Post on 18-Jan-2015
description
5 Social Media Dashboards: Their Pros and Cons
If you’ve reached the stage in your social strategy when you desperately need a social media dashboard – then
this post will help you find the right one.
We’ve picked 5 very popular dashboards, and each of them comes with their own unique set of pros and cons. Let’s see which one will suit your
particular needs.
1) Hootsuite
Hootsuite – the social media dashboard for teams using LinkedIn,
Twitter and Facebook. An old favourite among social marketers and early
adopters, Hootsuite remains one of the most complete, and useful
dashboards of them all.
Pros: Hootsuite offers free, pro and enterprise options. They are cheaper
than many other dashboard subscriptions and better, overall. Easily add your WordPress blog, and a few of
your other social sites – to track, monitor and add to your analytics
reports. A fantastic bookmarking tool is provided,
which makes for easy indexing as you manage your pages. The best thing
about Hootsuite is its 30 day history. Once you have it, you can’t live
without it.
Cons: Hootsuite needs to focus a little more on their mobile integration
software. They are a bit behind in this area. The only other criticism we have
is that with the free version, the analytics tools aren’t good enough. You just can’t nail down specifics.
2) Argyle Social
A front runner when it comes to qualified analytics, team management and consistent sharing. Argyle Social is the social dashboard that many social media agencies use to manage their
client strategies. It was built for serious use.
Pros: A great all rounder, and available in a white label option for agencies –
Argyle Social is a perfect tool for social marketers that want to see results.
Analytics are excellent, especially the trend clicks. As time passes, it
becomes really easy to maintain a complex strategy.
Cons: We’d like to say none, but every dashboard has its problems. Argyle Social is not cheap, especially if you
have a lot of clients.
3) TweetDeck
Pros: The infamous Twitter desktop dashboard gets a vote here. It was a pioneer in the birth of free Twitter
dashboard tools. With awesome real time views and an easy to use
scheduling system, what’s not to like about this perky publishing platform?
Great for official and unofficial retweets, and keeping up with your DM and @ messages – when they
happen.
Cons: TweetDeck is strictly a Twitter based tool. But it’s worth using
alongside a more comprehensive, integrated social dashboard.
4) Threadsy
Pros: Also a golden oldie, Threadsy remains popular with individual marketers, as it’s a one person
dashboard. The feeds are a nice feature, and it’s integrated well
enough with your core accounts, that when you delete something it stays
deleted.
Cons: Not suitable for teams, and definitely not suitable for multiple
strategies.
5) Raven Tools
Pros: Raven Tools is decent enough, with an option to integrate Google
Analytics into your account. There’s a comprehensive keyword tool and analytics that boosts this newer
dashboard to professional level. Why did it make the list? Raven Tools has fantastic reports. If you work with
multiple accounts or clients – you can customize each report they receive.
Cons: It’s not as easy to use as Hootsuite, as specialised as TweetDeck
or as socially appealing as Argyle Social. It always feels second best.
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