HootSuite blog – Social Media Dashboard

You haven’t stopped talking about HootSuite so we’ll keep sharing stories with another HootSuite news round-up loaded with  your comments, case studies and compelling projects.

With the new school semester just around the corner, we thought now is a great time to see how social media can be used for research, sourcing and even librarians’ work. Plus, for new HootSuite owls, we’ve added in a couple of general articles and tutorials to help you earn an A+ in social media management.

As always, we invite you to follow HootSuite’s social bookmarks and/or follow @hootwatch to get the full firehose of knowledge. And now… here’s your homework:

oneforty – Featured Tweets: Mike Petroff Uses Hootsuite to Manage Emerson College Social Presence

Mike Petroff and his team at Emerson College are using HootSuite to help organize their social media efforts:

Hootsuite allows our account administrators to personalize the look and feel of their account, adding dashboard columns of search terms specific to their office. It also makes sharing and assigning replies between account administrators incredibly easy and traceable. Very rarely do tweets from our community go unnoticed. We can also share access to upcoming tweets and be on the same page with the events, stories and content that we’re promoting for a given week.

Library Tech Talk – Guest Post: HootSuite for Library Tweets!

This blogpost presents HootSuite to all librarians out there:

Librarians, If you have a Twitter account for your library, I highly recommend tweeting from HootSuite.com. If you currently tweet from the original web version of Twitter.com, follow these instructions to simplify tweeting on behalf of your library.

Want more HootSuite for libraries? “Using the Library Staff and Statistics to Create a Dynamic Twitter Program” covers it too.

Inc. – Shortlist of Twitter Apps for Your Desktop

This article focuses on different tools for managing Twitter, and the owl isn’t left out:

HootSuite—a great tool (and my personal favorite) with a user-friendly interface. All the standard Twitter functions plus the ability to track keywords and trends, post directly to Facebook, schedule posts, put followers into groups and the ability to manage multiple accounts. You can also track clickthroughs on your embedded links. HootSuite has both desktop and mobile versions.

Accelerated Online – HOW-TO: Setup HootSuite to Manage Your Social Media Accounts

This is a step-by-step guide to setting up HootSuite account with different social networks:

HootSuite is a web-based solution that allows you to manage your conversations on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Ping.fm, WordPress.com, MySpace, and FourSquare from a single application. Let’s look at setting up HootSuite to manage your activity on Twitter and Facebook.

Social Brite -  Set up a social media dashboard with HootSuite

Another good video aimed at non-profit groups which takes you through the process of adding HootSuite account:

The screencast above helps nonprofits take advantage of HootSuite’s new capabilities. As I say in this short tutorial, it’s one tool to manage your organization’s presence across a wide range of social networks. Very cool.

Associated Content – How to Get More PV’s and Promote Your Content to All Your Networks at Once by Using HootSuite

This is a detailed list of HootSuite’s features that help distribute your content through social networks like never before:

I have found a savior in the social networking/self-promotion/getting more PV’s venue and it’s as simple as they come. Check out the amazing HootSuite, it does everything all at once for you. I’m new to using their free service and even on my first day trying it, I fell in love. It’s a wonder, and a breeze to use.

Mashable – 11 Free Services for Scheduling Social Media Updates

Our wise geeks at Mashable included HootSuite in one of their latest round-ups (and yes, we enjoy each time this excellent tech/web/social news site mentions us;-)):

Hootsuite has a broad range of apps, including their web-based original, mobile apps (iPhone and Android), desktop apps (Windows , Mac and Linux) and add-ons for Firefox and Chrome, all with the power to schedule updates.

RedZebraWorks – HootSuite on Crazy Pills

The new HootSuite features are introduced in this article (which made it in the round-up just for the awesome title):

Clearly HootSuite is on the move to build out their product. So far, they are on the right track by expanding features that combine activities and resources to combine a series of related and routine activities into a single dashboard, which is a real time saver.

News Roundup Accelerated Online, apps, Associated Content, features, HootSuite for libraries, Inc., Library Tech Talk, mashable, oneforty, promotion, RedZebraWorks, scheduling, Social Brite, SourceCon, sourcing, statistics, video

Great Day for Mobile!

Yesterday was a big Social CRM release for HootSuite web, but we didn’t stop there and today have a treat for the mobile users. To go along with Apple’s release of the iPhone 4, we’ve updated an iOS4-ready version of HootSuite for iPhone with a number of new features to help you keep on top of the social media game.

This round of treats includes addition of location-based social game “foursquare,” customizable re-sizing of fonts for easy reading, and updates to iPhone’s iOS4 to allow app switching and performance tweaks. Plus a basket full of preference goodies from RT-style choice to custom avatar sizes.

Check It In

Foursquare is a social game which uses location-based services to keep tabs on your friends, discover your city, and earn points. By being the most frequent visitor to your local coffee shop, pizza joint, you might be anointed “mayor” which can include all sorts of perks.

Get social on the town with these tools:

Check-in and Shout out – Check-in then shout out your current location to your friends on Foursquare, Twitter, and Facebook.

Check-ins streams – Find out where all of your foursquare friends have recently checked in so you’re never left out on the fun-times.

Check-in history – Follow your own trail of check-ins and see where you’ve been — ideal for archiving activities for and memory recollections.

Sign-up for a foursquare account to compete for badges and accolades with your friends or share your location on Twitter and Facebook.

Locked and Loaded

HootSuite is ready to go for iPhone 4 and iOS4. This results in performance improvements for iPhone 3G or iPhone 4, including ability to switch apps quickly — if you leave the app, you’ll return right where you left off with no waiting.

Just for You

We listened to your feedback and added more choices in the preferences to allow a customized mobile experience, including:

Re-tweet choice – Choose from Twitter’s native RT style, classic RTs, or both
Font sizing – Change the font size for accessibility and/or convenience
Avatar sizing – Fill the stream with smiling profile pics or minimize for more text space
Username or real name – Select which moniker displays to identify your contacts
Timestamp styles – Display relative or absolute data on timestamps
Auto-enable geotag – Share your location automatically on every update
Photo upload options – Save snaps to the iPhone’s library, plus control the image quality

Wanna change? Adjust preferences as desired starting under the Settings tab.

Pro Tips

Push Notifications with Boxcar — This tool snuck in as part of the last release, but in case you missed it… Connect HootSuite with the Boxcar app (free) for instant push notifications whenever you receive a new @mention or DM.

Instant Ow.ly links in Safari — While you are browsing with Safari and see a tweet-able page, just prepend the url with “owly://” (no quotes) and voila! you’ll pre-populate a HootSuite message with a short link ready send to your network.

On Deck

Suggestions for additional preferences that you’d like to see in a future update? Great! Don’t hesitate to add it to feedback.hootsuite.com. We are constantly looking for ways that we can improve how you compose and converse on-the-go.

HootSuite for iPhone update is available at the iTunes App store in Lite (no-cost) and Full ($2.99 USD) versions. Follow @HootSuiteiPhone for updates. See hootsuite.com/iphone for more details.

Blackberry Notes

Finally, fans of RIM’s Blackberry phones can almost… finally begin Hoot-ing since HootBerry is just about ready for beta release. To get on-board for early access, simply sign up at: http://ow.ly/2aRUx and you’ll be among the first to try the new tool.

Notes:

foursquare is ™ foursquare
Boxcar is ™ Boxcar

iPhone, releases apple, check in, features, foursquare, geo tagging, geo-location, ios4, iPhone, itouch, release, update

Social World Cup

With the football matches in South Africa dominating the Twitter streams, HootSuite is here to help you stay on-side of the global chatter as the social web carries the conversation up-field for a goooooaaaaallll!

This fresh release of the HootSuite mobile social media dashboard for iPhone features localization for Arabic and Korean plus OAuth security migration, push notifications and deeper conversation browsing.

“Salam and Annyong Haseyo”

Building upon the localizations added in the last release of HootSuite iPhone, two more languages join German, Spanish, Japanese and Portuguese to (almost) round out the top 10 worldwide Internet languages. Now, the dozens of Arabic-speaking countries, along with the voracious Internet user population of Korea, can enjoy full interface elements in their familiar language.

سلام

Use of Arabic language on the web increased 2,297.7 % from 2000-2009 compared to world average of 399.03 %. The total adoption was led by Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Algeria.

HootSuite’s new Arabic localized version reads right to left and will be a communication boon for over half a billion people who speak Arabic as a first or second language in the Middle East, North Africa and elsewhere around the world.

안녕하세요

As an early Internet adopter, South Korea was the 5th country to join the 30 club for over 30 million Internet users in 2004 (following US, China, Japan and Germany). South Korea remains in the top ten of total Internet users per country and boasts the highest Internet penetration rate of any top 10 country at 77.3 % (as of end of 2009).

Though Korean is a top 10 language on the web, scant statistics are available for Internet use in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (AKA North Korea) aside from a ranking of 227th in the “Internet Hosts” category by the CIA Factbook.

Push Notification

Fresh from the HootSuite Labs comes baked-in push notifications via Boxcar. This integration will alert you with a noise, buzz or pop-up whenever a new messages arrives. Tune it to receive @ replies, DMs or your whole home feed, and you’ll have one less reason to miss any mention of your name, brand or keyword.

Deeper Conversation

In the previous release, we added a threaded conversation view. Now we’ve made the conversations interactive allowing you to drill deeper into the back-story to quickly grasp context.

This update allows you to dig back into the stream to send replies and follow links from previous messages in the thread.

Avatar Zooming

Wondering who that stunning new follower is? Does that face look familiar? What’s your friend holding in that picture anyhow?

Zoom in on their profile pic to see their face in a full screen view. Handy at conferences and bars alike.

Security Migration

This release stays in step with Twitter’s evolving systems with a migration to the OAuth security protocol.

After installing the new version of HootSuite iPhone App, simply follow the prompts to upgrade your authentication scheme to OAuth which is: “An open protocol to allow secure API authorization in a simple and standard method from desktop and web applications.”

Keep in mind, you must update your app to OAuth before July 1st 2010 to keep your HootSuite app happily hooting with Twitter.

Owl-ized Addresses from Safari

Want to shorten a link quick while browsing the web? Just add “owly://” (no quotes) to the start of the URL in the Safari browser bar to instantly create a message in HootSuite including the short URL.

Kick Off

Get Hooting with HootSuite for iPhone by downloading from the iTunes App Store – all new features are released in both the Full ($2.99) or Lite (no-cost) versions and upgrades are FREE.

More Stats

Many nuggets of information for this article came from http://www.internetworldstats.com – thanks!

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All About the Teamwork

As you’ve likely noticed, HootSuite has added “Owners and Teams” – a new access structure designed for group message publishing and conversation monitoring. With this Team Collaboration release, you can easily coordinate with clients and colleagues — without sacrificing control over valuable account information.

Reaction to the Release

Venture Beat – HootSuite targets agencies and groups with social collaboration tools – Cody Barbierri

HootSuite, a social networking navigation and management startup, today launched several new collaboration tools targeted at public relations agencies and groups who often work in teams to publish and manage through their various social networking channels, like Twitter and Facebook.

The new collaboration tools are meant to help the group publishing and monitoring process  according to the company’s blog. More specifically, help make sure the process is as easy as possible between agencies, groups and their clients. Valuable time is often lost as groups scramble to figure out who should respond or post what during the day.

Vertical Measures – HootSuite Does it Again! – Kaila S.

Today, Hootsuite has upgraded their Twitter platform yet again, and integrated many features that users (like myself) are super happy about. Twitter rolled out their solution to multi-tweeters a few weeks ago (to a few select companies), and Hootsuite has now integrated their version into their platform. Team collaboration on Hootsuite is easier than ever, allowing team owners to control the account and invite other team members to manage an individual account. Team owners can manage the roles of each individual team member, including revoking access with the click of a button.

Web-WorkAtHome.com – HootSuite Adds New Team Collaboration Tool – Bill Masson

I have always been a fan of HootSuite and they keep on going from strength to strength. This latest set of enhancements gives you more flexibility especially if you are part of a group. Team collaboration is very much in mind in these latest updates, with every social network account having a designated owner who is in charge. This gives the owner the ability to add team members to social networks without compromising password security. Team members can have basic or advanced access to accounts which can easily be transferred as roles change.

With the new Team Management system, you can:

• Invite other HootSuite users to share your Social Networks
• Request access to someone else’s Social Network
• Assign Team Members advanced permissions
• Add RSS feeds to any Social Network you have access to
• Consolidate all your HootSuite accounts

methodshop.com – HootSuite Releases Team Features

Oh Hootsuite, we can’t even begin to count all the reasons why we love you. But the team tools you announced today are just amazing.

Once you add all your accounts to Hootsuite, you can then do all the normal stuff you might do like reply, post, and shorten links. But Hootsuite also allows you to post the same message to multiple accounts, schedule posts, track clicks, import RSS feeds and as of today, add additional team members to help you manage your accounts.

If you haven’t tried Hootsuite yet, then stop reading this article and go sign up for an account now. Hootsuite allows you to add all your social media accounts (Facebook Profiles, Facebook Fan Pages, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, etc.) into one easy to use dashboard.

Web Business Consultants – HootSuite Upgrades – Christine Weremy

In April 2010, Hootsuite added some upgrades that makes it easier to update multiple social media pages (including Twitter and Facebook pages) and to share administration privileges with others. According to the brand’s April 13, 2010 article, each account can add “team members” to the account without compromising password security and each member can hold various administration capabilities (i.e., basic or advanced).

The new updates allows the administrator to add multiple accounts to his or her account without having to create a new account (before accounts with different email addresses couldn’t share the same account). The upgrades also includes adding multiple RSS feeds to a social media pages and a ‘reply all’ option. According to the April article, this option allows the administrator to pre-populate a message with all recipients of an original message with one click.

Anocial – HootSuite Rolls out Team Collaboration – Brian Ellis

Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee and just as hard to sleep after.

Hootsuite announces today that it now plays better with others. The team collaboration tools will now allow you to assemble your own team and give them rights to various social media accounts as needed. Once on the team anyone can add any social media account to the team without administrative rights. The team owner can assign administrative rights to whom ever they choose but retain the right to delete any account when needed. All in all, I see this as a step in the right direction.

USF: University of South Florida – HootSuite: Manage Team and Multiple Twitter Accounts with Ease

HootSuite is a free ‘Swiss Army Knife’ online application for serious Twitter users. If you manage multiple Twitter accounts and/or share twittering duties with your team, you should give HootSuite a try.  HootSuite manages every aspect of the Twitter experience and even provides statistics on your tweets made from HootSuite and Ow.ly, HootSuite’s URL shortener.  There are numerous other features that will help you streamline your Twitter account management, including scheduling your Tweets for times when your readers are actually reading.  I actually schedule most of my tweets for between 9 am and 5 pm, although I actually tweet them around 2:00 am.

Watch this five minute video to see some of the slick features in this amazingly useful product.  Oh, there is also a HootSuite iPhone App. so you can manage your Tweets on-the-go!

This fundamental advancement will enable enterprises, agencies, content publishers, and consultants to work with clients and colleagues seamlessly, without sacrificing control over confidential account info or compromising message timeliness.

Best known as a web and mobile-based tool for managing Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and other social networks, HootSuite continues to respond to organizations who use the dashboard for customer relationship management and support desks applications, in addition to social media promotional campaigns.

And here’s a few more sources who covered the release:

• Computer User – HootSuite Adds Social Network Team Collaboration Tools – Ideal for Agencies, Enterprises, Consultants and Marketing Groups
• Computerized Spirit – HootSuite Adds Team Collaboration Tools – A Brief Tour
• topix – HootSuite Adds Team Collaboration Tools to Social Media Dashboard
• pingmicro - HootSuite Adds Team Collaboration Tools to Social Media Dashboard – Svartling
• twitterarabic-blogspot – HootSuite Targets Agencies and Groups with Social Collaboration Tools
• Yahoo! news – HootSuite Adds Social Network Team Collaboration Tools – Ideal for Agencies, Enterprises, Consultants and Marketing Groups

Thanks for the coverage and just wait to see what we have planned next!

News Roundup business, Facebook, features, feedback, groups, HootSuite, MySpace, new release, release, rss feeds, social media, update, URLs

In an industry first, HootSuite announces that we will be supporting the expansion of social media into the third dimension.

“HootSuite’s unique F3DSMD technology validates our position as a global leader in 3D home entertainment,” said Ryan Holmes, CEO and Co-Founder of HootSuite. “By building a full line-up of 3D Social Media Dashboards and cultivating alliances with content and device providers, Hootsuite will set a higher benchmark in the global 3D entertainment industry.” Read more…

hootsuite news, update 3d, entertainment, features, news

At HootSuite, the professional Twitter client, we want to live up to our name, so we’re constantly listening to you and implementing improvements. Our newest update adds exciting new features, including file sharing and auto-complete. 

Picture Uploading

Many of our users have requested this feature, and we’ve obliged. Within HootSuite, you can now upload pictures by pressing the picture icon.

Once you’ve uploaded your image, HootSuite will return an ow.ly URL for you to tweet — making it trackable through our custom analytics. Every picture uploaded is hosted on ow.ly. By logging into ow.ly, you can also administer your galleries. This is yet another way we’ve pushed Twitter to amazing new heights.

File Uploading

Now you can share files on Twitter. HootSuite is the first major Twitter client to support this exciting feature. Similar to picture uploading, you must instead click the document icon. HootSuite supports many document formats: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, Photoshop, and MP3 files. As with pictures, links to files are trackable with HootSuite’s custom analytics.

Intelligent Auto-Complete

Ever forgotten someone’s Twitter username? HootSuite’s new auto-complete feature helps you overcome this problem. Once you type a name, HootSuite remembers it. With your next reply, HootSuite automatically generates a list of the names you most frequently engage with. You can also remove someone from auto-complete by pressing the “x” button beside their name.

What will HootSuite do next? We’ve got lots of goodness planned, but we welcome all feature requests. What features would you like to see added to HootSuite in our next update?

features, update auto-complete, documents, features, file sharing, image, photo, picture, update

HootSuite can schedule your tweets -- and make life easier

Few of us have the time to be on Twitter all the time. In this post, we explain how to make the most of a well-known HootSuite feature: scheduled tweets.

Improving visibility
If you send more tweets, your Twitter handle and your content become more more visible. Scheduling your content to come out at regular intervals during the day translates to improved visibility, and has the additional benefit of being less interruptive. Many business and power users have told us that scheduling content in advance allows them to focus on other Twitter experiences such as retweeting, sourcing new content streams or having conversations.

Sending time-sensitive tweets
Some tweets need to go out at specific times: announcements, promotions, and customer service responses. This is especially true when your target audience lives in a different time zone than you. In Los Angeles, if you’re starting your workday, someone in London is finishing theirs. With scheduled tweets, you’re able to ensure your followers are reached at the appropriate time.

Controlling content flow
Nobody likes to be inundated with a torrent of tweets. Many Twitter users have a lot to say but do not want to come across as spammy. Instead of sending 20 tweets in the span of 5 minutes, why not send 20 tweets over the course of 10 hours? By staggering your tweets, your messages reach the world in a more cohesive, less obtrusive manner.

Optimizing for traffic
If you know that your links are more likely to be clicked at a particular time, HootSuite lets you schedule accordingly, to maximize the penetration of your content. Public relations people or media workers familiar with Jack Shafer’s news cycle theory will see the benefit of this feature immediately.

These are all good reason to schedule your tweets. But everyone has their own reason for using this HootSuite feature. What is yours?

Twitter, Twitter for business, features content, features, HootSuite, optimization, schedule tweets, strategy, traffic, Twitter, visibility