Best Social Media Management Tools 2024: Metricool vs Buffer vs Hootsuite vs Typefully 🫣
Summary
TLDRIn this video, the creators evaluate three popular social media scheduling tools—Metricool, Buffer, and Hootsuite—while sharing their journey of automating content posting across platforms like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Twitter. Despite initial excitement, they encountered limitations with each tool, particularly with video formatting and scheduling features. Ultimately, they settled on using Buffer for Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, while scheduling YouTube Shorts and TikToks manually. They highlight the difficulties of finding a single perfect tool, concluding that native posting may still be the best method for key platforms.
Takeaways
- 😴 The team initially manually posted content across various social media platforms but sought automation tools to save time.
- 🔍 They evaluated tools like Hootsuite, Metricool, and Buffer to streamline their social media posting process.
- 🚫 Upon testing, they found limitations with Metricool, such as lack of optimization for YouTube Shorts and formatting issues on TikTok and Instagram.
- 🛠️ Buffer offered a more user-friendly interface and successfully posted to Instagram Reels without video size issues, unlike Metricool.
- 📈 Buffer also lacked automatic analytics and optimization suggestions for posting times, requiring manual input and adjustment.
- 💸 Hootsuite, being more expensive, had a dated interface and similar limitations to Metricool and Buffer, making it less appealing.
- 📱 The team discovered TikTok's native desktop app scheduling feature but found video quality degradation to be a significant drawback.
- 📅 They devised a hybrid strategy: using Buffer for Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, manual posting for TikTok, and YouTube's native scheduling for Shorts.
- 🔒 Concerns were raised about the extensive permissions required by these tools to access and manage social media accounts.
- 🔍 Typy was recommended for scheduling on Twitter and LinkedIn, offering auto-saving, analytics, and power user features like auto-posting and direct messaging.
Q & A
What was the main issue the speaker faced with posting on YouTube Shorts using Metro?
-The main issue was that Metro did not allow for optimization of YouTube Shorts, such as adding a description or choosing a thumbnail, which are important features for the speaker.
Why did the speaker decide to pause using Metro after encountering issues with video size on Instagram?
-The speaker decided to pause using Metro because the tool required resizing of all videos to be posted through the app, which was not only time-consuming but also seemed to defeat the purpose of using a scheduling tool to save time.
What was the speaker's experience with Buffer in terms of user interface and scheduling posts on Instagram?
-The speaker found Buffer's user interface to be prettier and more friendly than Metro. They also experienced no issues with video size when scheduling posts on Instagram, which was a significant improvement over Metro.
How does Buffer handle scheduling for YouTube Shorts compared to Metro?
-Buffer allows scheduling for YouTube Shorts but, similar to Metro, it has limitations such as not being able to add tags, descriptions, or thumbnails.
What was the primary reason the speaker and their team decided against using Hootsuite?
-The speaker and their team decided against using Hootsuite because it was not as user-friendly, had similar limitations to other tools they tested, and was priced significantly higher without offering the necessary features for their needs.
What alternative strategy did the speaker adopt for scheduling posts on TikTok after testing various tools?
-The speaker decided to manually upload and schedule posts on TikTok using the native app, ensuring better control over video quality and caption formatting.
How does the speaker plan to use Buffer for social media scheduling?
-The speaker plans to use Buffer for scheduling posts on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, as they found it to be the most reliable among the tools tested for these platforms.
What feature of YouTube did the speaker discover that allowed for better scheduling of YouTube Shorts?
-The speaker discovered that YouTube's native app allows for scheduling of YouTube Shorts, which means they can upload the video, save the thumbnail, and then schedule it for future posting.
What additional tool does the speaker recommend for scheduling posts on LinkedIn and Twitter?
-The speaker recommends using Typy, a tool that specifically works with Twitter and LinkedIn, for those looking to grow their following on these platforms.
What are some of the benefits of using Typy according to the speaker?
-Typy offers auto-saving of drafts, which prevents loss of content, and provides analytics to track growth and engagement. It also has power user features like auto post, auto DM, and auto plug.
Outlines
🔍 Exploring Social Media Scheduling Tools
The speaker discusses their journey to find the optimal social media scheduling tool. They initially planned to automate their social media posting process using software tools like Hootsuite, Metricool, and Buffer. After manually posting content on various platforms, they decided to seek software assistance. Despite initial excitement about features like cross-platform posting and audience analytics, they encountered limitations with each tool, such as formatting issues on TikTok and video size restrictions on Instagram. The speaker also highlights the importance of YouTube as their primary channel and the need for careful management of its content.
📊 Analyzing Buffer and Hootsuite for Social Media Efficiency
The speaker compares Buffer and Hootsuite, noting that Buffer's user interface was more appealing and offered a cleaner scheduling experience. While Buffer successfully handled Instagram Reels without issues, it still couldn't format captions for TikTok or add descriptions and thumbnails for YouTube Shorts. Hootsuite, despite its higher price, showed an outdated interface and similar limitations. The speaker also mentions the lack of detailed analytics for YouTube with Buffer and the more team-oriented features of Hootsuite, concluding that neither tool fully met their needs for a comprehensive scheduling solution.
🛠️ Crafting a Custom Social Media Posting Strategy
After evaluating various tools, the speaker decides on a hybrid approach to social media management. They choose Buffer for Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn due to its reliability and ease of use, despite minor issues with Twitter. For YouTube Shorts, they opt to use YouTube's native scheduling feature, appreciating its ability to batch content effectively. TikTok, being a more critical platform for them, is managed manually to ensure post quality. The speaker reflects on the challenges of finding a one-size-fits-all tool and the realization that native app posting might be the most effective approach.
🔗 Final Thoughts on Social Media Scheduling and Additional Tools
The speaker concludes with a recommendation for Typy, a scheduling tool specifically for Twitter and LinkedIn, praising its auto-saving feature and analytics capabilities. They also express concerns about the extensive permissions required by social media tools to access YouTube accounts. The video ends with a call to action for viewers to share their social media scheduling strategies and desired features, emphasizing the ongoing search for the ideal scheduling tool and the value of manual posting for quality assurance.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Social Media Scheduling Tools
💡Hootsuite
💡Buffer
💡Metricool
💡YouTube Shorts
💡Instagram Reels
💡TikTok
💡API Limitations
💡Manual Posting
💡Native Scheduling
Highlights
The team evaluated Hootsuite, Metricool, and Buffer for social media posting.
Manual posting was initially used but became unsustainable.
Metricool was popular among YouTubers but had limitations with YouTube Shorts.
Buffer had a user-friendly interface and successfully posted to Instagram Reels.
Hootsuite, despite its high price, had similar limitations to Metricool and Buffer.
The team considered using TikTok's own scheduling tool but encountered issues with video quality.
Buffer was chosen for Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn due to its reliability.
YouTube Shorts can be scheduled natively within the YouTube app.
TikTok content is carefully managed for SEO and engagement.
The team concluded that native app posting is often the best method.
Typy was recommended for scheduling on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Typy offers auto-saving, which prevents loss of draft content.
Social media platforms' APIs require full permissions, which raised concerns.
The team encourages viewers to consider their social media strategy and platform priorities.
The video concludes with a call to action for feedback on social media scheduling tools.
Transcripts
after sleeping on it and taking some
time to really think about how we can
optimize our time we landed on this
formula for posting this is a video that
we never intended on making in this
video we're going to give you a
breakdown of our findings from
evaluating hoot suite and Metric cool
and buffer and in the end of the video
we're going to tell you the
unconventional path that we ended up
going down for social media posting we
recently filmed a minseries podcast and
from that we got our video producer to
make a bunch of short form content that
we were posting on Instagram and Tik Tok
and YouTube shorts and then even Twitter
and Linkedin and guess who was doing
that manually this girl after a month or
so of doing this we decided that we
needed to turn to software to help us
automate some of this process we thought
that we would have our variety of tools
to choose from and this would be a
really simple decision but we were
totally wrong all right now let's get
into it
[Music]
first up metric cool so when we started
doing research for our social media
posting tool we jumped on YouTube and
started watching some reviews and demos
and one tool that kept popping up was
metrol and we had heard of hoot site and
buffer before but metrol was it seemed
like more YouTubers were talking about
it so it was the software that we wanted
to look at first and when we watched
tutorials online it just looked like it
had all the features like I really
thought that we found the greatest
Solutions you can post on all the social
media platforms from YouTube shorts to
Instagram to Tik Tok Etc and it even has
a cool calendar that shows you when your
audience online and the best times to
post so we signed up for an account we
connected all of our social media
accounts and within the first couple of
minutes of using it and actually trying
to schedule post we started seeing some
of the limitations the first thing we
noticed was that posting for you shorts
isn't optimized so while you can use it
to post to shorts you can't actually add
a description or you can't pick your
thumbnail which is a newer feature that
YouTube released and one that's really
important so for us YouTube is our most
important channel so we're more
protective of that so immediately we
knew that we weren't going to be able to
use metrol for YouTube but for the other
channels like Tik Tok and Instagram and
Twitter we thought maybe we can use
Metro cool for all of those and then
just keep manually posting to YouTube as
we've been doing but you guessed it we
ran into more trouble because when we
scheduled our Tik Tok for example it
posted and the entire caption was
unformatted and it just doesn't look
very good especially when you've put so
much work into creating the content and
then the real trouble came when we went
to post a reel on Instagram so like I
said we've been posting these videos
manually for quite some time now and
I've had no issues from doing them from
my phone however when I uploaded the
same video that we always get back from
our video editor edor into metri cool
there was an error with the video size
metrol was saying that our video size
was too large and when I contacted their
support they had suggested that we
resize all of our videos for them to be
posted through this app at that point
you start thinking is this really saving
me time or is this going to waste more
of not only my time but my team's time
as well so their chat support were very
insistent that this is an API limitation
and that there was no way around it and
this is just what we had to do so at
that point kind of decided it's time to
put metrical on pause and evaluate some
of the other tools that's when we took a
look at the next tool which is buffer
the first thing that we noticed when we
logged into buffer was that the user
interface was much prettier and much
more friendly than that of metric upon
connecting our accounts it had pulled in
all of our previous social media posts
and put them on a nice calendar which
gave us a bird's eye view of all the
content that we've been posting and in
just the experience of using their
scheduling tool just felt like a little
bit more clean and refined so prettiness
aside functionality is what matters at
the end of the day we tried to schedule
our Tik Tok post and we also ran into
the same issues with not being able to
choose a thumbnail and also not being
able to format our captions then we went
to schedule a reel on Instagram and to
our surprise and Delight it's scheduled
and posted right away and we had no
issues with the video size which for us
was a huge wi with buffer you can also
post on YouTube shorts but you also have
the same limitations as you did with
metrial with not being able to add tags
or a description or a thumbnail like I
said before we knew already that we are
going to be protective over our YouTube
channel and continue to post that
directly through the YouTube app another
limitation we found with buffer is that
it didn't automatically analyze all of
our previous data and give us the
suggestions for the best time to post
and I did contact them and ask them
about this and they said the more that
you use buffer to post the more that
they're able to give you the best times
to post and that kind of data speaking
of data if you are concerned with
reports and metrics it doesn't pull in
analytics for your YouTube account and
it does for the other platforms but I'd
say metric cool did a slightly better
job at showing you all sorts of
analytics all this being said both Alex
and I on our team we go into the apps
and we just look at the analytics from
the apps themselves so because we're a
small team we don't have reports and
stuff like that that we're pulling out
to show other people on our team so that
feature is not something that's super
useful for us we really wanted to use
social media scheduling tools to
schedule social media and that is the
main thing that we looked at so with all
this being said we were impressed with
buffer however we couldn't help but
wonder that maybe there was going to be
this one dream tool that was going to do
it all and really just help us out and
save us time from having to schedule
these posts manually so then we went on
to evaluate the next tool which is hoot
site hoot site has been around as long
as I can remember in the social media
space and they are priced higher than
buffer and Metric cool starting at 99 a
month but given we're a business and we
thought if it could really save my time
and from doing this manually it would be
worth the price tag if it could take
care of all the needs that we have that
we created an account and we put our
credit card on file and by the way out
of these three apps it is the only tool
that actually required us to put a
credit card on file and with that I just
want to give a big shout out to Bill
spend and expense for allowing us to put
a virtual credit card on file and not
being worried that it was going to be
charged because we could easily freeze
it right after creating an account so
we're in the account and within I'd say
five minutes my stomach started sinking
because I had quickly realized that this
tool wasn't going to be all that I
thought it could be it's very apparent
that HootSuite was built a long time ago
in terms of the user interface they have
some parts of the tool that are newer
but then you can click the wrong button
and you get into this really old archaic
view so that wasn't really impressive
and then when it came to actually
scheduling it felt more limiting than
buffer nevertheless we connected all of
our accounts and found that there were
the same limitations as we had before so
in terms of Tik Tok we didn't get that
caption formatting we couldn't pick a
thumbnail with Instagram it gave us the
same error that metric cool did with the
file size and then when it came to
YouTube shorts again same limitations no
thumbnail no descriptions no tags I've
said it three times by now so paying $99
a month and it doesn't even have all the
features that something like buffer does
that's free for three accounts it just
didn't make sense but upon looking at
hoot Suite A little bit more it's very
clear that the tool is created for teams
and like I was saying at the beginning
teams that need comprehensive reporting
they need to show their team Trends in
social media they need permissions they
need approvals and all that kind of
stuff so they're very featur rich in
these more Team Tools so in terms of
being the best scheduling app it wasn't
it so within I'd say 30 minutes we
disconnected all of our social media
accounts and we Sunset the idea of using
hoot site as an option okay so where did
we end up today I wish I can tell you
that there was one tool that we really
discovered and we really loved and it
really met all of our needs but that
wasn't the case we did take a look at
some other ones here and there but in
terms of the top three contenders we do
think that it is hoot sweet buffer and
Metric cool the best app that we found
was buffer and we were really between a
rock and a hard place as they say where
we were thinking do we continue to post
manually or do we use buffer for some of
the apps so went back to YouTube and
started doing a little bit more research
to try to dig into what other people are
doing and then I found out that Tik Tok
actually actually created their own
scheduling tool within the desktop app
now that was interesting because then I
thought what if I use buffer for
Instagram and for Twitter and Linkedin
and then I use the Tik Tok desktop app
for Tik Tok and then I can just post to
YouTube as I've been posting and I
really thought I was on to something so
of course I tried it I uploaded my post
I wrote my caption and I scheduled it
and it flopped dramatically what
happened it posted to Tik Tok and the
caption was formatted
but then I realized that the video
resolution had scaled way down like to
the point where our skin looked grainy
and gross and it was also sitting at one
view for over an hour which if you post
a Tik Tok that just doesn't happen
because their algorithm just puts it in
the flow right away so I think it like
descaled their video and then didn't do
anything with it so this might be a
feature that Tik tok's building out and
they're going to put more TLC into and I
think it has a lot of potential but as
of right now of recording this video
it's unusable on our end anyway so my
friends we went to the drawing board
again what were we going to do we really
wanted to save time here and not make
our process even more complicated with
trying to figure out a batching solution
to post after sleeping on it and taking
some time to really think about how we
can optimize our time we landed on this
formula for posting we were going to use
buffer for posting to Instagram and
Twitter and LinkedIn because as far as
those platforms go there was no issues
that being said we did have one
experience when we tried to schedule a
post on Twitter and it failed however
when we rescheduled it for later that
day it worked so I'd say in terms of
reliability I'd give it maybe like a
nine out of 10 right now one thing we're
also monitoring with buffer is social
media engagement so we've been sending
our post to Instagram and we've been
trying to track if it's getting less
views than we normally do when we
manually post it so far we don't really
have a solid answer it seems to be okay
because our views have been consistent
up and down with Instagram anyway but
it's a platform that we generally care
about less like our audience is not
really on Instagram so just getting the
content out there is enough for us on
that platform I think this is an
important distinction to make when it
comes to these tools I think you really
have to take a look at all the social
media platforms and think what do I care
about the most and where do I want to
invest the most time and what's okay to
sacrifice a little bit and that's what
we did through our strategy with our
YouTube shorts we actually found that
you can schedule the shorts through the
YouTube app which is really cool and an
idea that we didn't really think about
we fell across it when we were trying to
save some drafts on our phone so you can
open up YouTube you can upload your
video you can save your thumbnail and
then instead of posting it you can go to
schedule and schedule it for a future
time and then upload the video and then
you can go to the desktop app and add
the description and the tags and related
videos and all that sort of thing right
within the desk desktop app for us we're
totally fine to do that because we could
still batch our content this way which
was a really big unlock and something
that made us really happy and we've been
using that now for over a week and it's
been working really well for Tik Tok it
is a platform that we do care more about
than Instagram so we didn't want to just
post content with Messy captions that
weren't cohesive or coherent to read and
we didn't want to have thumbnails that
we didn't select ourselves and one of
the reasons that we do care about Tik
Tok is that we do find that is good for
SEO like some of the content that we
posted a year ago is still getting
favored and liked and people are
commenting so I do think that the way
that Tik tok's algorithm is built it's
optimized to incentivize creators like
us to create content on their over
Instagram which kind of feels like you
post it and then your content just dies
so that's our strategy we're using
buffer for LinkedIn for Twitter for
Instagram we are then planning our
content up to two weeks in advance then
we're taking all of those videos I
transfer them over to my phone I upload
them all to Tik Tok at once I write the
caption I save everything in my draft
and then go manually post one video a
day and then in terms of YouTube we're
using the native scheduling tool all
this being said is it better than what
we were doing before with manually
posting once a day yes absolutely it
takes about one day to schedule a couple
weeks worth of content and then we don't
really need to think about it anymore I
think what we're realizing is that these
social media apps don't really want want
to make it easy for any external tool to
schedule posting a lot of these tools
rely on YouTube for example to build
features into their API to be able to
relate a video through the API or to
choose a thumbnail through the API so if
YouTube's not building that then no
external tool is actually going to make
this possible YouTube Instagram Tik Tok
what they would love and what they get
more benefit from is having you open up
the app to post every day because you
get distracted sucked in and then they
can show you an ad and it really plays
well to their ad Revenue model I wish
that this could be a more positive video
with having one hero tool that can do
everything for you but we really just
wanted to brain dump all the information
that we learned over the past couple of
days to hopefully save you some time
when doing your own research posting
natively to the social media apps is the
winner here and doing it manually is
probably the best way but if you have
platforms that you care about less like
Instagram Twitter LinkedIn we'd say
buffer would win that
category hey okay so Alex from the
future here so there is one other
scheduling app that we wanted to
recommend as we've been using it since
recording this video so if you're
someone like me and is trying to grow
their ex
following like Twitter X so the tool is
called typy and it only works with x in
LinkedIn but if you're someone like me
that is trying to specifically grow
their X following that's kind of where
the community is that I'm closest with
I'm finding that I'm actually posting
now on LinkedIn which is also great
because I don't even need to think about
it I write the tweet that I want to PO
post on X and then I end up posting it
to LinkedIn as well I'd be willing to
bet that anyone that you're following on
X that also is posting on LinkedIn is
probably using tifully that's kind of
what we've uncovered if you're also
someone that posts on X you've probably
experienced a bug in which you've just
completely lost a draft that you've
spent the last half hour or an hour
writing maybe it was due to a Refresh on
your browser or on your phone mobile app
crashing this is something that you
don't have to worry about with typ f
because it's Autos saving at all points
in time so your draft is always right
there and present one of the unintended
benefits of using a tool like typy is
that you don't get sucked into social
media before or after writing your post
you can just write them schedule them
and get out do me a favor and the next
time that you post on one of these
platforms see how much time you waste
afterward scrolling through other
people's posts Tyle also has some other
power user features like Auto post autod
DM and auto plug so the next time that
someone has their thread that goes viral
I bet you there's going to be an autop
plug they're going to be pitching why
you should go check out their website in
the second comment they're probably also
using typ F the last thing is typ does a
really great job at analytics so you can
see how you're growing from week to week
month to month and you could even see
what posts are giving you the most
engagement so you can focus more on
doing more of that all right now back to
Andre one more little thing to note is
that every platform that we connected
our YouTube account with asked for full
permission and access to our YouTube
account to even delete videos and if
you're investing a lot of time in your
YouTube account that's obviously pretty
scary we even reached out to the founder
of metric cool to ask about this and
every platform was consistent with the
fact of saying that it's part of the API
requests and they have to get your
permissions but they will not delete
anything but for us it just feels a
little bit too Ry so if you made it to
the end of the video we want to know how
do you schedule your social media post
and if you had a request for any of the
apps we talked about what would your
dream social media scheduling feature be
if this video helped you would love for
you to like And subscribe WE Post
regular software reviews here on our
YouTube channel for instance check out
this superhuman video that is the best
way to check your email we'll see you in
the next one
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