Most of you Hootsuite users out there have probably received a notice when logging in over the past few days that Hootsuite is now going to be charging for their services. While use of their system will remain free for what they say is 95% of their users, they are charging their bigger users quite a bit of money and I’m not happy. Anyone who has heard me talk about social media knows that I am a huge advocate for Hootsuite and the way it helps you manage your online presence, but their latest move has me questioning whether they are on top of it as I thought.
I get it. Everyone needs to make money. And I will admit that I was put off by the way it was communicated and the lack of customer service around the entire process, but there is a bigger issue here. As many of you know, in addition to Liz King Events, I work at Columbia University’s career center producing large scale events. I have been doing a lot of work over the past year+ to encourage our staff to jump on social media and see how we can use it to engage students and alumni. In order to achieve this, I have added everyone to Hootsuite so that they can login and begin to manage our Columbia account together. Here’s the problem:
Hootsuite wants to now charge Columbia $1500/month because we have many team members (about 15).
If 95% of your users are working on their own and managing less than 5 networks (the free version of the plan), why would you assume that social media is at a place where you can charge $1500/month? I am JUST beginning the LONG process of convincing people that social media is a worthy time investment. Now I’m supposed to convince them it’s worth paying that much?? This is a battle I’m going to lose. And more importantly, a battle I’m not willing to fight based on the way that Hootsuite brought up the situation.
I don’t believe that social media is at the point where companies can capitalize off of it in the ways they are trying to do. Everyone is trying to make money via paid ads (LinkedIn jumped on board yesterday), freemium packages and sponsored tweets. Where is the education? Who is trying to make an effort to educate people on the VALUE of these tools prior to charging money to enjoy them? I don’t think we’re there yet (most brands, at least).
Please weigh in – what do you think? Would you pay for the access? Do you think there are better ways for these organizations to make money?? I would love to hear your thoughts.
