What Is HootSuite, and Is It Free to Use?

HootSuite is a social media management tool that allows users to schedule and post updates to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, WordPress, and other platforms from a dashboard with tabs organizing all the social profiles you connect.

Users can implement and analyze marketing campaigns across all social profiles without signing in to each social network individually. With premium accounts, users get advanced social analytics, audience engagement, team collaboration, and security features.

Why Use HootSuite?

Although HootSuite is largely known as a business tool, many individuals use it for personal purposes.

If you’re posting the same thing across multiple profiles, you can post it once through HootSuite and select the profiles where you want it published, and it will publish it on all five profiles at once. Using HootSuite takes a bit of time to get familiar with, but, in the end, it improves productivity and leaves time for more important things.

The scheduling feature is nifty, too. Spread your posts out over the day or week so you can set it and forget it.

HootSuite's Main Feature Breakdown

Here’s a general breakdown of some of the most useful features that come with signing up for a free account.

• Direct posting to social profiles. The most prominent feature is the ability to post text, links, photos, videos, and other media directly to your social profiles through the HootSuite dashboard.
• Scheduled posting. No time to post throughout the day? Schedule those posts so that they’re automatically posted at specific times rather than doing them all manually.
• Multiple profile management. With a free account, you can manage up to two social profiles with HootSuite. When you upgrade, you can manage many more. So if you’ve gone 20 Twitter profiles and 15 Facebook pages to update, HootSuite can handle it, but you'll need to upgrade.
• Social content apps for additional profiles. HootSuite has a suite of social apps for other popular social networking sites not included in its key offerings, such as YouTube, Instagram, and others.
• Targeted messaging. Send private messages out to targeted audience groups on selected social profiles straight through the HootSuite dashboard.
• Organization assignments. If you work with a team, you can create an “organization” to improve communication and collaboration across everyone’s HootSuite account.
• Analytics. HootSuite has a dedicated section for creating analytical reports and click summaries. It works with both Google Analytics as well as Facebook Insights.

But Is It Free?

Yes, HootSuite is free. You get access to all of the above main features without any cost to you. But a premium account will get you so many other options.

If you’re serious about social media management and analytics, you can get a 30-day free trial of HootSuite Pro, which costs about $29 a month after that and allows one user to manage up to 10 social profiles. There are also options for teams, businesses, and enterprises.

Check out HootSuite by signing up for a free account or checking out its additional plans.