Here at Red Desk we are hardened Buffer and Hootsuite fans so we thought it was about time we had a look at another social media dashboard to see how it compares.

MeetEdgar was created in 2014.  The whole concept is based around uploading your content to a library where all your content is stored and can therefore be recycled.

With other social media dashboards, the content has to be scheduled regularly to the queue. The scheduler then chooses the date and time each piece of content is posted and after that the content is then lost from the dashboard. 

Edgar stores the content so the scheduler simply chooses the type of content they want at each selected time slot and Edgar pulls the content from the library for you.  This ultimately means your content is going to get seen by more people.  Instead of a peak in interactions when the content is first posted, it maintains the level of engagement at a more constant level.

Pros

• The main major advantage MeetEdgar has over its competitors is that if you have content you want to use on a regular basis then you can upload this and recycle it week after week (or whatever timescale you have set)
• There are different options for shortening links – you can either leave the link as it is, pick the ed.gr, use bit.ly or rebrand.ly which allows you to create one for free for your own brand/website. Click statistics available for ed.gr and rebrand.ly.  If you choose not to shorten the URL then it will default to ed.gr
• We also like the tips and tricks emails which arrive every couple of days so learning is in bitesize pieces

Cons

• It’s all about images – MeetEdgar doesn’t seem to allow you to select images for your posts easily. With Buffer, as soon as you add the URL to your post, linked images appear and you can select which ones you want to appear with your post
• Another gripe about images is that we weren’t able to drag and drop images from a folder into the scheduler. You have to click through the pathway and add then manually
• We are slightly worried about followers being continually offered up the same content over & over again – but this worry is probably outweighed by the fact we can store all our precious content rather than continually creating more.

Pricing

Both Hootsuite and Buffer offer free basic versions of their social media schedulers.  However if you are managing multiple social media accounts then you are going to need to pick the one that best matches your needs.

MeetEdgar has a very simple offering of $49 per month which includes 25 accounts (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) and 1,000 timeslots.  Whereas Hootsuite’s closest option is for £80 per month (20 profiles, plus supports Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, WordPress blogs, Instagram profiles and YouTube channels).  Buffer is $99 per month and you get 25 social accounts (it supports Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+, Pinterest and LinkedIn) and the ability to schedule up to 2,000 posts.

Anyway, we definitely think it is worth taking up the free 14 day trial & seeing if it’s for you.

 It’s all personal preference and would love to hear your thoughts.  Tweet us @reddeskvirtual!