Awhile back we had a knock-out-drag-out between HootSuite and SocialOomph, with HootSuite winning handily. Now, we’re pairing up HootSuite with TweetDeck. Until recently I was an avid user of TweetDeck for keeping track of my Twitterverse. I switched to HootSuite because TweetDeck seemed to be dropping a lot of messages out of my groups and mentions (not cool). Plus, I’m using HootSuite as my Tweet scheduler now (having won over SocialOomph), so it was easier to be in one place all day. But, let’s see how these two stack up:
tweetdeck
Review: HootSuite vs. SocialOomph
Both HootSuite and SocialOomph provide features for managing Twitter and Facebook (and other accounts). The services are very similar, and I’ve been a fairly loyal user of SocialOomph for several months now. But, recently downtime at SocialOomph led me to re-explore HootSuite and I’ve been using it as my primary tool for the past week or so. There are still some things that I prefer about SocialOomph, but overall I’m fairly happy with HootSuite (at least for now). Let’s take a look at the details:
TweetDeck for Business Twittering
If you’ve decided to Twitter for your business, you may now be a bit overwhelmed with the influx of tweets. How do you filter through them and keep track of contacts and conversations that matter? TweetDeck is an excellent tool for business twittering that will bring some order to the chaos.
The genius behind TweetDeck is multiple panels that can be configured to make it easy to keep track of conversations. First you have a panel that has the feed from all the people you are following. Next there are panels for replies and direct messages, respectively. To keep track of certain people, you can create groups and quickly add anyone to a group. Lastly, to see what is hot in the Twitterosphere (Tweetosphere?), you can add a TwitScoop panel which will give you a tag cloud of the hot topics.
Managing contacts is also easy. Clicking on the name under a tweet will bring up a user’s profile right inside a panel where you can see all their information and tweets, follow/unfollow them, or add them to a group. There’s also a little plus sign under a tweet which will allow you to quickly add a person to a group.
Twittering (tweeting?) is easy with a update section that includes a way to shorten urls and add twitpics. With each tweet you have the option to retweet, favorite, direct message or reply, making having conversations a cornerstone of TweetDeck’s functionality. And using Twitter for business is all about having conversations.
Technorati Tags: twitter, social networks, social media, internet marketing, internet consulting, internet business strategy