If you’ve reached the stage in your social strategy when you desperately need a social media dashboard – then this post will help you find the right one. We’ve picked 5 very popular dashboards, and each of them comes with their own unique set of pros and cons. Let’s see which one will suit your particular needs.
Courtesy of Argylesocial.com
1) Hootsuite
Hootsuite – the social media dashboard for teams using LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. An old favourite among social marketers and early adopters, Hootsuite remains one of the most complete, and useful dashboards of them all.
Pros: Hootsuite offers free, pro and enterprise options. They are cheaper than many other dashboard subscriptions and better, overall. Easily add your WordPress blog, and a few of your other social sites – to track, monitor and add to your analytics reports. A fantastic bookmarking tool is provided, which makes for easy indexing as you manage your pages. The best thing about Hootsuite is its 30 day history. Once you have it, you can’t live without it.
Cons: Hootsuite needs to focus a little more on their mobile integration software. They are a bit behind in this area. The only other criticism we have is that with the free version, the analytics tools aren’t good enough. You just can’t nail down specifics.
2) Argyle Social
A front runner when it comes to qualified analytics, team management and consistent sharing. Argyle Social is the social dashboard that many social media agencies use to manage their client strategies. It was built for serious use.
Pros: A great all rounder, and available in a white label option for agencies – Argyle Social is a perfect tool for social marketers that want to see results. Analytics are excellent, especially the trend clicks. As time passes, it becomes really easy to maintain a complex strategy.
Cons: We’d like to say none, but every dashboard has its problems. Argyle Social is not cheap, especially if you have a lot of clients.
3) TweetDeck
Pros: The infamous Twitter desktop dashboard gets a vote here. It was a pioneer in the birth of free Twitter dashboard tools. With awesome real time views and an easy to use scheduling system, what’s not to like about this perky publishing platform? Great for official and unofficial retweets, and keeping up with your DM and @ messages – when they happen.
Cons: TweetDeck is strictly a Twitter based tool. But it’s worth using alongside a more comprehensive, integrated social dashboard.
4) Threadsy
Pros: Also a golden oldie, Threadsy remains popular with individual marketers, as it’s a one person dashboard. The feeds are a nice feature, and it’s integrated well enough with your core accounts, that when you delete something it stays deleted.
Cons: Not suitable for teams, and definitely not suitable for multiple strategies.
5) Raven Tools
Pros: Raven Tools is decent enough, with an option to integrate Google Analytics into your account. There’s a comprehensive keyword tool and analytics that boosts this newer dashboard to professional level. Why did it make the list? Raven Tools has fantastic reports. If you work with multiple accounts or clients – you can customize each report they receive.
Cons: It’s not as easy to use as Hootsuite, as specialised as TweetDeck or as socially appealing as Argyle Social. It always feels second best.
Which of these social tools is your favourite and why? Leave a comment for us below. Vote!
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