In my humble beginnings of social networking and Tweeting, I used to use TweetDeck. Then when I sat in on an online webinar last summer sponsored by Meeting Professionals International, one of the presenters introduced me to HootSuite. I switched and never went back. In the meantime, I also tried Seesmic, but it just didn’t help me do what I needed.

Beautiful. Not Better.

TweetDeck and Seesmic both get applause for their sexy UIs, as well as their smart stylized features and user experiences. They both offer the standard functionalities you’d expect from a Twitter client, like sending retweets, displaying multiple columns, tweeting from multiple Twitter accounts, and receiving direct messages and @replies. Depending on which one you use, you can upload pictures, and shorten URLs automatically after you type them in. They’ve also integrated themselves with add-on services offered by bit.ly, twurl.nl, TwitPic, and so on. Seesmic now offers Seesmic look, what it deems to be “a unique way to immerse yourself in the real-time web.”

In spite of all the comprehensive and near virtual experiences they offer, this professional user still roots for the underdog, HootSuite. Why? At any given time, I am tweeting from some nearly twenty different accounts, for a small number of social media clients. And I need a tool that allows me to navigate quickly between multiple accounts, while getting a single comprehensive view of several social network feeds connected to that one account. And I want immediate feedback and statistics on which of my posts and links are receiving clicks: HootSuite has a “Stats” button that sits in its footer, which you can easily press and call up a summary of statistics showing “Popular Tweets” and “Referral and Regional” clicks. With TweetDeck or Seesmic, you’d have to click out and into a bit.ly screen to view statistics (I don’t like having to move in and out of two applications).

Why HootSuite?

What I like most about HootSuite is that I can do my work directly from any browser on any computer. The most important feature is that you can sit down during one single session and you can schedule Tweets from any account for any future date and time. This is a great tool to help you manage your time, so that you don’t have to sit throughout the day tweeting. Important: one thing you need to avoid is consecutively blasting out tweet after tweet after tweet. It looks like you are spamming. But if you can schedule them to blast at different intervals, you’ll get your message across to a wider audience as it logs on and off throughout the day. HootSuite can help you do that. Also, you don’t have to download a local desktop client, which—-like TweetDeck’s—just doesn’t update fast enough for the speed you need to work. You’ll also appreciate the Hootlet retweet tool that you can upload to your browser’s tool bar. If you are reading blogs or just surfing, and happen to find a site or article you want to share with your followers, simply click on the Hootlet. It automatically uploads the title of the web site or article into your message box, and attaches and shrinks the URL. All you have to do is press ‘send now’ and you’re done!

Function Over Form

While HootSuite doesn’t look as sexy as its two main competitors, it does offer the ability to post to Facebook Pages, LinkedIn, Wordpress, Ping.Fm, and Twitter. And most importantly, if you manage other people who send posts for your company, you can integrate ALL these accounts under one main account, and assign roles to your users such as administrator or editor. Most recently HootSuite added picture and document upload functions. The downside is you don’t get the experiential high as you would with TweetDeck of Seemic. But don’t let yourself be seduced by their bling bling feel. If you can do without, then you’ll certainly appreciate HootSuite’s function over its form.