Prior to taking this course, I was unaware of the range of social media tools available other than Hootsuite. When working on the marketing plan for our client, our team had suggested using a different platform called Buffer. Buffer is a newer platform, founded in 2010, compared to Hootsuite being founded in 2008. Hootsuite is much larger, offering a greater range of features, integrations, supported platforms, and analytics.

Hootsuite allows you to manage all of your social media channels in one place, scheduling posts and delegating tasks. The platform promotes engagement with the targeted audience, allowing for custom, targeted posts. These posts can be published automatically through a publishing schedule, freeing up time for workers. Hence, Hootsuite helps to grow an online presence through different campaigns and contests which could be implemented across a variety of platforms and networks. Once shared, the effectiveness of content can be measured through simple visualizations in order to analyze the data. This provides greater insight into the customer responses to social media content. Hootsuite prides themselves on the ability to provide a safe and secure platform, as well as the opportunity to use the 100+ apps on their Hootsuite App Directory. For further convenience, a Hootsuite account could be accessed via mobile device as well. Hootsuite has approximately 15 million users world-wide, and is currently the world’s most used social relationship platform.

Buffer shares content according to your specific schedule, allowing you to post at the most ideal time of day to fain the furthest reach. Just like Hootsuite, Buffer makes it more efficient to add content to all social media accounts from one platform. The platform allows for customizable posts and is available on the majority of networks, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. The company also provides other applications and a mobile friendly interface to better the client experience. Buffer has over 3 million users, including individuals, teams, and businesses.

Although the tools seem quite similar, my research shows they are actually fairly different and different businesses would benefit from using one or the other. Hootsuite is a social media management platform and has the ability to analyze data on your social networks. However, Buffer is a content publishing platform, so their analytics focus on the actual posts published, more along the lines of content analysis.

Hootsuite has a wider range of supported networks. Their own platform supports Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and WordPress, but their apps on the Hootsuite App Directory allow users to add even more, including Instagram, YouTube, Vimeo, and Tumblr. On the other hand, Buffer’s platform supports Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and Pinterest.

Both platforms allow users to schedule the timing of posts and edit social media content. Although Hootsuite allows for greater engagement with content, Buffer has greater flexibility for automation which is one of their main points of differentiation. Their platform gives users the ability to connect to other automation tools, such as IFTTT and Zapier.

Both are very useful tools and can benefit a company depending on their specific needs. In regards to our group’s client, Velour Productions, we had preferred Buffer because we wanted a tool to help them publish and schedule content rather than a social media management platform. As the team had little experience with marketing tools, we also thought the simplicity of the platform would make the integration easier.

I am interested to keep an eye on both of the companies and see how they grow!

Sources:

http://linkhumans.com/blog/buffer-vs-hootsuite

https://hootsuite.com/about

https://buffer.com/about

The ability for companies to market themselves via various modes of technology is very interesting. People are all different and experience things in different ways. I really enjoy videos, and think they have the ability to have a profound impact on the audience if done right. These videos tend to generate discussion between people and offer word-of-mouth marketing.

The Father’s Day ad made by Toyota is one of these examples. It sparks emotion in its audience and allows people to relate with the story. (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=toyota+father+daughter+ad) Another example of this type of marketing is the Extra! gum brand. This video was released over a year ago, and still generates conversations. A Thai life insurance company also released a heart-clenching video about a dad and his daughter, called the Silence of Love. Although the company is not recognized in our society, the video still went viral. This demonstrates the power of a meaningful video and the reach a company has with the internet. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZMX6H6YY1M) This type of marketing is beneficial for companies as they do not need to constantly reach out to customers. It is beneficial for them to post these videos on their social media in order to gain that initial awareness. For example, the company could even resurface the short films during the appropriate times. They could use tools like Hootsuite or Buffer to schedule these posts on the right days. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLpDiIVX0Wo)