Content Studio vs Hootsuite (and why I switched)

A few weeks ago I switched to Content Studio from Hootsuite for my social media management dashboard of choice. In this post I explain why.

I had been using Hootsuite for years. It remains a very good tool and will no doubt be able to continue its growth thanks to a fanbase of loyal users and continuous development and improvements. The fact of the matter is that I didn’t learn how to use it to its full potential so it’s partly my fault that I ended up cancelling my subscription.

It’s not unsual to find a sparkling new tool, register for an annual subscription (to secure the big discount), and then for the use of it to taper off. By the time I cancelled my Hootsuite subscription I was only the lowest monthly tier for subscriptions and I never used it as much as I did in the first few months of opening an account.

Enter: Content Studio

A few weeks ago I saw a Facebook ad for Content Studio. We are all familiar with the format and the hard sell and 99% of us ignore those we see but the old formula works and on this particular day I was in the 1% that wanted to know more.

I have far fewer social media accounts than I used to have but even so, they take up a lot of time and energy to manage correctly. My use of Hootsuite may have fallen off but if I was to continue to use the accounts for any kind of benefit then I needed a semi-automated management dashboard.

Content Studio’s interface is clear and intuitive. Adding and authenticating accounts was quick and easy. For anyone familiar with Hootsuite you might at first be hard pressed to find any difference in the range of functions but for me it’s the clarity, layout, and response speed of the dashboard that makes it the winner.

Content Studio Features

I won’t list them all here but these are the Content Studio features that I use the most:

• Automated RSS feeds. Use and RSS feed to create on-topic posts in, for example, Twitter accounts and Facebook pages.
• Automated video feeds. As above, but using YouTube videos from a particular channel.
• Bulk uploads. Create a CSV file of tweets, thumbnails, and links and upload it. Each will be added to the schedule.
• Grouping. Group accounts, create a schedule, and assign a set of hashtags to each group. Posts can draw on a random selection of hashtags from the set assigned.
• Analytics. Clear and easy to understand displays of what’s working; likes, retweets, shares, and replies.

As I said, Hootsuite has these (not sure about grouping) and others too but it’s the way it’s displayed that appeals to me.

Content Studio & Instagram

The only accounts I have removed from my Content Studio dashboard are the Instagram accounts. This was because not only did I find the process a bit fiddly (perhaps I was doing it wrong) and couldn’t get it to work but I had also already subscribed to Tailwind.

Tailwind is another social media management dashboard but it concentrates mainly on Pinterest and Instagram. I think it’s Instagram process is much easier to use than anything else I’ve tried so far. I know it means another subscription but it’s the time it saves that makes it worth the additional expense.

Conclusion

Social media posting on auto pilot or semi automatically is all very well but it doesn’t amount to much if it doesn’t encourage engagement, attract new followers, and generate leads. You will still have choose your content carefully and filter out that which won’t appeal (or may be off-putting) to your target audience, and you’ll still have to engage and respond with your own followers and other posts.

However, like all well designed tools Content Studio can save you time. And it’s hard to put a price on that.

Register here for a 14-day free trial of Content Studio.