HootSuite blog – Social Media Dashboard

Localization and Blackberry 1st Look

Plenty of news from HootSuite recently so you know the Owls at the HQ aren’t slowing down for the summer. Today, HootSuite announces a global crowd-sourced project to translate and localize HootSuite for users around the world. Plus, we’re sharing a sneak peek of the coveted Blackberry app.

Crowd-Sourced Translation

Do you speak geek in multiple languages? Great! We want you to be a star in your community by joining the HootSuite translation project.

So far, HootSuite is localized in English and Japanese, but with updates coming in from all around the world (including far-flung locales like Palau and the Faroe Islands), we want to make life a wee bit Hoot-ier for everyone.

To accomplish this mission, we need help from a few wise Owls to play the translate game:

1. Sign up for the HootSuite translation project
2. Choose your languages and projects
3. Submit appropriate words for approval
4. Bask in the glow of your good deeds

We’re starting with a few popular tongues but welcome your suggestions about which language we should add next. We’re also curious to see which language will be first to go live? Portuguese and Dutch are safe bets but maybe Russian or Chinese will storm to the top of the leader board. Whichever is the winner, expect to see a custom Owly design to celebrate.

Fascinated by linguistic nuance? Apply to be a language translation coordinator which means you’ll give the thumbs-up on the submitted translation candidates before pushing live to the applause of thousands.

Watching the Hoots

Some fans want to know *everything* about HootSuite. If you seek knowledge, consider following @HootWatch– a back-channel account which shares a firehose of HootSuite media mentions and fan reactions.

Curious about who’s using HootSuite? Choose a few @HootWatch lists to follow well-know brands, famous artists, government agencies, education institutions who choose HootSuite for their social media forays.

Plug-ins, Extensions and Apps

While the web version is the most-used variation of HootSuite’s social media dashboard, you can also run HootSuite as a standalone app, add browser extensions, or utilize the Hootlet to enhance your experience.

The Hootlet is the social media aficionado’s secret weapon. Add this bookmarklet to quickly create an update from any web page. A single click pops open a messages already pre-populated with a short link and the page’s <title> tag. You can then edit, schedule or send like any other message. Also available as a browser extension for Firefox and Chrome.

Grab the apps and learn all about these mighty tools at the Help Desk.

A Very Berry Owl

Click for a larger view of HootSuite for Blackberry®

Blackberry fans are adamantly vocal about their desire to Hoot from their beloved ‘berrys — and the wait is almost over! Soon fans everywhere will have a ‘berry-ready Owl with Facebook and Twitter in your hand — just don’t squish it!

To quench your desire, here are the first screenshots of HootSuite for Blackberry to share with your colleagues.

The pilot batch of HootSuite for Blackberry beta users are testing the first iteration with more invites going out soon (we haven’t forgotten about the thousands of you who signed up to test).

Haven’t added your name to the beta list yet? Get on board by signing-up for the HootSuite for Blackberry beta program to be ahead of the curve.

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We call the Hootlet our secret weapon because it has the power to completely change how you use Twitter. Want to share a link? No need to leave the page. Hit the Hootlet button, and your tweet is almost done. Automatically, the URL is shortened and text is grabbed from the site’s <title> tag. It’s that easy!

So what is the Hootlet like in action? Let’s take a peek.

Installation

It can’t get any simpler than this. To install the Hootlet, you drag and drop it into the bookmark bar. Still confused? Don’t worry, we got this nifty YouTube tutorial.

Using the Hootlet

The Hootlet takes simplicity to insane heights. What must you do to use it? Press the Hootlet button in the bookmark bar.

Once you do that, a new window pops up. Your URL has been shrunk with our ow.ly URL shortener, and the tweet is ready to go. But what makes the Hootlet more amazing is the ability to schedule!

What’s HootSuite if you can’t manage multiple accounts? You can do that from the Hootlet too. Click on the profiles you want to use for tweeting, and a checkmark confirms what accounts will send the message.

How Can the Hootlet Help?

The Hootlet saves time. With it, you no longer have to manually shorten a URL — an ow.ly link is provided automatically. Headlines are grabbed from the source’s <title> tag and are used as default text. Best of all, you never have to leave a site to tweet about. This is why the Hootlet is our secret weapon — and will be yours too.

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Thanks to your excellent feedback, the team at HootSuite’s been busy. We’ve added features and improvements to your favourite one-stop twitter tool.

New Features:

• Tweet monetization thanks to Google AdSense integration with Ow.ly. If you have a Google AdSense account, you can add your own ads to any ow.ly-shortened links you send out.
• Ability to tweet RSS feeds. Each RSS tweet gets its own ow.ly URL, so you can track clickthroughs on every new blog post.
• Our very own bookmarklet, Hootlet! Allows you to instantly tweet the URL of any page you’re on without visiting HootSuite.com.
• Sync your avatar with Twitter.com. Users can instantly update their Twitter profile image at HootSuite if it’s changed at Twitter, without re-uploading the image.

Improvements:

• Increased DM characters to 280, to reflect the latest Twitter change
• Re-organized the Settings page, so it’s now grouped by tab
• Added ‘Confirm Email’ field in sign-up (to eliminate email typos)
• Added an “auto initials” function when creating new tweets -BK
• Added an in-line login box popup for session timeouts
• Implemented better Ajax error handling
• And a bunch of other small bug fixes….

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