HootSuite released a new version of it’s application this week which included some changes to the analytics. It added some really great graphs and metrics, but each report widget has a cost with only enough credits for one report (50). As a Pro user who is already paying $5.99 per month (or $71.88 per year), I’m very disappointed that I can only create one (limited by number and type of widgets) report without buying more credits (which are also per month!). Just adding credits for one additional report takes my total from $5.99 per month to $55.99 per month! So are HootSuite’s new analytics an upgrade or a downgrade?
Even more frustrating is the loss of some of the analytics which we previously available for free, mainly being able to browse through individual posts to see the click performance for each. While the process was a bit wonky, because you had to click on each post individually since there wasn’t a way to see the individual performance of posts in some sort of table format, at least you could see what the posts were (with their associated ow.ly urls). Now, in order to get the same information, you have to find and manually enter the ow.ly url (by going into your posts either onsite or on the place where you posted them).
As a small aside, they also removed the cute owl icon that sat in the upper left and bounced slightly when you put your mouse over him. I thought that was a nice bit of branding and I’m also disappointed to see it go.
I understand the need to charge and make money for products. I appreciate the features that HootSuite offers (or has offered) and I’m paying for a Pro account. However, these changes remove some of the statistics I previously was able to easily access and makes using their new statistics prohibitively expensive. I believe this analytics change with it’s pricing strategy removes HootSuite as a tool that small businesses can afford. If you’re going to pay $671.88 per year, you definitely should take a look at what other tools are out there.
In a word: disappointment.
UPDATE: HootSuite says they took out the individual URL statistics in order to make improvements but did not say when they’d be back (or if we’d have to pay for these improvements).
What are your thoughts?
(photo by belgianchocolate, on Flickr)