Pages

Monday 23 August 2010

Our post-hootsuite options

Since my post Thinking about alternatives to Hootsuite I've been mulling over what other services we could use to manage our social media for Student Development. I don't mind paying a bit, we just can't afford (and I object to anyway) paying what Hootsuite are charging. I had thought to put up a blog post asking if Hootsuite had plans for an educational licence, but I've just noticed on their blog that they are offering a 20% discount for not-for-profits. I guess this is a start but a) it's not enough for us given we'd still need to pay more than $79 per month and b) as an University we're not CIC registered so we wouldn't be eligible anyway

Alan pointed out this helpful article to me on Top 5 alternatives to Hootsuite, which suggests the following:
You'll  notice, if you scroll down the comments in that link that someone also suggested MediaFunnel.

There are a number of things I need a service to allow me to do, the main criteria are as follows:
  • Support multiple Twitter accounts
  • Support Facebook pages
  • Allow multiple users to post to the accounts
  • Shorten URLs
  • Allow scheduled posts
  • Allow attachments (especially images)
  • Have a reasonable charging model
So, I've been having a bit of a look at the options and here's a summary of how they match up to the above criteria (as far as I can tell).
Notes
  1. I gave up with Brizzly because it kept asking me if I wanted to 'create a picnic'. Very annoying!
  2. Buzzom will be including a URL shortener soon - see. Also see comment on this post from the Deep Sherchan from the Buzzom team re premium version.
  3. MediaFunnel will be going Freemium but I'm assured there will be no bad surprises. Rumour has it it will be two users and two social media accounts for free., then each additional user/channel pack will be $4.95/month. This is much more realistic than Hootsuite.
Other features that would be good too are workflow, roles and co-tags. MediaFunnel has all of these.

So we'll be trying out MediaFunnel in the next few weeks and I'll let you know how we get on. So far it's looking extremely promising :)

10 comments:

  1. Luckily I don't suffer from the multiple user problem, which seems to me to be the biggest issue with many of these services. However, one of the things I value about Hootsuite (which I can still use) are scheduled tweets - does MediaFunnel do this?

    ReplyDelete
  2. You should admire my table more closely - see F7 ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. OK, it's a very, very nice table. I don't need Mediafunnel right now, but I've bookmarked it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes, it does scheduled tweets and time released tweets

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi stujohnson,

    Thanks for mentioning buzzom. I am from the buzzom team. You are certainly right that after hootsuite has gone paid there has been a hole in the market.

    Just to let the readers know, buzzom also have a premium version with extra functions and we are working to bring them on buzzom soon. I think once that is done, your list will rate buzzom as one of the best alternatives...

    By the way, buzzom doesn't have URL shortner like others but the link once posted gets automatically shortened using nxy.in.

    I will let you know once that happens.. thanks again for the mention..

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks. I'll add a link to your comment from the post

    ReplyDelete
  7. How is MediaFunnel working for you?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Not used it much yet as Hootsuite charging only kicked in this week. Will post something when I've had chance to test it more though.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Stuart - thanks for posting this man.

    What did you end up going with and how satisfied are you with it?

    We are looking at hootsuite but DANG that's alot of $$ ...

    ReplyDelete
  10. Between you and me (!) I never upgraded. I exceeded by 7 days grace period but noticed that colleagues I'd registered as administrators for the accounts on Hootsuite could still access it. So it seems that as long as I neither 'upgrade to pro' nor 'stay free' the original colleagues can still have access. I can also access it still but only via the iPhone ap. It's not ideal but it's working (currently!)

    ReplyDelete