As you may have noticed I’ve not blogged much over the last few weeks. This has been due to a combination of a holiday and working long hours during the day. Until I write my next ‘real’ blog post, here is a quick round-up of some of the articles posted during June:

• Top Tips for Working from Home – Are you thinking about working from home? Then read this 2 part blog
• Company Vans:  Avoiding a BIK -  A guest blog by Nick Goddard from GBM Accounts
• Hootsuite or TweetDeck – The pros and cons of using these 2 popular Twitter clients

If you have anything you would like me to blog about, please get in touch…

Over the last couple of days I’ve seen a few tweets from people asking this very question. I use both and have done for a while, and each have their pros and cons. The easiest way though in my opinion is to just try them both as they are free. What is good for some people might not be good for others.

HootSuite

PROS

• Web based – doesn’t use massive PC resources which is good if you are running a lot of applications
• Easy to manage several social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin etc…
• Easy to set up and create lists, searches
• Analytics to monitor which tweets are clicked on
• Can be accessed from any PC with an internet connection

CONS

• Shortest auto-refresh is 2 minutes meaning you don’t get an instant update
• No audio alert – not good if someone messages you whilst you are working
• Only allows up to 5 social media profiles on the free version (paid is unlimited)

TweetDeck

PROS

• Easy to download and set up
• Manage multiple twitter accounts
• Audiable alert for new tweets – great if you are working so you don’t have to keep checking
• Easily cusomisable
• Instant updates

CONS

• Has to be installed on your PC and uses PC resources whilst it is running
• Audiable alerts can get very annoying if you are following a lot of people or searches
• Your profiles and searches are only available on the PC/Laptop you install TweetDeck on. If you use a PC and Laptop you will need to install it twice and make sure you update each one when you add a new search
• If you are using multiple accounts TweetDeck auto selects the last one you used, which may cause you to tweet from the wrong account

As you can see, both have their advantages and disadvantages.How do I use them?

If I am surfing the internet, reading blogs, checking the news etc.. I will use HootSuite. It is also great when the Rugby League matches are on as the auto refresh brings through tweets from the last 2 minutes and makes it easier to digest them all before the next refresh.

When I am working I will use TweetDeck because I can easily focus on the work and see the new tweets in real time and reply to them if needed. It’s amazing how easy it is to become distracted by using HootSuite when working. I’ll find myself switching to the browser window to view the tweets and then end up looking at something on the internet. This doesn’t happen with TweetDeckIt may seem like I am sitting on the fence as both have their pros and cons in each situation. At the end of the day it’s down to personal preference. The best thing to do is try them both out for a week at a time (1 week all TweetDeck & 1 week all Hootsuite) and then use them both on the 3rd week. You’ll notice a pattern emerge of when you use each one.

www.hootsuite.com

www.tweetdeck.com