On January 17th 2012, HootSuite reached its three million user milestone – a mere three years after the company hatched! HootSuite would like to extend a big Thank You to all of our #3MillionOwls for their congratulations and well wishes.

In today’s News Roundup, we’ve compiled a collection of blogs, articles, and stories covering the latest HootSuite news – including our three million user announcement with accompanying infographic, HootSuite University‘s Higher Education Program, and a great interview with Ryan Holmes.

Millions of Owls

HootSuite Reaches the 3 Million User Milestone

Mashable – HootSuite Reaches 3 Million Users, 700 Million Sent Messages [INFOGRAPHIC]

A new HootSuite user in Brazil has just become the social media management dashboard’s 3 millionth user. The tool, which launched in December 2008, previously hit 2 million users in July 2011 and signed up another million individuals and brands in six months.

The Next Web – HootSuite hits 3 million signups, sees 1m new accounts in 6 months

It’s interesting to note that in terms of ‘Networks Added’, Facebook and Twitter constitute almost 90% of all social profiles on HootSuite. This is, of course, representative of the popularity of these networks in themselves, with Facebook closing in on one billion accounts, whilst Twitter should hit 500m accounts next month. But despite Facebook being around double the size of Twitter in terms of users, they are very closely matched on HootSuite, which is indicative of the way that information constantly flows through Twitter, requiring an external client to mange and make sense of the data stream.

Mobile Syrup – HootSuite reaches the 3 million user mark

HootSuite has just passed another milestone as they’ve announced their 3 millionth user. The Vancouver-based company Invoke media launched their social media dashboard in 2008, but stated it only took 6 months to reach the last million users. It previously took them 24 months to reach the first million, then another 8 months to reach the two million mark.

Social Times – The Owl Rises — HootSuite Achieves 3 Millionth Signup [Infographic]

At Social Times, one of our favorite tools of choice for managing our social media presence is HootSuite.  The service is an essential time-saver with an attractive user interface and an even more attractive owl icon.  What can be said about that owl that hasn’t been said before — big brown eyes, beautiful plumage and he even speaks Japanese.

But certainly it’s not all the owl over at the company.  The impressive service has racked up 3 million signups, one million of those coming in the last 6 months.

Appitive – Three Million Smiles by HootSuite

Image from Appitive.com

Techvibes – HootSuite reaches 3 Million users [Infographic]
Simply Zesty – Hootsuite Reaches 3 Million Users In 3 Years, 1.5 Million Messages Sent Daily
Business Insider – 10 Reasons Why 3 Million People Are Using HootSuite For Social Media Management
Website Magazine – HootSuite Hits Milestone

Soar With Our Higher Education

With the ever increasing demand for social media skills, HootSuite University was proud to launch its Higher Education Program with Syracuse University’s S.I Newhouse School of Public Communications this week. The program provides professors and students access to HootSuite Pro and HootSuite University.

"Kirsten Bailey @6oz Director of @HootSuite_U @hootsuite speaking with #NewhouseSM6" via @DR4WARD

Follow Dr. William J. Ward (aka @DR4WARD), the social media professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, and #NewhouseSM6, to get the inside scoop on what’s happening in the first semester of the program.

Inside SU – SU’s Newhouse School, HootSuite form partnership for digital and social learning

“Students use social media to connect with friends and family, but they need hands-on experience with the professional social media skills demanded by the industry today,” says Ward [social media professor at the Newhouse School].

According to a report from Monster.com in late 2010, social media job listings had increased 75 percent from the previous year, with more than 10,000 jobs a month requiring digital and social media skills. Yet a Manpower Group study shows that more than 52 percent of companies are having difficulty filling these positions due to a lack of “hard” technical skills among candidates. At the same time, keeping up with the rapid pace of change and innovation in social media is a continuous challenge; last year, there were more than 30 updates to the major social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube).

PR Daily – HootSuite and Syracuse University partner to build students’ social media skills

HootSuite is a great tool for seamlessly managing multiple social media accounts, and now it’s taking its influence to the higher education realm.

HootSuite University is partnering with Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications to meet the growing demand for social media pros. HootSuite is providing its course materials to help students build their social media acumen.

The S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications was recently named the No. 1 journalism school in the U.S.

DR4WARD – Hootsuite Teams Up With S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University On Digital and Social Learning
Business in Vancouver – HootSuite introduces social media education platform
Business 2 Community – Facebook’s Open Graph In Action, Another ‘Beauty And The Beast’ Reboot, HootSuite University

Holmes on Hiring and at Cambridge House

Recently, Ryan Holmes had the opportunity to chat with Bridgitte Anderson at Cambridge House International’s Vancouver Resource Investment Conference about HootSuite’s growth and the importance of creating a social media presence.

Ryan also found time to field a question for Small Business Trends who polled members of the Young Entrepreneur Council on recruiting for startups.

Fundamentally, we have a 60 percent referral-to-hire rate, while other talent is found using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, SimplyHired, Indeed.com, GlassDoor, Vancouver’s HR Tech Group, co-op, and internship programs. I also recommend taking things offline, we always see an increase in applications after events.

Including avid HootSuite user, Laura Roeder, see what other members of the YEC had to say in the full article: Small Business Trends – 11 Places to Find Startup Talent

Hootle-oo

Once again, thank you for taking part in the HootSuite adventure and contributing to our culture. Each and every one of our owls has helped us grow to three million signups and deserves a toast! In the last three years your comments and insight have played an integral role in building the dash. Make sure to stop by our Feedback Channel and let us know if you have any ideas that would improve the HootSuite social media dashboard.

To stay on top of the latest Hootsuite news, keep an eye on the blog, our social bookmarks, and remember to follow @HootSuite, and @HootWatch!

Your customers have questions, and social media is quickly becoming the go-to for answers, or in worst-case scenarios, a soap box to broadcast frustrations. Fortunately for the social business, it’s also an excellent forum for customer support teams to engage with users.

To help you understand the value and best practices of using social media for support, HootSuite University is pleased to present Streamlining Social Support: Turning Community Into Value. Hosted by Don Baron of Get Satisfaction, this 30 minute installment of our ongoing lecture series will show you how to decrease the cost of your social support and increase customer happiness.

Read more »

In a competitive job market and shrinking global economy, social media has emerged as a booming industry. Reading the most recent job descriptions, it’s apparent that social media skills are not only in high demand, but are now required by employers all over the world.

To address this growing demand for qualified social media professionals, HootSuite University is pleased to introduce its Higher Education Program, launching with its first education partner, Syracuse University’s S.I Newhouse School of Public Communications. The program will give professors and students access to HootSuite Pro and HootSuite University in an effort to help increase student’s digital awareness and social media skills.

For professors interested in participating in this program, sign up to learn more.

Read more »

Although Hallmark doesn’t have a card to celebrate the event, today is Community Manager Appreciation Day. Yes, this is perhaps an odd holiday because: a) not many people know what community managers do; and, b) up until a few years ago, this type of job didn’t really exist – or at least wasn’t as defined or widespread.

Then, a group of social media minded types including analyst Jeremiah Owyang, put forth the idea of a day to recognize the unique challenges and contributions facing this type of multi-disciplinary practitioner. Whether you call them a community wrangler, organizer, advocate, manager, coordinator or ambassador, … someone at your company or organization is likely officially or unofficially filling this role. So remember to do something nice for your community manager.

Hint: they like things like RTs, +1, K+, Likes, comments and clicks. If you don’t know what those things are, then bring them a bacon sandwich and ask for an explanation.

Jeremiah Owyang suggests the following ways to acknowledge your fave CMs:

If you’re a customer, and your problem was solved by a community manager be sure to thank them in the medium they helped you in. Use the hashtag #CMAD.

If you’re a colleague with community manager, take the time to understand their passion to improve the customer and company experience. Copy their boss.

If you’re a community manager, stop and breathe for a second, and know that you’re appreciated. Hug your family.

If you’re a Community Manager, connect with a comment – or a Tweet with #HootCM & #CMAD – and we’ll hook you up with some special Owly treats to say “Yup, HootSuite thinks you are awesome.”

Read more »

You’ve set up your social accounts, you’re engaging with customers, now how do you translate your tweets into sales?

Counter this conundrum with HootSuite University. The newest addition to our ongoing Lecture Series is called Social Media Lead Generation with Adam Metz, and this helpful talk will help you find and nurture your social media leads.

Adam Metz is the principal at Metz Consulting, a social customer management-consulting firm that teaches brands how to acquire, manage, monetize and retain customers from the social web. Adam specializes in social customer relationship management and is the author of #1 Amazon best-seller The Social Customer.

In only 20 minutes, learn the value of a social media lead and how to use HootSuite to track down missed social leads.

Read more »

It is cold out there but the firehose of media coverage is nowhere near frozen. HootSuite has just hit 3 million users this week and is growing faster than ever. We’re proud of what we’ve done and our future looks promising!

In today’s roundup, we’ve put together a collection of articles in response to Part 2 of HootSuite’s Twitter 2011 Trends. Along with coverage from Turkey, the Netherlands, and Spain – Mashable and The Next Web chimed in on what they thought of the infographic. Plus, learn how to use HootSuite to monitor for and post employment opportunities. That’s not all, check out HootSuite CEO Ryan Holmes‘ recent appearance on CBC‘s, the Lang & O’Leary Exchange.

Read more »

It is a momentous day in HootSuite’s history as we’re proud to announce our 3,000,000th signup. The dashboard is riding an impressive growth curve having taken 24 months to reach our first million, eight months to reach two million, and six months to reach three million users.

In the time it took HootSuite to add three million users, we’ve released numerous versions of the dash, collected a slew of awards, and created quite the parliament of Owlys – growing from a bright eyed startup to a global industry leader.

Our secret to success? Anticipating the needs of the social media landscape and listening to our users. Through your insightful feedback and continued support, we’ve built a robust social media management dashboard used by a wide spectrum of owls. We’re proud to have created a tool that has shaped how people interact online – and in turn are grateful for how our users have shaped the dashboard.

Measuring the Milestone

At present, over 700 million messages have been sent through over 6 million unique social profiles. To celebrate this occasion, we’ve released an infographic highlighting signup milestones and revenue (run rate), the top ten signups by country, daily usage percentages via web and mobile devices, newly added social networks, and effective reach of messages sent daily.

Read more »

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer kicked off the International Consumer Electronics Show for the  fourth and final time yesterday in Las Vegas. Earlier this week, Techvibes visitors got a hoot with this developer mashup video, reminiscing on one of Ballmer’s more enthusiastic keynotes.

Read about it in Techvibes: HootSuite needs Developers, Developers, Developers!

Yes, HootSuite is hiring and looking for developers, developers, and developers! Are you one? Apply here. We should mention that we are not looking for J# or VB developers, despite Steve’s enthusiastic pitch to the contrary. We are looking for mobile devs and web devs with PHP and HTML5 experience, and folks with experience on the Lamp stack, preferably Zend.

Read more »

Downloading HootSuite for mobile gives you the features and tools found in the HootSuite web dashboard and puts them into a pocket-sized tool which is custom made for a unique mobile experience. To help get you acquainted with the functionality, or just for a refresher, here’s a new #HootTip about a handy mobile HootSuite feature.

Transferring HootSuite to Your SD Card

HootSuite for Android is an amazing tool. It provides a nearly seamless transition between web and mobile, so managing your social networks in real time, from just about anywhere, is possible. This helps our Owls stay on the ball and lets them easily post and monitor updates across the web. With all this information coming at such a fast pace, you need your phone to be nimble and adaptable. To keep your phone as free as possible, we’ve updated HootSuite on Android to easily be transfered from your phone’s internal memory to your removable SD card. Read more »