"TweetDeck, CoTweet, Seesmic… Which Social Media Dashboard should I choose?" If you are a Twitter user and want to manage your account efficiently, this question might not seem strange to you. Even so, this question cannot be answered easily since each program has its own advantages. We did research on popular Social Media Dashboards, finally choosing HootSuite because of its rich, easy–to–use yet powerful managing features. Let's see how the software can help you follow Joomla!...

HootSuite's advantages

Tweet with all tools in your hand

Hootsuite brings you excitement from the beginning: You are able to shorten links, attach files, save files as drafts or even schedule tweets right in the tweet panel – All which are impossible with basic Twitter platform. No more 3rd–party applications, Hootsuite saves your time by just few clicks.

Cool tabs and streams

Tabs and Streams screenshot

Screenshot explanation:

1. Tabs
2. Streams

Hootsuite makes it simple to manage tweets by "Tabs" and "Streams":

• "Tabs" contain related streams. It might be about a list of important keywords or a list of people's Twitter profiles in your business area.
• "Stream" could contain profile feed options (such as Mentions, Direct Messages, Pending Tweets…); or multiple keyword tracking, search terms, list. Streams are presented by columns.

We created several tabs to help us live in the Joomla! world on Twitter. For example:

• Tab "Lists" with stream "Blogger" to monitor updates from Joomla bloggers such as Brian Teeman, Joomla Blogger, etc; stream Joomla extensions to updates extensions news, Joomla to see Joomla lovers care about what and so on.
• Tab "Keywords" with streams "#joomla", "#joomla16", "#jos", "jed"… since it helps monitor which tweets are included key hastags of Joomla and more.

And, you can:

• Create tab "keywords" to keep track of keyword you care about.
• Create streams of tab Joomla news from List of Joomla people to follow to join the Joomla world.

Impressive report ability

This is considered the most powerful feature of Hootsuite, satisfying those ones who are serious about social media. It provides you with multiple available report templates and separated report modules that allow you to monitor various statistics. Moreover, illustrated examples and concise explanations are ready to help you understand report purpose and elements. There are two report template types: Custom Report and Available Report.

• Custom report: This is a blank report so you start from scratch and add separated report modules yourself.
• Available report: You are provided with 4 report templates: Proposal report, Ow.ly click summary, Google Analytics and Facebook Insights. Each one comes with certain report modules.
  • Ow.ly click summary: Includes basic modules based on shorten link service ow.ly integrated in HootSuite. This report is free.
  • Google Analytics: Includes all report modules related to Google Anlytics in HootSuite. This costs you 50 points.
  • Facebook Insights: Includes all report modules related to Facebook in HootSuite. This costs you 45 points.
  • Proposal report: Includes some typical modules of all the above report templates and some other separated modules.

With all the above report templates, you can add more separated modules (free or paid) as many as you want and edit them as needed. HootSuite Pro users can use maximum 50 points freely; more points can be purchased as an additional package. Each package contains a certain number of reports (From 1 to 10); and each report contains a certain number of Analytics Modules. The package price depends on the number of reports you can use. Each report costs you $50.

We created custom report Ow.ly Click Summary ourselves, adding both free and paid report module. Below you can have a look at some:

• Summary stats (Free): Overall statistics of how many daily clicks we received from all of the tweets we sent out during the day.

Ow.ly click summary screenshot

• Clicks by Region (Free): See which countries our viewers came from and Top referrers (Free): See how these viewers reach our Twitter profile by clicks.

Clicks by Region and Top referrers screenshot

Screenshot explanation:

1. Clicks by Region
2. Top Referrers

• Compare keywords (line) (20 points): See which keyword is popular on Twitter. Up to five keywords can be added.

Compare keywords (line) screenshot

And, you can:

• Select available report template or customize your own. We suggest you use the above modules and some useful modules below:
  • Click stats (Free): Allows you to track total clicks on a single link sent via Twitter profile during a specified date range.
  • Follower growth: With this colorful module, you can track the number of followers changes over selected time period. 15 points for your account only and 30 points if you also want to track several Twitter accounts. There can be up to 10 Twitter usernames.

Contacts

Contacts screenshot

Screenshot explanation:

1. Your lists.
2. Contact details of each list.
3. Basic information: Number of followings, followers and klout score. The higher these numbers, the higher the social influences. You can also opt to unfollow people here.

This section gives you an overview about all contacts in your lists, so you can easily manage and measure their social influence across the web. Thanks to it, you can learn more about people in your Twitter world.

Other features you can utilize

Besides these typical features above, you can utilize the following features:

• Work with other members in your group.
• Manage multiple social network profiles – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

How to use HootSuite?

This article just mentioned HootSuite PRO Edition which we use. But you can still benefit from the free version. Here is the side–by–side comparison.

Bottom line

Do you use Hootsuite, or other Social Media Dashboards to manage your Twitter account? It would be great if you share your experience with us.