Co-Authored by Theodora Kimmel
As any wedding business knows, having a social media presence has become increasingly important for successful marketing endeavors. Just check out what this article has to say about the recent Bride and Groom Expo of 2014: use social media to inform the masses about your business.
Of course, you hear the word “masses” and you’re inclined to get overwhelmed with how much you need to do on social media to reach your highest potential. Moreover, how can you keep up with the growing number of platforms you know you should be using to reach more potential couples-to-be? What about making sure that your social media presence is overflowing with fun, engaging content, that keeps people informed, and is also consistent?
If you are looking for a place to manage all your important social networks at the same time, look no further. There are now options for this kind of task. Think of them like your software-based social media managers. Today, we will put two of them in the ring and make them fight for your business.
In the red corner is Hootsuite.
How it Works: It stores your social media login information from Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, as well for your WordPress, and puts their feeds all in one spot through your Hootsuite account. You can customize what feeds you see, and you can follow any hashtags that may be of benefit, like #weddingpros. You can even add Facebook groups that are related to your business into your Hootsuite as a separate feed, so you can keep up with your Facebook groups as well.
Why Businesses Love it: Delivering your content is also simple. At the top of the page, there is a white box where you can write posts, and a box next to that where you can easily customize which social media sites receive what posts. This is great because posting on multiple sites is no longer a tedious process. With Hootsuite, you can post to multiple sites at the same time.
Other Cool Features: For sites that are picky about how many words or characters you can post with (I’m calling you out, Twitter), Hootsuite makes it easy for you to shrink links and give you some extra space to write. You can also space out posts over a length of time using the scheduler, meaning you can make sure your posts get sent at high traffic times AND when you are not at your desk, also making it simple to keep your social media sites looking updated and fresh.
Cost: You can start with the absolutely free plan that works fine for social media planning for a wedding business with a small social media network. Then there are paid plans which allow you to add more social media platforms.
In the blue corner is OnlyWire.
How is Works: This is yet another great tool for setting up an interactive hub for all your social media network sites. And it’s safe to say this site can house all of them. You can sync accounts from up to 50 different websites to OnlyWire. (If there is anyone on this planet with 50 different social media sites that they keep up with and still remember the passwords to, then hats off to them.)
Why Businesses Love it: You can also have multiple accounts from each site, like 3 different Twitter accounts, or maybe all 16 of your WordPress accounts if that’s what you’re into. The social media analytics feature requires the activation of Bit.ly, a link-shrinker, but that only takes a couple clicks to set up. Then you can get a snapshot of what demographic likes your on Facebook page or posts about you on Twitter. Moreover, likes (organized by age, gender, day, and region) show up in easy-to-read charts and graphs that can be interpreted by even the newest statistics class student.
Other Cool Features: This is where the fun part begins; you’re ready to post. This site also offers a scheduling feature and simple post-placement customization. OnlyWire also has a book-marking option that allows you to save posts without planning out their posting placement.
Cost: You can try the site out for a week with limited access, but after that you will need to pay. The payment plans are priced by month, and by how many times you may post in that month.
Overall Verdict:
No Winner! We love them both. What we can tell you, however, is which social media manager we believe might fit best with your wedding business needs.
If you only have a few social media networks to maintain, Hootsuite is the perfect choice.
If you have a whole lot of social media networks to maintain, and are looking for analytics for these social media sites then OnlyWire is your answer.