A couple of weeks ago I wrote about social media browsers sparking a new round of browser wars. Social media browsers are well and good for individuals managing one account on each platform, but what about businesses managing multiple Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other accounts? Enter the social media dashboard.
Credit: Hootsuite.com
Social media dashboards typically come in desktop, web-based and mobile flavours. They allow individuals and teams to manage one or more accounts on one or more social networks.
The desktop versions usually run in the free Adobe Air environment that essentially serves as a desktop extension to running rich Internet applications. Adobe Air runs on Windows, Mac and Linux machines, thus allowing everyone to enjoy. Web-based dashboards run in a browser and mobile apps are developed for each phone's native platform (iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone 7).
I first became aware of dashboards in late 2008 or early 2009, where they started creeping into the Twitter consciousness as an alternative to the always-crashing Twitter website. Names such as Tweetdeck and Hootsuite came (to me) first, later Seesmic and CoTweet. Now there are dozens.
CUSTOM COLOURS WOULD BE NICE
Tweetdeck was long my favourite. With its slick, clean Adobe Air interface on the desktop and decent mobile companion apps, it shone when I managed only my own accounts. One column per account was acceptable when it was just my Twitter, my Facebook and my LinkedIn. As time goes on and I sign more and more clients to communicatto, I need to monitor several clients' accounts, in some cases managing them entirely, which led to too many columns and far too much sideways scrolling. The hunt was on for a better dashboard solution.
Last time I checked, Seesmic was not markedly different from Tweetdeck, so I figured I better check elsewhere for a suitable dashboard. I should probably rethink that.
I have played off and on with Hootsuite, whose killer features include customizable tabs (one for each client in my case) and the ability to share accounts with team members without passing around the actual credentials for each account. The interface is OK, but just OK, and could use touches such as customization of colours, column widths and font sizes for middle-aged eyes like mine. When I contacted support regarding these feature requests they claimed to have two of them, which is partially true. They have three colour schemes and you can widen all columns, but not one at a time. I want finer control. Apparently font control might come in a future release.
A big part of social media is the mobile experience - after all, you are monitoring the conversations, replying, reporting, checking in and looking for friends where you are now, not where your desktop is. Tweetdeck has a serviceable mobile app, as does Seesmic. When I used a BlackBerry, the only decent app I found back then was Ubertwitter, which I see has now been ported to the iPhone. The native Twitter apps only do Twitter and only one account at a time, so they don't count as dashboard companions.
CHECKING OUT WHAT'S NEW
The Hootsuite iPhone app was first developed by Calgary programmer @richerd. Knowing of its rich features, I had high hopes, but the Android Hootsuite app (programmed by someone else) is mostly dysfunctional for me on my Motorola Milestone. Their Help Desk is escalating my issue, as Tier 1 support couldn't resolve it, which essentially means I need another solution at least in the meantime. Which is a shame, as I really wanted a dashboard plus mobile combo to complete the workflow. I imagine the Apple fanboys in the crowd are now screaming, "Buy the iPhone Android loser." Harumph says I (as I write this on a Mac).
As a result, I am getting by with Hootsuite web on my desktop and Plume on my Android. I recently bought a copy of MarketMeSuite, an Adobe Air desktop app, which shows great promise but is so rough around the edges I couldn't recommend it. A new version is due out within weeks, so it may yet sway me. I also subscribed for a while to SproutSocial, which was a nice little web-based dashboard with some analytics, but I just couldn't swallow the $49 per month for the business plan. I might have to revisit that too, since SproutSocial has a Pro plan at $9 per month and since I can't use Hootsuite's mobile anyway, a separate desktop and mobile may have to be the way.
If you work in a large business, there are plenty of social media dashboards such as Jive, Radian6 and the aforementioned CoTweet that will work well for your team.
Meanwhile, as the proverbial "solopreneur," my quest for the perfect dashboard plus mobile solution continues.
Note: This article was originally published in its entirety on my Postmedia News social media column.
Doug Lacombe is president of social media agency communicatto and is typically dashing around Calgary sans dashboard. One way or another he sends updates semi-regularly to facebook.com/communicatto.
Perfect social media dashboard elusive is a post from: communicatto - Social media agency in Calgary Alberta
