Having tested loads of different combinations, the Community Management Team at Noisy Little Monkey are convinced that the 'killer combo' of Buffer & Hootsuite gives you (and us) the best possible results in terms of scheduling and measurement.

Buffer

Buffer is an extremely useful scheduling tool for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ and it also integrates nicely with a whole host of scheduling extensions and RSS readers like Tweriod & Feedly. Buffer also has some nifty & comprehensive analytics built into its scheduler, which is one of the main reasons we're making the switch here at NLM.

Buffer is soooo awesome because ultimately it will allow us to automate our social outreach further, while providing much more accurate measures. To learn a bit more about what Buffer is and how it works take a look at Buffer’s handy blog post.

Buffer allows us to add multiple users to our accounts and to grant and restrict access where necessary. In effect you can make it so you or your team only have access to the accounts that they're in charge of / responsible for.

We've all heard and seen the industry horror stories where a tweet has gone out from a brand account instead of a personal one, just like @jcpenny's drunk "clever marketing" tweets during the Super Bowl. With Buffer there's less chance of a post going out from the wrong brand.

Who kkmew theis was ghiong tob e a baweball ghamle. #lowsscorinh 5_0

— JCPenney (@jcpenney) February 2, 2014

Hootsuite

We're keeping Hootsuite for the time being, as Buffer isn't able to offer us the same level of real time monitoring that is offered by Hootsuite, and actually we're kind of used to using it and we're waiting to see if Buffer can bring out something better, which it no doubt will.

But at the moment we're struggling to find a more helpful tool when it comes to monitoring and searching Twitter. Because Twitter is such a conversational medium it updates quickly and often.

This means it can be pretty hard to stay on top of your tweets and monitor your mentions at times, but with Hootsuite you get a nice & easy row of streams which are easy to digest so you can see who's tweeting about what and where it's coming from (oh yeah, Hootsuite is kinda awesome as it lets you do "geo-targeted phrase searches" which lets face it, is pretty mint)

Nice one Hootsuite

To be explicit the tools we're trialing are the 'Hootsuite Pro account' and the 'Buffer for Business' account. If you're looking to use one or t'other or want to know which would be better for your business, here's a quick Pro V Con list.

Hootsuite:

Pro-

• Customisable streams to monitor scheduled posts, mentions and retweets.
• Great search functionality and geo targeting.
• You can add apps that allow you to access Instagram, Pinterest and other social networks to your account.
• Really easy to reply quickly to messages due to the tools monitoring feature.
• Hootlet app allows you to schedule content straight from your favourite RSS reader

Cons

• Difficult/impossible to get pictures to open and display naturally in Twitter feeds; images are held in an Owly link which you have to click to open (not great for 'stopping the scroll')
• Scheduling to G+ can be a bit iffy.

Buffer

Pros

• Top notch analytics.
• Ability to see when people have clicked links that don't go to your website.
• Integrates with best time to tweet apps like Tweriod.
• Clean and user friendly interface.
• Email notifications when your scheduled posts have all gone out, it's a nice reminder to top your buffer back up again.
• Attached images display perfectly across all networks, they even display naturally in Twitter feeds!

Cons

• Difficult/impossible to do any real time monitoring on your channels.
• If you manage a lot of social channels it will get a little crowded on your dashboard.

What tools are you using at the moment? Do you think they're better or worse? Let us know @NoisyMonkey