Hootsuite is Still One of the Best Social Media Management Tools

Hootsuite is Still One of the Best Social Media Management Tools
Introduction
Almost everyone uses the internet and various social media platforms in this digital age. With the growing number of internet users and social media accounts, most businesses have already shifted their marketing online, though this strategy is no longer new (Tourani, 2022). Since companies use social media platforms in advertising and selling their products, they must monitor their performance online. If they keep track of their performance, it will help them analyze whether their strategies are working or not. This action is tedious and time-consuming; thus, developers have created social media management tools that can help companies track their online performances, including their number of followers and engagements. Therefore, with the various capabilities and benefits that social media management tools can offer, companies must utilize them.
Hootsuite is one of the most well-liked social media management platforms on the market right now. It started in 2008 as BrightKit, which was only a utility controlling numerous Twitter accounts from a single interface. The company only had three employees at that time. In 2009, its name changed to HootSuite. In 2010, several improvements occurred; firstly, its name changed to Hootsuite, with a lowercase letter "s." Hootsuite has also integrated with Facebook and LinkedIn. In addition, they started monetizing from the platform and adding optional premium accounts with additional features and benefits. Most importantly, Hootsuite has one million users that year. Over the years, Hootsuite has gained millions of users and billions (Brief History, 2015). It is evident in Hootsuite’s history that the company started from square one. Still, eventually, when Hootsuite found its jive, it continued progressing and expanding until it became what they are now.
Currently, Hootsuite is still one of the best social media management tools. It helps their clients to get more reach and business with social media. Specifically, it helps its clients by creating engaging and timely content, obtaining more followers, increasing engagements, and making the company stand out among its competitors (Hootsuite, n.d. -a). Indeed, Hootsuite is a tool that can help its clients succeed in the virtual world.
Situation Analysis
Social media marketing is no longer a new concept. It is a form of digital marketing that enables social media platforms to promote brands (Evans et al., 2021; Tuten & Solomon, 2017). The COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020 and significantly impacted many facets of life (WHO, 2020). No one can leave the house to go to work or buy necessities in the market. Due to the pandemic, this type of marketing has become well-known (Greig & Sullivan, 2021; Mason et al., 2021). Most businesses shifted their marketing and brands online since this is the safest and most convenient way of purchasing items. Therefore, that incident enabled social media marketing to flourish.
As businesses grow online, their responsibilities are expanding too. Thus, this is the part where social media management tools are necessary. These tools can help business owners to manage their social media networks. In utilizing the tools, a business can identify its strengths and weaknesses, competitors, and future product developments. Therefore, several developers created social media management tools to the growing need for assistance handling social media networks.
Although Hootsuite was the first and most popular social media management tool, alternative options are now available. Some are more affordable than Hootsuite, while others provide the same goods and services. Hootsuite must therefore continue to be the top brand, which it may achieve by making an effort in social media. Since it is known to help manage social media networks, it is better to use social media for marketing and branding purposes. Hootsuite will therefore continue the game it started.
Target Audience
Hootsuite’s target includes individuals and groups who run their businesses through the help of social media accounts. The company looks for people who struggle with managing their social media networks.
For this campaign, here are the specific target audiences:
* Business owners who are not adept in using technology
* Business owners who are not adept at utilizing social media platforms
* Business owners who are busy managing their social media networks
* Business owners who want to boost their social media networks
* Business owners who cannot find the right audience and influencers
* Business owners who want to earn more
* Business owners who want their businesses to shine
This campaign’s persona is this: Jesse is a 25-year-old business owner. She owns a clothing store located in downtown Toronto. Jesse is a diligent woman who wakes up at 5:00 to prepare. Her store opens at 8:00 in the morning and closes at 8:00 in the evening. Before the pandemic, Jesse has several customers, and she earns sufficiently. However, when the pandemic happened, she barely had customers. She decides to sell her goods online but is hesitant since she is not tech-savvy. Jesse needs assistance setting up her online shop and earning money from it.
Media Monitoring
Media monitoring is both quantitative and qualitative research (Cooper, 2022). It monitors the engagements, metrics, and analytics of a brand. It helps the brand be aware of its audience and industry. Media monitoring is where a brand listens to people’s interests, likes, and dislikes. Specifically, a company can identify its competitors and influencers through media monitoring. It can also determine which marketing management is the best. Additionally, it can help resolve issues and improve the company. Thus, with all the benefits aforementioned, it is essential to conduct social media monitoring.
How to Monitor
A brand can monitor social media with the use of several methods. In this case, since Hootsuite is the client, it will patronize its own and use additional tools such as Facebook Analytics, YouTube Analytics, and Instagram Analytics. Hootsuite can do all the jobs for all social media platforms. Hootsuite can monitor various social media platforms all at once. However, the analytics from different sites can be instrumental too. These tools can provide a comprehensive social media report, and it can determine whether a strategy is working or not.
Social Media Presence
Table 1
Social Media Accounts of Hootsuite
Social Media Platform

Total Followers

Link

YouTube

49,800

/c/Hootsuite

TikTok

14,300

/@hootsuite

Facebook

864,531

/hootsuite/

Instagram

178,000

/hootsuite/

Twitter

1,400,000

https://twitter.com/hootsuite/

The table shows Hootsuite’s social media accounts and the number of followers. It reveals that TikTok has the least number of followers. It can be understandable since that is Hootsuite’s newest account. On the other hand, Twitter has the most significant number of followers. YouTube followers are still fewer than on other social media platforms. With the information given, it is evident that the company needs more followers, especially on TikTok. TikTok is a compelling app, and there are billions of users there. All social media platforms are equally important, and the company must exert effort in being active in their accounts to gain more followers and engagements.
Competitors Presence
Numerous businesses have developed their social media management software due to the success of social media management. Even if their brands are different, they all have the same objective—to assist their clients in excelling at the top of their game on social media. Social Sprout is one of Hootsuite’s top competitors. It is because Social Sprout offers the same products and services as Hootsuite. In addition, it also provides a comprehensive report and an excellent customer service feature; however, Hootsuite still offers a cheaper rate compared to Social Sprout. Sendible is also considered one of the best social media management tools. Sendible is meant for agencies that handle multiple clients. Its best features include the integration of Canva and YouTube. It also offers cheap plans. However, Hootsuite is still the pioneer in this industry (Lua, n.d.). And most of the social media management tools that arrive are all inspired and rooted in Hootsuite.
Campaign Plan
Communication Objectives
Hootsuite must follow the lead of its rivals. Hootsuite needs more significant sales and brand recognition to do this. Hootsuite will utilize communication to re-introduce itself to internet users through its social media profiles. As a result, the customers can discover more about the company and subscribe.
Effectively reach clients
Hootsuite has its target audience. If there are people who struggle in managing their social media networks, Hootsuite can be their best solution. Hootsuite will use its social media accounts to disseminate information such as new features of its services, sales, discounts, and other information. The brand will also display customer testimonials on its platforms.
Convert engagement into sales
Aside from reaching potential leads, Hootsuite must also be successful in converting the leads into clients. It is essential to gain from the engagements that occurred. It is not only the engagement to look after; it is more important to look at the revenues that will come from the engagements.
Proposed Channels
TikTok. TikTok is now on par with YouTube. It is a video-creation, video-sharing, and video-watching platform. It already has one billion active users. Many businesses have used the platform to promote and sell their products due to its large user base (Dwinanda et al., 2022). Hootsuite has a TikTok account but only has about 14,000 followers and few engagements. The company must try to create and post TikTok videos that will help promote its products and services. In addition, the company can take advantage of the several features of this app. Hence, the company must exert an effort to grow its TikTok account since it will be beneficial.
YouTube. It is undeniable that everyone has a YouTube app since most phones and other gadgets today have it as the default app. YouTube is a platform for posting videos. Many businesses have also used this platform to promote their products through advertisements (Puwandi et al., 2020). Hootsuite has less than 50,000 subscribers and more than 300 videos. These are impressive numbers, but they are not yet enough. YouTube has a unique feature that allows users to share a short clip or photo that will only last for a specific period. The company can use this tool to feature each of its products and services offered. In conclusion, the company needs to grow its YouTube account too.
Facebook. Even though there are several social media platforms available, Facebook remains one of the most active and most used platforms (Nuseir & AlShawabkeh, 2019). Facebook allows several activities, and the company can maximize them. The company has less than 1 million followers on Facebook. They can use this platform to promote their products, especially with the number of followers and the level of engagement the company has on this platform. However, their posts on this platform must differ from others to avoid repetition. Variations in the post will also allow consumers to feel that the company is exerting effort in creating and sharing posts on social media.
Instagram. Instagram allows users to post photos, videos, stories, and reels. Instagram is also widely used for business advertisements (Huang, 2019). Hootsuite has less than 200,000 followers on Instagram. This number is still few, and Hootsuite can still improve it. Thus, this is the platform wherein the company should exert more effort in promoting since it needs to reach many people that are possible consumers. The company can maximize all the features of Instagram to advertise. In addition, the company can take advantage of the number of active Instagram users. Therefore, the company can promote its products and services to many people through Instagram’s features and the number of users.
Twitter. Twitter consists primarily of text. However, it allows its users to share media. Hootsuite has more than 1 million followers and 78,00 tweets on Twitter. It is the company’s most extensive following base since it is its first account. The company was first known for managing Twitter accounts, and most of its promotions and communications before were done on Twitter. Twitter is considered a source of credible news. Hence, information and stuff posted there are more reasonable and reliable than on other social media platforms (Voorveld et al., 2018). The company can post its latest products and service offered on this platform.
SMART Campaign Objectives
Setting objectives is essential to guide a company in achieving its goal. Setting objectives can also help in succeeding. However, it is not just a simple objective; it needs to be SMART, specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (Ennis-O’Connor, 2018). The three objectives listed below will help Hootsuite top the social media management industry even after even with many competitors.
Objective 1: Post two pieces of content daily on each platform to increase followers by 10% monthly. The social media platforms are free to use. The company needs to maximize each platform’s available tools and features. The company needs to post two pieces of content daily on each platform. It can be a combination of a photo and a video, two videos, two images, one story and one post, and so on. However, the company needs to differentiate the post on every platform. There are different users on each platform, and their interests are different, too (Chen, 2021). Therefore, the company should learn how to adjust depending on the network. Suppose the company will consistently post content daily on its social media accounts. In that case, there will be a higher chance of reaching more users, and there will also be an increase in engagement and the number of followers. This will be the start of gaining new possible consumers.
Objective 2: Top the trends with the hashtags used once a week. The company can begin to join the bandwagon using hashtags. Hashtags are labels that help users find information quickly. It also increases the number of likes, views, and shares (O’Brien, 2022). However, the company must understand how to use hashtags correctly. Incorrect or excessive hashtag usage will be ineffective. Therefore, Hootsuite can use short, memorable, and specific hashtags daily. However, they have to top the trend at least once a week. If the company will consistently top the trends and hashtags, it will become more known, and it can generate more leads. For this objective, Hootsuite can use its large following base on Twitter. Since its Twitter account is the oldest, several users are already aware of its existence, and it will not be challenging to recognize Hootsuite anymore.
Objective 3: Increase sales by 5% monthly. This objective is the most crucial one. All of the efforts will lead to the purpose o...