users, giving you added exposure.
One of the reasons I use both tools is that I have noticed that each will pick up messages that the other might miss and one thing you want to be aware of is mentions by others
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Tags: flood tide, media tool, type columns
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