One question I get asked a lot is this- “Should I use tweetdeck, hootsuite or the buffer app to schedule posts and manage by social media accounts?” This is a great question and I thought I would answer it in this blog post.

Let me start by saying that I actually use all three of them but for different purposes. Tweetdeck is my favorite tool for managing and using twitter. In fact, I rarely access twitter at twitter.com It’s too big of a mess with too much to follow and tweetdeck as you can see in the photo above lets you manage your lists and follow key people as well as your retweets, @ messages, and more in a much more organized fashion. That said, I don’t like to use tweetdeck for scheduling my tweets or for managing and posting to facebook. It’s just too complicated and I prefer to use hootsuite or the buffer app for these. So when do I use hootsuite?

Hootsuite is the best for scheduling posts at a specific time. At this point the Bufferapp does not let you choose the date for each of your posts. You select instead the times you will post each day of the week and that is it. So you can’t skip days of the week or choose the exact date when something will post. Hootsuite also lets you add up to 5 social media accounts for free and you can choose to have all 5 accounts be on facebook if you want, whereas the Buffer app will only let you have 1 account per social media site up to a total of five. Hootsuite also lets you post to Google Plus pages whereas at this point the Bufferapp does not.

As far as reports and statistics go, Hootsuite let’s you create reports and they are then emailed to you automatically, the Bufferapp has stats that appear when you login to your account and then click on analytics. The Bufferapp also sends you email reminders when you run out of updates whereas Hootsuite does not.

So in short, I recommend that you try them both and see which one you prefer. I actually prefer them both for different reasons and I am an active user of both.

Do you have a preference?

Learn more about how to use twitter.

1. Always have a plan before you register for a new social media site or before you start a new social
media campaign.

2. Have clear goals for your social media marketing.

3. Avoid taking about politics, or religion unless you are asked about these by someone and then only answer the question and avoid controversy.

4. Share at least 1 piece of new content per day.

5. Use social media to build your email list.

6. Strive to develop at least 1 new real relationship with someone from social media per day.

7. Start or comment on 5-10 conversations per day.

8. Publish an ezine at least monthly and ideally weekly.

9. Stay focused.

10. Have a clear and specific target market.

11. Use social media to speak to the problems and challenges of your target market.

12. Use video. This is a must. You simply have to do it period.

13. Create your own blog on wordpress.org and use it as your marketing and content hub.

14. Make 80% of your contacts on social media people who are in your target market.

15. Offer value first.

16. Have the mindset and attitude of how can you serve people.

17. Use Google Analytics and other tracking programs to track your social media results.

18. Never ever market on social media without having a way to collect information from interested people.

19. Be real

20. Create a clear brand and make sure that everything you do with social media is in accordance with that
brand.