Social media management service Hootsuite has acquired artificial intelligence chatbot start-up Heyday for $60 million.
The deal, announced today by Hootsuite, is another sign that the already-good social media tool is shoring up any deficiencies it has when it comes to ecommerce and customer support.
With a strong customer service angle, Hootsuite could truly become unstoppable.
Hootsuite Expands
Hootsuite’s aims for the future are fairly clear: They already dominate in the arena of social marketing and are aggressively expanding into two additional categories, customer care and ecommerce. It will keep a social media focus on both.
“Social is the new interface of commerce and customer care,” said Hootsuite CEO Tom Keiser in a statement. “Modern day brands have to manage a multitude of daily interactions and conversations at scale—which is impossible to do without AI automation. With the acquisition of Heyday, Hootsuite will now give AI capabilities to marketing, sales and support teams globally so they can deliver exceptional experiences at scale.”
AI chatbots are a sustainable path to providing large-scale customer support while staying within social media platforms, and ecommerce can similarly benefit.
Currently, our research ranks competitor Sprout Social as having the edge in customer service features over Hootsuite — but with this new deal, that could change.
Could Hootsuite Become Even Better?
Hootsuite is an unbeatable social media management tool: Our Tech.co researchers have sunk over 80 hours of research into rating and comparing services in the social media management space, and Hootsuite’s our top pick, due to the broad range of features, no limits on posting across all price plans, and the genuinely useful free plan, a rarity for paid services.
This new deal is Hootsuite’s second acquisition in 2021, after buying auto-messaging platform Sparkcentral back in early January.
Trying out Social Media Management?
Hootsuite’s our pick for the best social media tool, but there are plenty of great options, from Sprout Social to Loomly to the inexpensive option, Zoho Social.
Hootsuite’s free plan, available here, supports one user managing two accounts and up to five scheduled posts at a time, making it a great starter plan.
We’ve discussed our social media management service rankings over here, and you can check out the table below for a fast look at the big pros and cons to know about each.
| Core Benefit | Starting Price | Free Plan Does this platform offer a free plan? | Unlimited Posting Does this platform allow you to post as much as you like without imposing monthly limits? | Browser Extension Is there an extension that allows you to use the software through a browser? | Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn Does this platform support management on all four social media networks? | Other Platforms What other platforms are supported by this platform? | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPONSORED  | BEST OVERALL  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| Hootsuite | Sprout Social | Sendible | Loomly | CoSchedule | Constant Contact | Buffer | |||
| Best for social planning | Best value for money | Best for large businesses | Best for publishing social media posts | Best for providing customer service | Best for affordable listening tools | Best for managing multiple social profiles | Best for collaboration | Best for small business marketing | Best for flexible pricing |
| $99/month | $249/user/month | $29/month | $26/month | $19/user/month | $9.99/month | $5/month | |||
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| YouTube, Google My Business, and TikTok. | Pinterest, TikTok, YouTube | YouTube | Pinterest, Tumblr, YouTube, TikTok | Pinterest, Reddit, YouTube, TikTok | Pinterest, Tumblr, YouTube | Pinterest, TikTok, YouTube | Pinterest, Tumblr | None | |
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