At a Glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

Manage multiple social networks from one account
clean and customisable

Cons

Access to advanced features requires a subscription

Our Verdict

HootSuite is slick and easy to use: configuring connections takes seconds. There’s nothing to download or install, because in runs in your browser. Whether you need a tool to manage your social networking for business or pleasure, HootSuite is #winning.

Social media sites are great for staying in touch with people without having to get up from your computer. But with constant updates from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogs what we really need is a single service that enables you to get updates from all of them. That’ll be HootSuite, then.

The service pulls together status updates from all the popular social media services; Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, WordPress and Foursquare. There’s support for a couple of also-rans too; MySpace and Mixi, for example. It arranges these into the kind of column format users of Tweetdeck will already be familiar with. Your friends and fans are easy to follow.

If that was all HootSuite did, it would be good enough, but there’s more. A HootSuite Pro account lets businesses track and control campaigns across social networks. There are collaboration tools, so multiple members can be added, and tracking tools, to see how well your messages convert to hits on your sites. HootSuite does that for you, interfacing with Google Analytics and Facebook Insights.

While these features are available in the Pro version only, you can track traffic from shortened URLs using a standard account.

For business or pleasure, there are few social media tools as feature packed as this