As my involvement in writing content within social media for nonprofits I volunteer with increased recently, I found I was often switching between profiles when also looking into my own writing projects and personal use of social networks as well. A social media dashboard began looking more appealing.
I’ve been aware of social media dashboards for sometime. With increasing sophistication and diverse options, they can range from the limited free versions to the rather pricey. Since my needs were rather simple, but I did want several social networks and profiles capabilities within a dashboard since I’m an admin for a couple of organizations, I chose Hootsuite Pro’s trial offer. At $9.95 after the first month’s free trial, that’s likely within my budget, and it has quite a few apps (such as a Youtube one) that can be used to supplement its social profiles which include facebook, google +, twitter, LinkedIn and other networking sites as well. So far, the only omission among what I expected on first look is that google + is strictly for pages (I admin for one of those), but not for individual’s profiles or the increasingly important communities feature of google +. Still, I’m pleased with Hootsuite so far and will likely post a more experienced review sometime later.
Hootsuite does have a free version for those considering dashboards for the first time. There are also quite a few competitors in the social dashboard arena. I imagine I’ll still peruse the individual networks at a leisurely pace at times, but a social dashboard does provide a means to quickly check-in around varied work schedules and the like. If considering using social dashboards for the first time, I suggest starting with one of the free versions and make comparisons before committing to any expense.
(Note: I am not an affiliate of Hootsuite or any service provider.