Inspired by Snapchat’s ephemeral content format, Stories gives Instagram users the ability to post photos and videos that disappear in 24 hours. 

Today, it is one of the stickiest features on the Instagram app. It is estimated that nearly half a billion users interact with Instagram Stories every single day. This gives businesses a terrific platform to market their products and be seen.

You may, for instance, tag your products from within an Instagram Story that your followers can click and buy. You could use stickers to organize a pop quiz, or a survey, ask questions, add a countdown timer, display the current time, and so on.

Business users can also include a swipe-up link on their Story that takes users to their product page.

But having said that, Instagram Stories can be a little confusing for the first-time user. There are a number of different icons and terms that can be intimidating. 

This article will make it all easy for you. You will not only learn how to add multiple photos to Instagram Stories but also learn what these different icons do. 

Let’s get started. 

How To Post An Instagram Story

Before adding multiple pictures on Instagram Story, you need to first learn to post one!

This is where Stories posted by everyone else you follow get shown.

There are three ways to open the ‘New Post’ window to post your own Instagram Story. 

Option 1: Tap on the + sign at the top left of the Instagram app. 

When you do this, you will launch the ‘New Post’ window from where you may pick ‘Story’ from among the different posting options you see at the bottom of the screen. 

Other posting options you will see here include ‘Post’, Reels’, and ‘Live’. 

Option 2: I showed you where the Stories from all the other people you follow get posted. Here, the first icon you see will be your own profile pic with the text ‘Your Story’ below it. 

Tap on this image and you will end up on the same ‘New Post’ window as earlier. 

Option 3: This is the easiest alternative. While on the homescreen of Instagram, swipe left to reach the ‘New Post’ window.

How To Add Multiple Pictures To Instagram Story

Step 1: Once you are on the Instagram “New Post” window, scroll through the options to the bottom of the screen to pick ‘Story’. 

Step 2: Tap on the image you see at the bottom-left of the app screen. 

Step 3: You will now see images from your gallery. Tap on the option on the top-right of the screen. Sometimes, you will also have the text ‘Select Multiple’ displayed here. 

Step 4: You will now be able to pick as many images as you would like from your Gallery. Tap on the ‘Next’ button once you are done. 

Step 5: You are now shown the different stickers you could add to your Story. Swipe up on this screen to view all the different options. 

Once you have added your sticker, tap on the ‘Next’ button to continue. 

Step 6: Instagram will now display a list of your followers you can send the Story to. But if you want to make a public Story, simply tap ‘Share’. Tap on ‘Done’ to publish. 

There you have it. You can now add more than one photo to your Instagram Story.

There are however times when you do not have the photos you want to share on your Gallery. 

What if you want to snap several new photos right from the Instagram app and share them as a Story?

One way to directly add multiple photos to your Instagram Story from a camera is to use the ‘Layout’ option. 

Add multiple pictures using the “Layout” option

Step 1: Launch the ‘New Post’ window by tapping on the ‘+’ icon at the top of your screen (or any of the other methods described earlier)

Step 2: Tap on the ‘Layout’ icon on the left side of the screen. 

Step 3: Instagram will now provide you with different grid options to choose from. Pick from any of the alternatives by scrolling up or down.

Step 4: You may now capture photos one at a time and they get added into your Instagram Story. 

At present, you may capture up to 6 photos in one layout. 

This is not the only way to post several photos in an Instagram Story though. There are several other ways for users to showcase multiple photos within a Story. 

All these different options can be accessed on the left part of the screen from where you accessed the Layout option. 

[Quick note: Instagram offers the ability to push these sets of options to the right side of the screen. So, depending on your settings, you might be seeing them on the right side]

Boomerang on Instagram

Instagram’s Boomerang feature lets you capture a burst of photos in quick succession and show them in a fun GIF-like format. 

What’s the point? Well, if you are at a racing event, or at a New Year party, you may want to capture a burst of photos and show them in a single Story. 

It’s a little quirky and users seem to love it. 

Multi-Capture on Instagram

This is the classic way to add multiple photos from your camera to your Instagram Story. Once you have launched multi-capture, simply start snapping photos. They get added to your Story in succession. 

Instagram’s Multiple-Capture feature lets you add up to 8 photos at a time. 

Photobooth on Instagram

Photobooth is a feature that is similar to the photobooths you may have used at fairs. When you launch this feature, the app runs a 3-second countdown timer and then captures four photos one after the other. 

This is a nice feature for users who want to post multiple selfies to their Instagram Story. It may not hold a lot of value for business users on Instagram.

What’s the best way to put multiple pictures on Instagram Story?

So, as we have seen there are a number of different ways you can add more than one photo to your Instagram Story. Your choice ultimately depends on what you want to capture, and how you want to showcase it. 

Business users who want to showcase the latest deals may like the traditional option that we described early in this article. However, there are cases where you want to pick other options. For instance, someone at a trade fair may prefer the Boomerang or Multi-Capture option. 

Experiment with these different options and identify what works best under different settings. That’s the best way to maximize the use of Instagram Stories for your business. 

The post How To Put Multiple Pictures On Instagram Story appeared first on Hopper HQ.

Hootsuite and Later are both very popular choices among businesses looking for a tool to manage their social media. So which of the two is better than the other? 

In this article, we are going to take a look at some of the most salient features offered by Hootsuite and Later and offer an objective comparison of which is a better deal for you. 

While at it, it is important to tell you that we, at Hopper HQ, offer a social media scheduling tool that comes with a lot of great features; including a built-in image editor. Check it out with our 14-day free trial.

So, let’s get started on this comparison and check out if Hootsuite, Later, or Hopper HQ is a better deal for your social media management needs.

Overall Summary

Hootsuite Vs Later , which is best? Both social media scheduling tools connect with all the popular social media channels like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube shorts, however, differences can be seen in both price and features.

Hootsuite is significantly more expensive than Later, but it also targets larger companies and enterprises while Later targets smaller businesses. On the other hand, Later provides a free plan so you can test out their product before committing. Hootsuite only provides a 30-day free trial on any of their available plans.

Also, it should be taken into consideration that Hootsuite’s more expensive price does come with other social media features like customer service and ad management.

If neither of the options seems like a good fit for your business, you should also consider Hopper HQ as a viable option, being rated nº 1 for ease of use and providing a visual-first user interface.

Features	Hootsuite	Later	Hopper HQ
Pricing starts at	$99/month	$16.67/month	$16/month
Social Platforms	Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest, LinkrfIn,YouTube shorts	Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Youtube	Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube shorts, LinkedIn
Users	1	1	Unlimited
Accounts	10	1 social set	1 social set
Scheduled Posts	Unlimited	30 per channel	Unlimited
AI assistance
Link-in bio	(higher-tier plans)
Bulk Scheduling
Visual-grid Planner
Approval Workflows
Analytics
Inbox

Signup & Onboarding Process Review

At Hopper HQ, we place a great deal of emphasis on the onboarding process.

Why? 

Because it doesn’t matter how powerful your product is. If you do not get to see it, the features are as good as not existing in the first place. So who has the best onboarding process between Hootsuite vs Later?

Hootsuite onboarding process

Hootsuite uses a three-step signup process for new users. On the first screen, you enter your name, email address, and password

In the second step, you pick the plan you want to go with. While there is a 30-day free trial, you will still have to choose between a monthly and annual plan and key in your credit card details to proceed. 

The next step is to pick up to 3 social media profiles/platforms to get started. 

Now here are some issues you will encounter on your way to signing up. 

Validation Check: Hootsuite, quite rightfully, validates your name and email address inputs while signing up. However, they do it after you enter your credit card details.

The problem I faced while signing up is that even a minor typo while entering your credit card would wipe out all the information you have entered and would require you to start afresh from the starting screen. 

Not a smooth introduction to the tool as far as UX goes.

Connecting to social media accounts: Hootsuite requires new users to connect their accounts to their social media profiles as part of the signup process. 

This can be a turn-off for a lot of first-time users since there are a number of reasons why you do not want to connect to a social account right away. While users may always get down to this at a later point, forcing them to do so right after signing up is not necessarily a great move from a UX perspective. 

Later Onboarding Process

Compared to Hootsuite, Later offers a relatively smoother sign-up process. Here too, you enter your name, email address, and password to get started. You may choose to start your trial right away, or at a later time. 

When you do choose to start your trial, you are asked to pick a plan, enter your payment details, and get started. 

Later offers a free plan for individual users too which means you could try out all the features on offer without signing up for the trial in the first place.

Hopper HQ Onboarding Process

Hopper HQ offers, by far, the smoothest onboarding experience among these platforms. Signing up takes literally one minute. Enter your email and password details, followed by your credit card details and you are done. 

You do not have to start connecting social media accounts right away. All features are enabled to the trial user from the beginning. 

Price Comparison

	Hootsuite	Later	Hopper HQ
Free Trial	30 Days	14 Days	14 Days
Free Plan
nº Paid Plans	3	5	1
Starting Price	$99 a month	$16.67	$16

For Beginners

• Hootsuite has a starting price of $19 per month. This gives you access to one user, up to 10 social accounts, and one inbox to handle messages. 

• Later, on the other hand, offers a free plan for beginner users. With this free plan, you can connect one account to each of the different social media platforms they offer integration with. 

But here is the thing – you are limited by the number of posts you can schedule over an account. Later’s free plan works for small businesses that do not have a heavy social media presence. But it is not really useful for anyone who needs a higher capacity. 

For Agencies & Advanced Users

• Hootsuite can become quite expensive very fast if you are handling multiple social media accounts (exactly why you need social media scheduling in the first place, right?)

Let’s take an example of a social media agency with 10 clients handling Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn messaging for each of them. 

That puts you in the ‘Enterprise’ segment and will require a custom quote from the provider. For perspective, the highest-paid plan on their Pricing page is ‘Business’ which costs $600/month for just 35 accounts. 

• Later will be relatively less expensive. For the same feature set which includes unlimited posting, you will need to opt for their ‘Advanced’ plan that costs $40/month per social set. For 10 clients, this will cost you $400/month. 

For Small Business & Social Media Managers

• Hootsuite may not be the best fit for small businesses and SMMs due to its higher price. Especially if we assume that smaller teams would have a limited marketing budget.
• Later although more affordable, you’d have to purchase higher-tier plans for more users and team management features
• Hopper HQ with only one subscription plan is a perfect choice for small businesses as you can freely leverage all their features and add unlimited users.

Each tool targets a different type of audience, with Hootsuite focusing mainly on larger teams and businesses. Later and Hopper HQ however, are better suited for teams and businesses that may not have the financial stability or large teams.

Previous Next

Features Review

Both Hootsuite and Later come with all the standard features that a social media marketer may need to run their marketing campaigns. 

Hootsuite lets you schedule an unlimited number of posts and access all messages from your different accounts in one inbox – this makes it easy to communicate and engage with your followers. 

But here’s the problem with this inbox. 

If you are an agency handling dozens of clients across different social media platforms, it can become a little overwhelming having to segregate these different messages in one inbox. 

Would you rather prefer having different inboxes to handle these clients? It’s a personal choice, I guess. 

Hootsuite also lets you collaborate with multiple team members on your social media planning, get content approved by your manager, and build a content planner for weeks in advance. 

While Later does not have the inbox feature, they also let you collaborate with up to 5 other users on your campaign.

What’s missing?

Although Hootsuite and Later are popular scheduling tools for Instagram, they do not have the ability to quickly create and edit pictures you want to post. 

Enter Hopper HQ.

With Hopper HQ, you do not need another tool to edit images before you post. The built-in Image Editor lets you produce top-quality visuals for Instagram scheduling from within the application. 

From a cost perspective, this is an additional saving you get when you use Hopper HQ.

Add to this the fact that Hopper HQ has everything that Hootsuite and Later has to offer – including unlimited scheduling, analytics, content calendar, bulk scheduling, and you see why this is a better deal. 

One other thing. 

Unlike Hootsuite and Later, HOPPER HQ DOES NOT CHARGE YOU FOR TEAMS

Add as many team members as you would like, and post as many times as you would like – and you are still only charged the same.

About the companies

HootSuite is one of the earliest businesses in this space and launched back in 2008 as BrightKit. Over the past 13 years, BrightKit (then rebranded to Hootsuite) has grown to over 16 million users and today supports a number of social networking platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube. 

Later launched nearly six years after Hootsuite around 2014. Formerly known as Latergramme, Later Today offers social media scheduling to a number of different platforms including Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and TikTok. 

Hopper HQ was launched by UK-based startup studio, Turn Partners. In 2015, it was spun off as an independent company. Today, Hopper HQ is one of the leading social media scheduling businesses with thousands of registered users who use the product to schedule posts on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. 

The post Hootsuite Vs Later – A Complete 2024 Review appeared first on Hopper HQ.

One question a lot of Instagram users ask is, ‘Should I change my Instagram account from Personal to Business as well?’. Are there any downsides to it? 

In this article, we will take you through everything you will need to know, including the cons of an Instagram business profile in order for you to make the right decision. 

What Is An Instagram Business Account

As the name suggests, an Instagram Business account is meant for businesses to market their products or services over Instagram. This gives users access to a number of features that Personal account users do not have. 

For example, with a Business account, you could boost your Instagram posts, add links to Instagram Stories, add Action buttons to your profiles, get access to analytics, and so on.

In short, an Instagram Business account adds a layer of “premiumness” to your regular Personal account. 

And the good thing here is that an Instagram Business account is free to get, and you do not necessarily have to run a business to get these features. Read on. 

Is An Instagram Business Account The Same As a Professional Account?

At the outset, Instagram has two main types of accounts: Personal, and Professional.

If you are someone who needs to advertise on Instagram or get access to one of these many features listed above, then you will need to switch from a Personal account to a Professional account.

Now, there are two kinds of Professional accounts: Instagram Business accounts and Creator accounts. 

While there is a lot of overlap with respect to what these two Professional accounts offer, the basic difference is this – a Business account is for businesses that want to promote their brand on Instagram, while a Creator account is primarily meant for artists, musicians, and other individuals who want to promote their personal brand.

What Are The Pros & Cons Of An Instagram Business Account

As we mentioned earlier in this article, Instagram Business accounts are free and offer plenty of benefits to the user. 

Let’s take a look at the reasons that make Instagram Business accounts appealing, and also the disadvantages of having one. 

Pros of Instagram Business Accounts

Schedule Instagram Posts

Switching your Instagram profile to Business lets you add ‘swipe-up links’ to your Stories, boost your posts, create Shoppable posts, etc. Most importantly, with an Instagram Business account, you can schedule your posts in advance with an app like Hopper HQ.

Access To Professional Dashboard

As a business, you will want to know how your posts are performing. The Professional dashboard gives you a complete insight into metrics like the number of accounts reached with your content, the number of interactions that your posts received, and also other engagement-related insights for your posts, videos, IGTV, promotions, and Stories. 

Linking Permissions With Facebook Page

As an Instagram Business account, you are required to link your Instagram profile with your Facebook Page. When you do this, all the admins and editors for your company’s Facebook Page will now be automatically given permission to handle your Instagram Business account as well. This is very useful when you have a social media team to handle various accounts.

Including Contact Information

Instagram lets Business account users add a contact button to their profile. Here, you can add your email address, phone number, or directions to your store. 

Add a Category Label

Instagram Business accounts also have the ability to add a category label to their account. This is essentially the same category you add to your Facebook Page.

While you may hide it if you want, a big advantage with a Category label is that it helps with discovery. You could potentially be referred to Instagram users who follow a lot of other businesses in your category.

Access to Secondary Inbox

Instagram has evolved to become the primary marketing channel for a lot of boutiques and small businesses. This also means a ton of messages between your team and potential buyers. A secondary inbox – with Primary and General tabs can help you organize your conversation better, and thus keep clutter to a minimum.

Sorting Requests

This is one of the more interesting pros of owning an Instagram Business account. You have the ability to sort follow requests based on the time, or by account popularity. This is useful if you want to identify influencers and micro-influencers from within your network. 

All these features make it seem like we should all switch from a Personal account to a Business account. Are there any disadvantages at all? 

Sure, here are a few.

Cons of Instagram Business Account

Can’t Set Account To Private

Unlike Personal and Creator Instagram accounts, a Business account cannot be set to Private. If you are someone who wants to switch their account to Business simply because you are curious about the features, then please do know that your account shall now be public. 

Limited Facebook Sharing

As a rule, Instagram Business accounts need to be connected to a Facebook Page. When you do this, any post you publish on Instagram can only be shared to Facebook over this connected Page. 

If you have a different Facebook Page where your content needs to be shared, the only way to do this would be to switch your Instagram account from Business back to a personal account and set up your Professional account all over again with this other Facebook Page.

Shared Permissions

We touched upon this topic earlier in the advantages – all users who have been given permissions to access your Facebook Page as an editor or moderator will also have access to your Instagram Business account. 

While this is mostly an advantage, this can also be a downside if there are specific reasons why you do not want this to be the case.

Follower Baseline for Features

We mentioned earlier that Instagram Business accounts can set up swipe-up links on their Instagram Stories. What you should however know is that features like these are only available to large business accounts with a following of over 10,000 users. You may fail to get access to these features if you are a small business with a limited following.

Lower Visibility

For a long time now, there has been a debate among Instagram marketers about the possibility of business accounts facing lower visibility. At the outset, this makes sense – Instagram makes money solely from business accounts, and so keeping their organic reach low can nudge more of these accounts to spend money on promoted listings. 

However, this claim has been refuted by Instagram, and I personally do not think this is the case, either. However, this is a debate that won’t just go away. And you have a right to feel dismayed if you notice lower visibility and reach for your business account.

Need For Consistent Posting

Instagram ads can be expensive. And if you are seeing lower visibility, then the only way to grow your organic reach is by posting new content on a consistent basis. For a one-person shop, this could mean a lot of work. 

The Pros Outweigh The Cons

All said and done, an Instagram Business account offers features that make running an Instagram marketing campaign a delightful experience. If you own a business and are looking at Instagram as a platform to reach customers, there is simply no reason to not switch to a Business account and take advantage of all the different features that this profile has to offer. 

The post The Disadvantages Of An Instagram Business Account appeared first on Hopper HQ.

These visuals then become part of your marketing asset that can be used elsewhere – on your website, blog, or on other social media platforms.

For instance, if you have a significant chunk of customers who visit your website from a desktop computer, you may want to have a gallery or a photostream section where they can view the latest uploads from your Instagram feed.

While this can have a high impact on your website engagement, this involves a lot of work. Uploading photos or videos on Instagram, and then carrying out the same process for your blog can quickly take up a lot of your time. 

This can be especially difficult if you are a bootstrapped one-person shop. 

Luckily, you can easily automate the process of uploading photos or videos on Instagram. Our tool, Hopper HQ offers a simple and efficient way to schedule hundreds of photos to your Instagram feed well in advance.

What’s more – you can do all of this from your desktop or Mac without the need to fiddle your way through on a mobile phone.

In this article, we will tell you how you can go one step further and automate the process of embedding these visuals on your website or blog as well. 

What Exactly Is An Embed Code For Instagram?

Have you ever checked out these news stories talking about what celebrities or influencers say or post on Instagram? These articles often include the actual Instagram post in question. 

This is done with the help of what is called an ‘Embed code’. It’s easy to do and Instagram makes it possible for anyone to embed a post as long as the account owner has offered the right permissions. 

How do you get the embed code on Instagram?

Here’s a quick step-by-step instruction on how you can embed an Instagram post on your own blog or website. 

Step 1: Log Into Your Instagram Account

It is preferable to do this from your desktop. You might be able to do this from a smartphone as well. But the desktop is much easier and straight-forward. Click here to do this.

Step 2: Find The Instagram Account

Once you are logged in, look up the account you want to embed from. For this example, I am going to embed a recent post from the Hopper HQ Instagram account. Follow us if you haven’t already!

Step 3: Open The Post To Embed

Click on the post you want to embed. It now opens as a pop-up on your browser. 

Step 4: Click On The Ellipsis Menu

On the top-right of the window, you will notice a menu with three dots (also called an ellipsis). Click on this to find a list of options to pick from. 

Click on the ‘Embed’ option.

Step 5: Copy The Embed Code

You will now see a little snippet of code. Click on the ‘Copy Embed Code’ button to copy this code.

Step 6: Paste Code On Your Website

Log into your website CMS and paste. If you run the latest version of WordPress, click on ‘Add Block’ and pick the ‘Custom HTML’ option

Paste the copied code in the presented window and save your post. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Hopper HQ:Social Media Planner (@hopper_hq)

Voilà! There you go! 

While this strategy works when you want to embed an Instagram post once in a while, this is not exactly an automated process. You have to manually get your embed script and paste it on your website each time. 

However, there are instances when you want to automate this process. 

For instance, you may have a ‘Product Showcase’ section on your website that you constantly update with your latest Instagram posts. 

You may also have other sections like ‘Customer testimonials’ or ‘Sale’ where you showcase Instagram posts that go with specific hashtags. 

Best Tools To Automate Instagram Feed Embed

There are a number of third-party tools that can help you automate this process.

1. TagEmbed

TagEmbed is a ‘social media aggregator’ tool that lets you collect, curate, and moderate appealing content from social media for your website. 

Using this tool quite straightforward – you specify the hashtags, profiles, or mentions that you want to follow and TagEmbed provides you with a curated stream of posts from Instagram (as well as Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms). 

You may then choose which of the posts you want to showcase on your website. TagEmbed gives you an embed script that you deploy once and it gets automatically populated with content you choose to showcase.

TagEmbed has a free plan that lets you connect to one feed and is good for up to 1000 views per month. Paid plans cost between $8/month to $24/month.

2. EmbedSocial

EmbedSocial gives you a one-line script to embed on your website and this allows you to automatically pull all your Instagram content directly into your website.

This is especially useful for eCommerce marketers because it gives you an option to add clickable buttons to every photo in the album so that interested viewers can click and visit the relevant product pages to buy the product.

There are a number of ways to customize the look and feel of the embed, and you can set it on autopilot so that new photos get embedded automatically without any human intervention. 

EmbedSocial has a free widget to start off with. Paid plans for the EmbedFeed product start at $29/month and go up to $99/month for advanced features.

3. TaggBox

Like TagEmbed, this is a script that lets you pull in a curated list of Instagram posts based on hashtags, profiles, channels, and mentions you specify.

You may choose to automate the entire process so that posts that meet the criteria are automatically showcased on your website, or take a semi-automated approach where the curation is automated, but you have to manually approve the posts before they get showcased.

TaggBox is well-suited for businesses that want to showcase customer testimonials, hashtag campaigns, or simply have a visual gallery on your website. 

TaggBox has a ‘Startup’ plan that is free to use and is limited to two feeds. Paid plans start at $24/month and go up to $79/month. 

4. Walls.io

Walls.io is a popular tool for businesses that want to showcase customer love during events or trade booths. They also have a widget you can showcase on your website to create brand awareness and engage your audience. 

As a product, this is similar to the other curation tools that we have already discussed. Business owners specify a list of social media channels they want to curate from, and moderate the feed to showcase the best of the posts. You also have the option to customize the look and feel of the widget to match your website theme.

Walls.io is free to try for 30 days, and their free plan lets you create one ‘wall’ from one source. Paid plans start at $250/month with their Premium plan priced at $600/month.

WordPress Plugins To Embed Instagram Feed

As the world’s most popular content management system (CMS), WordPress enjoys a large plugin ecosystem. There are plenty of options to choose from for bloggers who want to embed their Instagram feed on their website. Here are a few great options. 

1. Intagrate

Intagrate is a powerful WordPress plugin that connects your WordPress blog with as many Instagram accounts as you need – you may choose to showcase photos that are posted from a particular account, contain specific hashtags, or are tagged with a certain location. 

Integrate also has a scheduling feature – this is great if you want to have a section like “Customer Reviews For The Month” that you publish once a month. 

You may choose to automate the process and publish all posts matching your curation criteria or set up a moderation panel and manually approve posts.

Integrate has a 14-day refund policy. Plans start at $55/year and go up to $255/year. 

2. Instagram Feeds Pro

Smash Balloon is a popular WordPress plugin developer that is used by over 1.6 million WordPress blogs. The Instagram Feeds Pro plugin lets you display completely customizable Instagram feeds on your WordPress blog with just a few minor tweaks.

Instagram Feeds Pro offers you a customizable Gutenberg Block that allows you to make use of WordPress’ latest CMS interface to add Instagram feeds anywhere on your blog posts. It comes with a responsive design and has several different layout options like grid, carousel, masonry, and highlight to choose from. 

The plugin price starts at $49/year for one site and if you are an agency, you can deploy the plugin on unlimited sites with their $299/year plan. 

Now, although there are plenty of such tools to help you embed your Instagram feed on a website, one question remains – is this legal? Can you be sued for embedding a copyrighted photo from Instagram on your website?

Please note that none of this is legal advice. If you are truly concerned, talk to someone who specializes in Intellectual Property law.

Is Embedded Instagram Legal?

To answer this question, we will first need to discuss another important topic – 

Who Owns The Photos On Instagram? Are Instagram Pictures Public Domain?

When you use Instagram to post photos or videos, you agree to their ‘Terms of Service’. Among other things, you agree to this clause:

“We do not claim ownership of your content, but you grant us a license to use it.”

In other words, you are the rightful owner of the photo or video you post. However, you grant Instagram a “non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate, and create derivative works of your content”

In other words, Instagram (or Facebook in effect) does concede that you own the photos you post. But they can modify or distribute it in whatever way they deem fit as long as these photos stay on Instagram.

It can be argued that embedding Instagram photos on a third-party website using their embed code or authenticated API scripts is a perfectly valid way to distribute content. 

In other words, yes, embedding an Instagram feed on your blog or website is legal.

However, please do note that Instagram also requires users to only post content that they own or have the right to share. 

This means that if you embed photos that the Instagram user does not own, then the rightful copyright owner could technically come after you as well. So, please make sure that you only embed content that you know is not in the IP-grey area.

Using Instagram Feed Embeds As A Marketing Strategy

There are dozens of use-cases to embed Instagram posts in your website or blog. The most effective way to use these embed scripts is by integrating this with the rest of your social media automation strategy. 

A tool like Hopper HQ will help you visually plan and schedule your Instagram posts in advance. Use relevant hashtags like “#customerreviews” or “#Sale” for the different posts and use one of the many tools listed here in the article to automatically curate different pages on your website for “Customer Testimonials” and “Sale”. 

This way, you can build a highly engaging website audience that converts.

The post How To Embed Instagram Feed On Your Website appeared first on Hopper HQ.

The reason these celebrities are able to charge so much is less about their Instagram influencer status and more about them being popular celebrities in general.

The rest of us on Instagram are never ever going to be able to command such high prices mainly by virtue of our Instagram following. However, there are plenty of Instagram influencers who have been able to quit their day jobs and pursue their mini-celebrity status full-time. 

In this article, I am going to take you through a very solid step-by-step plan that can help you become an Instagram influencer from scratch. 

Plan & Schedule Your Social Media Posts

Visually plan your posts. Drag & drop everywhere in seconds

Create Your First Post

That’s right – you do not need an existing following on Instagram to be able to succeed here. 

Let’s get started. 

Step 1: Sign up for Instagram

I doubt anyone looking up online to become an Instagram influencer does not already have an Instagram account. 

But hey, I did promise you that I’ll teach you how to become an influencer on Instagram from scratch. 

So, the first step, inevitably, is to get hold of an account. 

It’s no rocket science. Click on this link if you are on Android, or on this link if you own an iPhone.

Once you download the app, you may choose to either sign up with your Facebook account or directly with your mobile phone number or email address.

At this step, you will also be prompted to pick a username. Do so carefully since this will be the handle that you will be promoting.

Here are a few pointers to picking a good username: 

The first choice (and the best one) is your full name. There are a couple of reasons why I think it’s the best. First, it gives an air of credibility. The internet abounds with fake profiles and questionable information.

People are more likely to trust something that comes from a real person than claims from someone who hides behind the cloak of anonymity.

We will be discussing picking a niche further down in this article, but if you already have picked a topic, then you could also pick a username that aligns with this topic. 

However, this is only a good idea if you also own a website by the same name. This way, you can put elaborate content on the topic on your blog while sharing visuals and other related information on your Instagram profile. 

Regardless of what username you pick, make sure it does not come across as spammy or salesy. 

For example, if you are Lisa Smith publishing content about yoga, your usernames could be something like @lisasmith, @lisa_smith, @lisayogaqueen or @everythingyoga. But usernames like @_best_yoga_advice or @_yoga_queen__ may not be equally good.

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Step 2: Pick a niche

At this point, it is important to note that the success of an influencer is not measured by the number of followers they have. 

Well, your follower count indeed matters. But from a business perspective, that is not the primary measure of a good influencer. 

Instead, a good influencer is one who enjoys popularity in a very narrow niche. 

Here’s why – building a large following is not too difficult. There are plenty of tools online that can help you grow your following. 

The problem here is that you are not the only one using such tools to grow your Instagram following. Plenty of other people are doing the same too. 

When a business wants to rope in Instagram influencers to market their product, they tend to go with those users whose audience tightly aligns with your target group. 

Otherwise, they may end up spending money on an audience that has no intention to convert.

So, how do you pick the right niche? Here is a quick guide.

Competitor Landscape

The niche you pick must have plenty of competitors vying for buyer attention. Marketers in such industries tend to experiment with different customer acquisition channels which means they may not be too afraid to spend money on something like Instagram influencers. 

Product is WOM-driven

When was the last time you checked online reviews from other buyers before ordering a ball of cotton, or corn?

Commodity products do not need reviews. They are literally the same regardless of who or where you buy from. 

The niche you pick must-have products that can be described visually and elicit customer interest in product reviews (word of mouth).

Beauty products, home decor, and automobile accessories are all good examples of products where a buyer may be interested in watching elaborate product reviews before buying a product. 

More importantly, from an Instagram perspective, these products need to elicit impulse purchases from the buyers. Influencer marketing may not be ideal for planned purchases.

Not too many influencers

There are a ton of beauty Instagrammers. That’s a problem of plenty for businesses looking to hire influencers. 

But for you, the influencer, too many fellow influencers in your niche only means that you are not a rare commodity. 

Pick a niche where there are not too many influencers already. This way, there are not enough of you already which means that businesses are ready to pay a premium to hire you for a campaign.

Step 3: Learn photo/video editing

One of the basics to earn a good following on Instagram is to be good with photos and videos. Sure, Instagram does provide you with the basic tools like filters and captions. But in order to stand out from other Instagrammers, you need to learn to capture good photos and videos.

Pro Tip: Do not overdo your visual effects. Pick a filter or image capturing style and stick with it for all your Instagram posts. The objective here is not only to make your posts look professional but to also be able to make your posts stand out. Your regular followers should be able to identify your posts even without having to look at the username. 

Pro Tip 2: Hopper HQ has a top-notch image editing software built right into our software. Do not waste money on another tool, and use our tool for all your scheduling needs.

Step 4: Publish Consistently

The key to becoming a successful Instagram influencer is to publish content consistently. There are a couple of reasons why. 

Firstly, your followers are not all online at the same time. Publishing content throughout the day lets you reach followers through different times of the day. 

Secondly, the Instagram algorithm takes a number of different factors into account while deciding the visibility of your posts. This includes post recency (how fresh your content is), post engagement (how well your post is received by the first few people looking at it), and past interactions (how well were your earlier posts received by the specific follower). 

When you post consistently, you take care of content freshness. Also, it gives you an opportunity to experiment with different types of content, hashtags, and also know when your Instagram followers are most active.

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Want to be a really successful Instagram influencer? Check out Hopper HQ’s scheduling tool. It’s free to try for 14 days and comes packed with features that let you plan out your entire posting schedule for days, or even months in advance. 

This way, you create all your content at once and can publish them throughout the day. 

While at it, also experiment with the different kinds of content that Instagram has to offer. Some kinds of content work well as Instagram Stories. Others work well as Reels. Try out the different content types to see what your followers enjoy. Keep experimenting.

Step 5: Grow a Following

At this point, you have the entire setup ready to start becoming an influencer. The only thing stopping you is a lack of followers. Targeted followers, that is. 

There are plenty of articles online that teach you the exact tips and tricks that you need to succeed here. Here is a short guide on how to do this. 

1. Follow other users in your niches. If you have picked a very small niche for your Instagram account, start by following accounts in the broader niche or shoulder niches. For example, if you post content about hairstyling, you could not only follow other hairstyling Instagrammers, but also beauty vloggers and people talking about makeup, skin care, etc. 

Also, follow all the hashtags relevant to your niche.

2. Engage with their content. Make helpful observations and tips in the comments. The ideal way to do this is by prefacing your comments with a sentence about what your Instagram account is about. Going back to the example of hairstyling, you could comment on a post about hair care with a comment like

“I’m a hairstylist and I talk a lot about this specific advice on my Instagram account.” – 

You could follow it up with some more helpful advice that the original poster may have missed. This way, you establish yourself as an expert and get people to check out your account. 

3. Once you have grown your account to a few hundred followers, start collaborating. Partner with other accounts of similar sizes in your broader or shoulder niches and share a shoutout about each others’ accounts on your Instagram profile. 

Pro-tip 1: Do not simply announce their account. Share something useful from their post and then tag them within the post. Also, seek the same from the collaborator. This increases click-throughs and following. 

Pro-tip 2: If possible, designate a specific day and time for collaborations. For example, Tuesdays at 2 PM. This way, your followers know to expect a shoutout to another account and may not lose interest in your posts simply because they don’t enjoy this kind of content.

You will just need to follow the above steps on a consistent basis for several weeks or months for you to gain traction and start seeing an organic spike in followers for your Instagram account.

Step 6: Open for business

At this point, you already have thousands of followers to your Instagram account. A four or five digit follower count may be impressive depending on the niche you have picked. 

In some cases, you will need to work more and grow your targeted following to six digits at least before seeking good influencer marketing offers.

There are three things you need to do in order to find successful offers. 

Set up a bio

The bio sets the tone for what your Instagram account is all about. Truth be told, you may have required a great bio from the beginning.

But regardless of what your bio read until now, you will need to reword to make it interesting for your potential sponsors. 

The best Instagram bios talk about two things: what your account is all about, and how potential sponsors can reach you. 

A lot of businesses trying to find suitable influencers on Instagram still do it the old-fashioned way – via Google Search. A great bio will help them find you with the right keywords. 

Giving them an email address or website contact form is a great way to be contacted directly. While your Instagram DMs work too, you may potentially lose their message if you already receive DMs from tons of regular users as well. 

Showcasing an email or website contact form is the best way to make sure you see every potential campaign offer that comes your way.

Switch to a Professional account

If you haven’t already done this, now is a good time to switch your account to a business profile (AKA Professional account). In doing so, you get access to several analytics features that a potential sponsor may want to look at before hiring you for their influencer marketing campaign.

Switching your account to a business profile is easy and can be done in a few steps. You will need a Public profile and also may need a Facebook Page associated with your Instagram account. Connect your Instagram account to this Page and voilà, you are done.

Partner with Influencer databases

There are several influencer database companies online that businesses subscribe to. The job of these database companies is to build a long list of potential influencers across different industries that a business may be interested to work with. 

Some of these companies also work as middlemen between the business and the influencer in setting up the influencer marketing campaign.

Write to these influencers and share your profile to be included in their databases. In most cases, it costs nothing. As a matter of fact, if you are already gaining a lot of traction with your Instagram account, chances are that your account is already a part of their database.

This way, when a potential advertiser is interested in hiring an influencer, your profile may be recommended to them by these database companies.

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In conclusion – be patient & consistent

Reading this article, it may seem like becoming an Instagram influencer is quite simple and easy to do. That’s because it really is. What separates you from the rest is how patient you are, and also how consistently you can churn out content – even in the early days when you do not have a lot of followers. 

Getting the first hundred or even thousand followers may be the hardest part of becoming an influencer. And it is here that a lot of people quit.

Dedicate a couple of hours of your day everyday to publish top quality content and follow these steps mentioned above to find success as an influencer.

If this seems daunting, don’t shy away from getting help. Hopper HQ makes it very easy for aspiring influencers to post quality content consistently. Check out our app by clicking on this link. It’s free for 14 days and costs less than $20 a month. That’s an investment you must make to be able to earn thousands of dollars in influencer marketing down the line.

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The post How To Become An Instagram Influencer In 6 Easy Steps appeared first on Hopper HQ.

Later and Planoly are among the more popular online tools for scheduling your Instagram posts. But how good are they? And is it worth paying for them? Which is the better of the two – Planoly or Later?

We’ve previously talked about the strengths and weaknesses of the social media scheduling tools Hootsuite and Buffer. Now we’ll look into how Planoly and Later compare with each other as a tool.

This article will hopefully provide you with all the necessary information to make the right decision on which tool is best for you and your brand.

Features	Planoly	Later	Hopper HQ
Pricing starts at	$14/month	$16.67/month	$16/month
Social Platforms	Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest, LinkrfIn,YouTube shorts,X,	Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Youtube	Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube shorts, LinkedIn
Users	1	1	Unlimited
Accounts	1 social set	1 social set	1 social set
Scheduled Posts	60	30 per channel	Unlimited
AI Assitance		(Limited)
Link-in bio
Bulk Scheduling
Visual-grid Planner
Approval Workflows
Analytics
Inbox

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What is the difference between Later and Planoly?

Like most other scheduling apps in the market, Later and Planoly are both targeted at the Instagram marketing audience. However, there are still some significant differences in the type of Instagram audiences they’re trying to reach.

Later is targeted at agencies and teams

Later positions itself as an Instagram-first app that lets small businesses “visually plan” their calendar, and is built to share photos, videos, and stories on Instagram. It also comes with team management features like content approval workflows, comments, and notes as well as an activity log.

With Later I found that the analytics provided were more robust and detailed when compared to Planoly, yet another feature most teams would look for.

Planoly is targeted at agencies and teams

Planoly is not too different – but instead, their target market is creators and influencers by letting users visually plan their social media calendar. Planoly also comes with unique tools like Sellit, StoriesEdit, and LinkIt. 

With Planoly you can also create customized link-in bio landing pages with shopable products and even a checkout page. Proving to be a great tool for not only creators but also solo entrepreneurs and enthusiasts hoping to start a business.

In some ways, both these tools offer a product that is very similar to what Hopper HQ has. Hopper HQ, is another social media scheduling tool popular for its simplicity and perfect for social media managers trying to save time with automation.

Having said that, each of these tools connects with a bunch of different social media platforms. Both Planoly, Later, and Hopper HQ connect to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Linkedin, YouTube, and Pinterest. 

Planoly Vs. Later Onboarding Process

Like most users, do you compare products merely on their pricing and stated features? This can be a big mistake. This is why – it does not matter how advanced a product’s features are. What matters is how easy it is for a layman user to know how to use them. 

So how do Later and Planoly fare on this aspect?

Later signup/onboarding process

Later’s sign-up is quite straightforward. You click on the ‘Create Account’ button on the homepage and enter your name, email, and password on the next screen. You are signed up. 

Later does not disrupt your workflow with a request to verify an email. Instead, they ask you to connect your account with your Instagram profile in the next window. You click on the ‘Connect Instagram Profile’ button, authorize the app, and voila, you are done.

But here is why some users may find this process confusing. 

If you are a business that does not have an Instagram account yet, or if you are someone who is here on the app for Pinterest or Facebook instead, there is no way to complete your sign-up process. 

You have to either connect to your Instagram account right away or abort the signup.

While it is true that most people looking for an app like Later are interested in its Instagram scheduling features, I can see use cases where one may not have an Instagram account yet.

Planoly signup/onboarding process

Planoly has a more traditional sign-up process. Once you key in your name, email, and password on the account registration page, you are taken to their pricing page where you are supposed to pick a plan. By default, the user is set to the free plan. 

One gripe I have with this step is that for users who wish to proceed with the free plan, there is no visual cue to indicate how they proceed. There is a link to ‘Plan’ at the top right of the window – something that most users are likely to miss.

If they do, the only way to proceed is by picking a paid plan to proceed.

So, how does Hopper HQ fare against these two platforms? 

Hopper HQ signup/onboarding process

Firstly, there is no way one could miss the messaging and sign-up window on the homepage. 

Enter the details, and you are taken to the ‘Plan Select’ page. You’ll first have to select the amount of social sets you’d like to have, then enter your card details, and you are done! 

Your free trial has now officially begun!

Want to give this a try yourself? Sign up for a 14-day free trial now.

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Planoly Vs. Later Pricing plans

There are two ways to price a SaaS product. You either have a free trial and offer only paid plans once the trial period is over; or you have a freemium where users can enjoy a free version of the product, albeit with limited features. 

So which one is better for you, the user?

There is no right answer. But here is the thing – a free trial exposes the user to the entire gamut of features. If you are a business looking for ways to grow your social media marketing campaign as an online marketer expert, a free trial lets you experience the power of the product before the trial period is over. 

Free versions are great for personal use. But from a business user’s perspective, they do not help you grow your business. So it is difficult to know if you need any of the features in the paid version or not. 

Later pricing plan review

There are three tiers in Later’s pricing plan. You can choose between the Starter Plan, the Growth Plan, and the Advanced Plan.

The pricing is based on the number of “social sets” and users you sign up for. A social set is a bundle of four social media profiles; one each for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

In the first plan, at $16.67 a month, you can connect 1 social set, and publish 30 posts per profile with only one user. You may also try any of the plans in a 14-day free trial.

If you select the Growth plan, you will be able to post 150 times per social profile, have an additional 2 users and access to the platforms full analytics.

Planoly pricing plan review

Similar to Later, Planoly has 3 plans with similar names, Starter, Growth, and Pro. Also, Plonaly uses social sets just like Later and Hopper HQ.

On the first plan, for $14 a month, you have access to one social set, one user, and 60 uploads a month. You can try and of Plonalys subscriptions for free with a 7-day free trial.

As you increase subscription costs, you gain access to up to 6 users, unlimited uploads, and one more social set if selecting the pro plan.

Hopper HQ pricing plan review

Unlike Later or Planoly, there is absolutely no feature-gating on Hopper. All features are available to all users in their one subscription plan of $16 a month.

With Hopper HQ you will have access to unlimited posts, and users, as well as the use of AI assistance. Hopper HQ is known for its visually-first approach with a dynamic calendar and a visually appealing Instagram grid planner.

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Planoly Vs. Later Features Comparison

Speaking of features, Planoly and Later come packed with a lot of features. Which is better for you? Let’s take a look. 

Later key features:

• Provides a creator community you can collaborate with
• Manage both Instagram and TikTok comments
• Work together as a team with its team management features

Later is feature-gated. So, a lot of great features are only available to the higher versions of the paid plan. 

For instance, basic analytics isn’t provided to all users. However, if you want to track clicks on Twitter or Pinterest, you will need to be signed to the Growth or Advanced plan. The same is true with Instagram Hashtag analytics or analytics export. 

Again, if you want to collaborate with other team members, the Growth and Advanced plan offer unlimited access. However, the Starter pack only has one Access group. 

Customer support too is based on the plan you subscribe to. Live chat support is only available to Advanced plan users. People with lower-paid plans can only get email support.

Planoly key features:

• Provides extensions, trends and templates for content inspiration
• Leverage it’s customizable link-in bio for products with a checkout
• Utilize it’s unlimited caption generator to help assist with post creation

Planoly has several features that make it useful for Instagram and Pinterest marketers. You can post photos, videos, GIFs, and create thematic grids with the app. You also have other features like the best time to post, first comment auto-posting, and analytics. 

Free-tier users do not get the quick schedule feature that is available to paid plans.

Hopper HQ key features

At the outset, Hopper HQ has all the features that are expected of a social media scheduling app. But what truly separates Hopper HQ from the rest of the pack is it’s visual focus.

In app image-editing

On Hopper HQ, you can quickly, and easily edit images before you schedule them on your calendar. 

You can add custom filters, texts, or other overlays to the image. You can also adjust brightness, and saturation levels, and do a ton of image editing before you schedule it for posting. 

This is so important to you as a social media marketer. Other scheduling apps do not offer this feature. Due to this, you will be required to pay for another image editing application in addition to paying for the app itself.

It’s a hidden cost that you don’t realize till it is time to start posting. 

With Hopper HQ, the money you pay for the application is inclusive of the image editing bits as well. And that is what makes it unique and better. 

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Priority support

Another differentiator between Hopper HQ and a tool like Later is that priority support is open to all users. 

Earlier in this article, I mentioned how you get live chat support on Later only if you are an Advanced plan user. 

With Hopper HQ, this feature is available to everyone, regardless of how many bundles you are signed up to.

This is a pattern you will notice on Hopper HQ – there are simply no restrictions on the features you get access to. If you are a customer, you get access to features regardless of how big or small you are. 

Conclusion

Planoly and Later both have a ton of features in their application. But before you pick one, I would urge you to check out the features on Hopper HQ. You get a 14-day free trial to explore the product exhaustively before deciding how you want to proceed. 

Which is your favorite among the three? Tell us in the comments.

The post Planoly Vs. Later Comparison Review appeared first on Hopper HQ.

If you have been researching tools to schedule your Instagram posts (or other platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.), you may have inevitably come across Hootsuite and Buffer.

As two of the most popular social media scheduling tools, both Hootsuite and Buffer come packed with features to help you with your tasks. But which is the right tool for your business? 

In this article, we are going to do a Hootsuite vs Buffer comparison across a handful of different parameters.

As a direct competitor to both Buffer and Hootsuite, we are also going to tell you how Hopper HQ, known for it’s ease of use and simplicity, compares against these two tools on the same parameters.

Hootsuite vs. Buffer Summary

When examining Hootsuite vs Buffer, it’s essential to delve into key facts to help in making an informed decision between the two.

When it comes to pricing, Hootsuite generally comes across as the more expensive option compared to Buffer. However, it’s important to note that Buffer’s pricing model is based on each connected social account, which could potentially escalate costs over time, especially for users managing multiple channels.

In terms of team collaboration, Buffer offers the advantage of allowing unlimited team members, distinguishing it from other alternatives, including Hootsuite, which limits the team size to five. However, if you’re looking for bulk scheduling features, then Buffer might not be the right platform o use.

Take a look at how each tool compares to each other below:

Features	Hootsuite	Buffer	Hopper HQ
Pricing starts at	$99/month	$5/channel	$16/month
Social Platforms	Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube shorts	Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube shorts, Google, Mastodon	Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube shorts
Users	1	1	Unlimited
Accounts	10	Unlimited	1 Social set
Scheduled Posts	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Scheduling & Publishing
Bulk Scheduling
CSV upload
Analytics
Collaboration
Inbox
Visual-grid Planner
Approval Workflows		$12/month
Support	Email, Chat, Tweet for Support	Video Tutorials, Social Media Support & Email Support	Chat,Email, Social Media, Help-center & demos

What is Hootsuite best for?

Hootsuite is considered to be an all-encompassing social media marketing suite, offering a comprehensive range of features including content scheduling, content curation, insights into audience behavior, post-performance analysis, and much more.

Top Benefits of using Hootsuite:

• Offers, social listening, campaign management, and customer service tools
• Provides advanced security features for safeguarding your online presence
• Has extensive integration with over 200 tools
• Ideal for enterprises and large companies to centralize all social media efforts

It has evolved into a dynamic, multifaceted tool that meets a wide array of needs for social media marketers, and agencies, but primarily enterprises.

Hootsuite simplifies the management of numerous social media accounts, groups, and pages across various platforms. Its integrated dashboard allows for handling all these elements in one place, significantly reducing the need to switch between native platforms.

Additionally, Hootsuite excels in managing and monitoring social media interactions, including messages, reviews, and comments, in real time. This enables users to engage with their audience promptly and effectively. The platform’s ‘Streams’ feature is particularly noteworthy, as it allows users to oversee all their social media pages simultaneously, ensuring no update or interaction is missed.

What is Buffer used for?

Buffer stands is a social media scheduling tool, tailored for both individual entrepreneurs and marketing teams. Its core strength lies in automating content scheduling, delivering insights into audience engagement, and providing analytics on content performance.

Top Benefits of Using Buffer:

• A better fit for small businesses and startups
• Offers a flexible pricing model and a free plan
• Unlimited number of scheduled posts on paid plans
• Allows users to create a simple landing page directly within Buffer.

This tool supports a wide array of social media platforms where users can effortlessly schedule and post content on Facebook, Google Business, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest, and Shopify. Notably, Buffer is among the pioneering tools to incorporate integration with Mastodon, a newly launched social platform.

Buffer offers a range of subscription options, including a basic free plan with limited features. While more sophisticated functionalities are accessible exclusively through its paid plans.

A distinctive feature of Buffer is the Start Page builder, a tool that allows users to create a landing page directly within Buffer and share its link on social media. This feature provides a straightforward way for brands to present themselves and their offerings to their audience, offering a simpler alternative to developing an entire website.

What’s the best option regarding costs?

Hootsuite: more expensive but provides 10 social accounts

When considering both options, Hootsuite would be considered more costly than Buffer. With Hootsuite, the minimum you can pay is $99 a month on the yearly plan but obviously, on their basic plan, you’ll be limited on which features you can use. However, Hootsuite does provide a 30-day free trial on any of their plans so that you can try them out. 

Also, if you choose to opt for their subscription without going through a free trial, then you get the chance to save 20% of the total price. This can be considered risky for some, especially small to medium-sized businesses that don’t have so much leeway with their budgets. 

Buffer: Accessible pricing but charges by social media account

Buffer on the other hand is better suited for medium to small businesses as their pricing can be considered more accessible. In Buffers’ case, you’ll be charged by the number of social accounts you wish to connect. On their cheapest plan, each account connected will cost you $6 a month and can go up to $12 a month depending on what features you need. So, if you wish to connect up to 10 accounts as provided by Hootsuite, it would cost you around $60 a month. 

Unlike Hootsuite, where you can try it out with a 30-day free trial, Buffer actually offers a free subscription plan where you can connect up to 3 social channels and schedule 10 posts per channel. 

What features are available in both?

Hootsuite: Best for more complex features

Hootsuite is known to be better suited for larger companies who seek a social media management solution. Apart from the expected publishing and scheduling features, it also provides properties related to campaign management, customer service, team collaboration, and ads. 

Hootsuite is also known for its complex analytic capabilities. Depending on your subscription plan, you can access post-performance, goal performance, and even team productivity metrics. You’ll also be able to track how your social media performance is doing compared to at least 2 competitors. 

Key features of Hootsuite:

• Monitors brand mentions and industry conversations
• Provide an employee advocacy platform
• Manage both paid and organic content in one place

Buffer: Ideal for straightforward scheduling and publishing features

Buffer provides all the necessary features to plan, create, and schedule your social media posts. You’ll be able to create custom schedules, add mentions, schedule Twitter threads as well as create a simple landing page.

The biggest downfall when it comes to Buffer and the features it supports is probably the inability to bulk schedule your social media content. This is present on Hootsuite and most other social media scheduling tools.  

Buffer also provides a significantly complete set of analytics, however probably not as in-depth as that of Hootsuite. From basic post analytics to machine learning insights, Buffer provides all the essential data to make strategic decisions regarding your content calendar. 

Key features for Buffer:

• Build a content library to save your post ideas
• With Buffer’s permissions levels and approval flows, your team can work freely
• Build a customized landing page to guide your leads  

Who are their target audience?

Hootsuite is targeted at large companies and Enterprises

Hootsuite has firmly established itself as a go-to platform, particularly for large companies and enterprises. This segment of its target audience finds in Hootsuite a suite of features uniquely suited to their complex and diverse needs.

Several properties make Hootsuite an attractive tool for enterprises and larger companies, a few of them are:  

• Scalability and Multi-Account Management: Large companies often manage multiple brands across various social media platforms. Hootsuite’s platform enables them to oversee all these accounts from a single, centralized dashboard.
• Advanced Analytics and Reporting: Enterprises require sophisticated tools for tracking the performance of their social media campaigns. Hootsuite provides comprehensive analytics and custom reporting capabilities.
• Security and Compliance: For enterprises, safeguarding their online presence is crucial. Hootsuite offers advanced security features, including secure logins, permission levels, and approval workflows, to protect the brand’s online integrity. 

Buffer is targeted at startups and small businesses

Buffer stands out as a preferred social media management tool for startups and small businesses, thanks to its user-friendly interface, cost-effectiveness, and features tailored to the needs of smaller-scale operations.

Some of these features include: 

• Focused Feature Set: Unlike larger enterprises that might require a broad range of complex functionalities, startups, and small businesses benefit from Buffer’s more focused feature set. 
• Cost-Effectiveness: Budget constraints are a common concern for smaller businesses and startups. Buffer provides an affordable solution with flexible pricing plans.
• User-Friendly Interface: Buffer offers an intuitive and straightforward user interface, making it easy for anyone to schedule posts, track performance, and manage their social media accounts without a steep learning curve.

What Integrations are available?

Hootsuite has over 200 integrations available

Apart from the social media integrations we expect (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Youtube, Pinterest, and Google My Business), Hootsuite provides a wide array of other connections. From editing tools like Canva and Adobe Creative Cloud, you can also connect Hootsuite to project management tools, other social media management tools, and much more. 

It also provides a variety of free apps that you can connect your account with. These include a form builder, project management tools like Airtable, and bot apps like Chatkit.

Hootsuite categorizes their integrations by type of tool as well as by industry. Some of the industries mentioned are financial services, non-profits, healthcare, and government. This helps users quickly find out what they can connect to Hootsuite depending on industry needs.   

Buffer integrates with popular tools

Buffer may not have as many integration possibilities as Hootsuite but it does offer all the essential ones a social media marketing team would need. This includes apps that are popular as well as its own built integrations. 

Like Hootsutie you can integrate your Buffer account with known apps like Canva, Bitly, dropbox, and so forth. You’ll also be able to use their Buffer-made apps that enable you to generate UTM tags, edit images, create a start page, and benefit from a Chrome extension. 

Buffer organizes their integration by categories, like for example, integrations for creating, for publishing, and for organizing. 

Are there team collaboration features?

Hootsuite provides team assignments on their team plan

For Team collaboration properties, Hootsuite only provides access on their second subscription plan at $270 a month. However, there’s a restriction to just three approved users in the Teams plan. This can be constraining for businesses that are on the cusp of scaling up or teams that require more hands on deck due to the volume of social media activity. As a result, teams might find themselves needing to upgrade to more expensive plans prematurely or pay an additional user fee.

Another aspect that could be seen as a drawback is the learning curve associated with the platform. Team members new to Hootsuite may find it challenging to navigate the interface and utilize all its features effectively. This could lead to a temporary decrease in productivity as team members acclimatize to the new system.

Additionally, while the task assignment feature is useful, Hootsuite could improve in terms of more advanced collaborative features. For example, real-time editing or more in-depth communication tools within the platform could enhance teamwork and efficiency. The absence of such features may necessitate the use of external communication tools, thereby fragmenting the workflow.

Buffer provides unlimited users on their team plan

For Buffer’s team collaboration capabilities, you’d have to opt for their team plan priced at $12 per month per social media channel.

A significant advantage of Buffer’s team plan is the allowance for unlimited team members. This feature is particularly beneficial as it provides the flexibility to scale without the need to upgrade to more expensive plans. The inclusion of custom access permissions and approval workflows adds to this advantage by enabling precise control over who manages what, ensuring that tasks are appropriately assigned and overseen. The addition of notes is another useful feature, facilitating clear communication among team members directly within the platform.

However, there are some drawbacks to consider. The pricing model of $12 per month per social media channel can quickly become expensive for teams managing multiple channels. This cost could be a significant factor for small businesses or startups with limited budgets, making Buffer less accessible than other tools with a flat-rate pricing model.

Other Alternatives to consider: Hopper HQ

When looking at Hootsuite vs Buffer, it might be useful to consider other tools that may get the job done. One of them is Hopper HQ, an easy-to-use, visual-first social media scheduling tool.

Known for its user-friendly interface and exceptional value, Hopper HQ stands out as an excellent choice for those seeking a different approach to social media scheduling. It’s especially appealing for its visual-first design and array of features that cater to the needs of social media and marketing teams.

Hopper HQ simplifies the management process with a single subscription plan encompassing various useful tools. For just $16 a month, you can gain access to everything it has to offer. This includes AI-powered assistance for tasks such as image resizing and automatic caption generation, which can significantly enhance the efficiency of content creation.

Additionally, features like bulk scheduling and team collaboration tools are integrated into the platform, making it an ideal solution for agencies and small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) looking for an effective and straightforward social media management tool.

Hootsuite vs Buffer, which is right for you?

The answer to this is that it depends. Hootsuite is the more expensive of the two. It also comes with a solid list of features that an enterprise business would need, and can afford. 

Buffer is relatively cheaper. However, if you are an agency, you are going to feel limited by their cost per social channel. If you manage several social media profiles either for your brand or for many clients, the cost can quickly rise.

We hope that our Hootsuite vs Buffer article brought more insights when making your decision on which tool is right for you and your team.

Ultimately, it’s a question of your needs and choices. But before you make a decision, feel free to give Hopper HQ a try. You are going to be absolutely delighted.

The post Hootsuite vs Buffer: A 2024 side-by-side Comparison appeared first on Hopper HQ.