Jun
25
2018
Hopper HQ Review: Why Paying For a Social Media Posting Platform Will Save You Money in the Long Run
One of the things we get asked about all the time by prospective clients and friends is how to manage Social Media. I’ll talk about why your business needs Instagram, Facebook and Twitter later, but for now I wanted to give you insight on the social media posting platform I use and why you should consider using it for your business too.
- Hopper HQ Does The Posting For You. I researched and used a variety of platforms – including a very elaborate spreadsheet – before settling on Hopper. Many of the ones I used will “schedule’ your posts for you, and will even remind you to post but you have to actually do the posting. The downfall of this is that you will not always be available to post when the majority of your audience is tuned in. If you’re like me you’re always on the move or in meetings and don’t always have time to post at your ideal time. With Hopper HQ you can upload your photos, edit them, and schedule when you want them to post. Set it and forget it.I should be clear that Hopper HQ started as only an Instagram platform but in the past month has added Facebook. Though integration was a little clunky, it’s working better now. And word on the street is that they’ll add Twitter soon.
- You’ll Be More Likely to Stay “On Brand.” Not only will using a Social Media Platform keep you more organized, but it will keep you on brand, which is vital for growth and engagement. There is nothing more off-putting than following a casual friend that you want to stay in touch with suddenly starts posting daily about her workouts and protein shakes. Or a Vegan food blogger than starts posting about her cat all the time. STAY ON BRAND OR YOU WILL LOSE FOLLOWERS. Hopper HQ encourages planning a head, which allows you to see your queue in advance so you can make sure that each and every post is on point. In other words, planning ahead will keep you from impromptu posts that might detract from your brand.
- Scheduling Will Keep you Consistent. This may be the most important reason of all to use a Social Media Platform like Hopper HQ. You’ll be more consistent. And consistency is key. So many businesses get into a social media frenzy and then drop off the radar for over a month. It’s understandable! Instagram, Facebook, Twitter can start to feel less fun and more like work the more followers you get and the more engagement you get. It can be very time-consuming. But consistency is vital to growth and growth means more followers and customers and money. If you cannot be consistent or simply don’t have the bandwidth to handle your own Social Media Accounts, hire someone who will be in tune with your goals and audience. We would love to talk with you about how we can help grow your brand online.
Here’s How it Works – a glimpse into Hopper HQ. Once you sign up for an account (and I believe they do 7 days free trial) you click on your Scheduled posts. From here you click New Posts 
Then you can either drag and drop your photos or select them from your computer. I always store my photos in Dropbox, but you can upload them from your device, take a photo or grab them from Google Photos.
After you find your photo, you can get right to editing it here. Once you click edit, you can crop your photo, enhance, stylize, sharpen, use a photo filter, etc. There are so many options! Another thing I love is that there are standard sizes in the photo editor (after you click Edit Content) like Instagram portrait or Facebook landscape, or you can just customize the size you want. You can also add borders, which could be your thing too.
From there, click save and set your scheduled time. Or if you want to post right now, you can click Post Now. Another thing I like about Hopper HQ is that you can add your first comment to your post. I like to include hashtags in the first comment so the post itself isn’t inundated with them.
Here’s how the queue looks once you’ve set your posts! You can review it and move things around – or go into the Calendar mode and see exactly how it looks on a calendar. 
The Downside of a Scheduling Platform. OK now to the downfalls… real time posting is fantastic (if it’s on-brand and relevant). So the downside of getting too scheduled is that you can start to feel trapped inside the confines of your own creation. Flexibility is key here. Sit down in the beginning of the most and post all the photos you’ve saved or taken and get them into a queue for the rest of the month (or week). BUT leave a few days a week or a month empty so you can post something in real time. Hopper HQ is flexible. You can always move things around in the calendar mode very easily. Or even shift the entire queue back a day or two with no trouble at all. Another thing I like to do is post through Hopper HQ but do impromptu Stories each day for Instagram and Facebook based on what I scheduled. More on that later.
If you manage your company’s social media accounts, use a Social Media Platform like Hopper HQ (or hire White Rabbit Advertising wink wink) to handle your SM and save yourself time, money, and stress – while promoting growth and engagement!