HootSuite blog – Social Media Dashboard

There is a lot going on at HootSuite HQ these days and soon we’re hitting the road to participate in upcoming events and meet more HootSuite users! We’ll host some HootUps along the way – plus flow some truly collectible swag ~ so follow along to say hello and offer your thoughts on HootSuite.

Here’s where we’re bound:

Seattle – 140 | The Twitter Conference

Date: March 8, 2010

Sponsor: HootSuite is a Silver Sponsor

Blurb: Get Your Business Started on Twitter

• Basic tools for reading tweets and posting to Twitter
• How to grow your followership
• Understanding the security risks to your brand and your customers
• Gathering and analyzing data from Twitter

Panel: “License to Tweet: Applications and Services To Die For” ~ 4:30pm – 5:30pm
Panelists: Kathy Gill, DL Byron, Ricardo Rabago, Ryan Holmes, Dan Shapiro Moderator: Steve Broback

Twitter is more than just 140 characters. Twitter is a platform that grows more powerful every day, as developers, entrepreneurs, and people with too much time on their hands create thousands of tools and services that do everything from sending direct messages to tweeting on behalf of your houseplants. This panel of Twitter elites will share their favorite Twitter applications and services, and how these apps help them draw value from the Stream. Managing the Twitter Stream * Top Twitter Applications and Services * Applying Twitter to the Real World * What Apps Do You Wish Someone Would Build?

Registration: 15% off for Hootsuite users: HOOT140 – Attend
Location: Bell Harbor Conference Center downtown Seattle.
Twitter: @tweethouse
Website: http://parnassusgroup.com/twitterconference

Austin – SXSW Interactive Conference 2010

Date: March 12-16, 2010

Blurb:

Features five days of compelling presentation from the brightest minds in emerging technology, scores of exciting networking events hosted by industry leaders and an unbeatable line up of special programs showcasing the best new websites, video games and startup ideas the community has to offer.

Registration: Attend
Location: Austin, Texas at the Austin Convention Center
Twitter: @sxsw
Website: http://sxsw.com/interactive

Toronto – Sprout Up Toronto

Date: March 24, 2010

Blurb:

This is a free monthly gathering of like-minded entrepreneurs. “A great chance for startups around the city to get friendly, discuss current trends, and network in a casual, open, and focused setting.”

Innovation Demo – Pre-selected entrepreneurs share their innovative business ideas to the audience
Guest Speaker – Fabulous new speakers will be brought in each month to spur new discussions on relevant trends and ideas
Networking – Network with peers: share knowledge, experiences and drinks

Panel: “Challenges faced and lessons learned as a startup” with Ryan Holmes ~ 6:30-10:30pm

Registration: Attend
Location: Sprout Up Toronto will be held at The Pilot in Yorkville
Twitter: @sprouter
Website: http://sprouter.com/blog/sprout-up-toronto/

F5 Expo

Date: April 7, 2010

Sponsor: HootSuite is the “social feed” sponsor and hosting the Twitter Etiquette panel

Blurb:

1. A function key on a computer used to refresh a web browser or file manager.
2. A business conference for executives on changing technologies in the online space such as social media, search marketing, mobile applications, and future trends. The inaugural event will be held on April 7, 2010 in world renowned, Vancouver, Canada.

Panel: Ryan Holmes is participating in The Secret to Success: Avoiding Start-up Pitfalls panel 1:40 – 2:30pm along with Michael Fergusson and Danny Robinson.

Workshop: Twitter Etiquette for Business 10:00am | 10:45am | 11:30am | 1:00pm

Whether you’re already on the Twitter bandwagon or you see it as merely the latest trend, recognizing the impact of microblogging on business is important. Trends in this area are quickly emerging and evolving. For example, companies are now paying high ranking twitter members to talk about them. It’s a turn (perhaps for the worst) in social media campaigns. Stay in the know by learning about new twitter trends and the impact they could have on your business. More importantly, get to know some basic rules that will help you build a loyal following.

Registration: Attend
Location: Vancouver Convention Centre in downtown Vancouver
Twitter: @f5expo
Website: www.f5-expo.com

events 140 | The Twitter Conference, events, F5 Expo, HootSuite, Sprout Up Toronto, SXSW

After weeks of diligent preparation, it’s  a treat to pause and explore the reaction to the new version before hunkering down to prepare for the next release.

It’s truly a treat hearing how excited many of you are about the HootSuite Barn-Owl release so, if it’s OK with you, we’ll share some of your posts:

Are We Perfect Yet?

HootSuite Announces New Features, Including Klout Integration. Is This (Almost) The Perfect Twitter Client? by Shea Bennett from Twittercism

Earlier today HootSuite was down momentarily while they added some new features to the platform. This included a welcome People tab, which allows you to quickly manage your new followers, as well as those you have recently followed yourself.

Interestingly, it comes with integrated support from Klout, which while not a flawless system is probably the closest thing we have right now to a reliable measure of an individual’s online influence and social status.

Great to hear that you are enjoying our new features and thanks for pointing out the value of the Klout integration!

Sharing Secrets to Success

4 More Reasons to Start Using HootSuite by Travis Campbell at MarketingProfessor

I am often asked, “How do you sync all your social profiles?” or “Are there tools available to help people manage multiple social profiles?” I have used multiple services over the past couple years, but my favorite has been HootSuite, and now it just got better.

Travis, we love hearing that you are saving time using HootSuite. Thanks for highlighting the new features and sharing your pro skillz with others.

Efficiency and Progress

The Twitter @ConversationAge Effect from Valeria Maltoni at ConversationAgent puts forth a must-read article about using HootSuite to build efficiencies into your outreach strategy

The point of an automation tool is not for it to do your work, of course. It’s to make doing your work simpler, so you can attend to the things that really matter, like integrating the use of tool with your overall business strategy.

You still get to figure out who you want to reach, how you’re going to listen and track, and what you will answer. Remember that it’s not about more data. Often it’s about what you do with the data you collect.

This is a comprehensive look at HootSuite on how Barn Owl can help marketers and support groups with many pro tips and concepts to consider about the value of links and clicks. We hope it can help you too!

Features Roundup

Web Strategy Workshop offered a breakdown of HootSuite’s Latest Release features:

Updates include…

1. Know and Grow your Audience
2. Custom URL Parameters for deeper integration with Google Analytics & Omniture
3. Save updates as drafts
4. Convert your groups to lists
5. And More!!!

Check out their press release

Thanks for that spotlight on the new tools in the HootSuite kit.

Recap Redux

funny by accident. also spread the news in new hootsuite version comes out today.

We love that copywriting

There are more reviews and recamps rolling in so stay aware and check back when you aren’t watching the Winter Olympics AKA the Social Media Games – and thanks again for your opinions and perspectives.

News Roundup barn owl, HootSuite, news, recaps, release, reviews

The good news continues from HootSuite HQ with the release of “Barn Owl” – the new iteration of our beloved (and award-winning) social media dashboard. This release includes tools which will delight marketing departments, customer support teams and anyone who seeks to understand their audience plus track what’s working.

In all, HootSuite’s new release delivers on requests from hardcore fans including complete relationship management, enhanced statistics reporting, and a “save as draft” functionality as well as a few tune-ups to stay at the forefront of performance and convenience.

Here’s a recap of the new tools and their benefits:

Know and Grow your Audience

Sure you’re friendly, but keeping track of all your pals and contacts can get overwhelming. Get to know your audience better with the new Friends and Followers chart. Besides the usual profile info, you’ll see their activity level and “Klout” score, and you can quickly reciprocate the friendliness across networks.

Track what’s Working

Marketing pros take note: HootSuite helps you gather intelligence by tracking which messages generate clicks – including breakdowns by time and by region. Easily share your success with chart printing plus CSV exports for custom reports and PDF printing. Oh did we mention custom URL parameters? If you know what they are, you’re definitely excited.

Embrace Procrastination

Ever have an update in mind but missing one critical part? Perhaps a link or an image? Just “Save as a Draft” on any of your accounts and finish and publish to your networks at your leisure (or whenever you get around to it).

Get Tw’Listed

Twitter Lists are the new Groups – Play friendly with the Twitter-verse by converting your existing groups and lists and the accompanying glory. We’ve made the transition easy – just click the boxes to migrate to public or private lists – it’ll be worth it.

And that ain’t all

More tweaks and tune-ups include: improved Linkedin commenting, custom URL variables for campaign tracking and more tweaks under the hood.

Ready Already

The best part is: To enjoy the new features, you don’t have to do anything ~ just keeping Hooting!

Fresh Help

We’ve also evolved the ways to get help. Choose from the Feedback channel for feature requests, props and thoughts. Or use the Help Desk for FAQs, how-tos and troubleshooting tips (even submit a ticket if you really need to).  Of course, you can always find the Owls on Twitter @hootsuite_help along with Facebook, Flickr, and MySpace.

Webinar

Curious? Have questions? Want to see a demo? The HootSuite team are inviting media and users to attend a brief Webinar on Tuesday at 11am PST for a tour of the new release. Tune-in for the Webinar.

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Reach Magazine with HootSuite CEO Ryan Holmes

The new issue of Reach Magazine features Boys Co, Carlie Wong and HootSuite complete with mug shot on the front cover and a “day in the life of Ryan Holmes” narrative inside.

The article: “The Who’s Who of HootSuite” by Melissa Welsh delves into the day-to-day events of a start-up company from early wake-ups to constant connectedness plus sheds light on Ryan from his attire to yogic practice with at least 2 mentions of his hair :

When Ryan Holmes rolls over in his bed in the morning, regaining consciousness from an unusual lapse of solitary respite, instead of stretching a lazy limb to grasp a cup of coffee like most morning inefficient people, his fatigued fingers clasp his iPhone. They rest but for a moment, until they jump into action typing, checking email.

Tumbling out of bed, the tweet update is the next item of business, even before as much as a morning bite or sip of herbal infused tea. With Holmes’ dog Mika in tow, the pair take a quick jaunt down the streets of downtown Vancouver’s east-side and enter the doors of Invoke media’s trendy work studio, just off Dunlevy Avenue, to begin the already started work day. Their entrance diverts my eyes from the black, blue and white art graffiti on the walls of the foyer.

We sit in one of the office’s boardrooms; the walls and table are white. Holmes sits in front of me, dressed in a red plaid shirt and jeans. A baseball hat dons his head, covering a crop of slightly disheveled ginger hair.

Even though his days are filled with navigating the convoluted and interconnected roads of the virtual social networking hemisphere, he seems at ease. Perhaps it’s a bought of clarity that he managed to hold onto from his yoga session the night before.

Not only does Ryan’s dog Mika get name-checked but also manages to get in the photo – peering out the window keeping a close eye on the proceedings. Ms. Welch goes on to explain about HootSuite features like admin/editor control, integration points beyond Twitter including Facebook, a list of recent awards and some solid quotes from ‘Tenacious R.’

Ryan Holmes at HootSuite HQ with dog Mika

The software’s universal usability has caused HootSuite to take home a number of notable awards. This past year alone, HootSuite has won Mashable’s Open Web Award for Best Twitter App, a Shorty Award for Best Application, and most recently a Canadian New Media Award for Best Social Media Application. The software was also finalist in the prestigious 2009 Forrester Groundswell Awards.

“It’s such an honor,” Holmes said, taking his hat off to rake his fingers through his tousled hair. “I think we have pretty good gut instincts on stuff.”

But even though Invoke may seem to be doing impossibly well, Holmes knows even award winning companies will always be in a competitive process. Sitting at the sleek white table, leaning forward, this rather inconspicuous-looking man is actually a tenacious businessman.

“It’s all been grinding,” Holmes said, adding that while the company’s reputation helps, you as an entrepreneur have to make things happen. “Nothing is owed to you, you have to earn things.”

Download the entire Reach Magazine issue to learn more about Ryan and Melissa’s conversation about the behind-the-scenes happenings at HootSuite.

hootsuite news HootSuite, interviews, mika, reach magazine, ryan holmes, ryan's hair

As part of their mission of “Uniting the Tech Community,” online tech news source Techvibes partnered up with Carlson Media for a series of one-on-one interviews with leaders in the Vancouver tech community hosted by Victoria Revay – spokeswoman for many fine companies.

The video came at a great time in which the “incubating company” Invoke Media was launching HootSuite & ow.ly into an orbit of it’s own.

“Up in this second episode is Ryan Holmes of Vancouver’s Invoke Media. Invoke is an interactive agency that has been in the news of late after spinning off it’s HootSuite social media dashboard and raising $1.9 Million from outside investors.”

Watch the TechProfile: Ryan Holmes of Invoke Media and HootSuite and jump in with your comments about Ryan’s remarks.

TechProfiles: Invoke Media from Justin Carlson on Vimeo.

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Owly HootSuite at Sociable! Launch Party by @jeremylim

While we hunker down at HootSuite HQ, we’re finding ways to help you spread messages, grow audience and track results. Many HootSuite users are mentoring, evangelizing and otherwise spreading the good word to colleagues, industries and social networks. Each example is a treat to find and share, though sometimes it takes us a couple days to gather them amidst a myriad of other tasks: helping solve problems and adding fresh features.

So, settle in for a few minutes with a tasty beverage for another HootSuite News Round-up:

Time and Sanity for Paralegals

Carole Bruno, a @ParalegalAuthor for over 35 years, writes: HootSuite is Many Steps Beyond TweetDeck:

Now that I’ve gotten TweetDeck down pat, along comes HootSuite! After some study, I was able to summarize it for my readers. In my opinion, it is much better than TweetDeck, because it is more organized and more like I think. I probably will continue to use TweetDeck too. I don’t know, but I wanted to summarize it for you.

Save your time and save your sanity. Continue managing all of your Twitter profiles through one client: HootSuite.

Saving time and sanity – that’s important to everyone!

Managing Efforts Easily

Next, @jeremyawilliams shows how to Manage Your Social Media Efforts with Hootsuite:

If you’ve already created a Twitter account, a Facebook fanpage and a Wordpress blog for your organization, you’re on the right track. Now that you have accounts at a handful of social media sites, how do you manage them all?

There are dozens of social media management platforms out there, including some great ones like TweetDeck and Seesmic. Both are great applications, but they need to be installed on your computer. One of the many great things about Hootsuite is it’s 100% web-based. You simply visit Hootsuite.com, log in and you can manage your social media initiatives from any computer with an internet connection…

I’ve been using Hootsuite as my primary social media management tool for the past several months and I’ve been extremely impressed. There is a Hootsuite App available for iPhone and I’m waiting for the Blackberry app that will hopefully follow. Have you used Hootsuite?

Thanks for the input on a Blackberry App, Jeremy. People can vote up the Blackberry feature request at HootSuite’s support site.

Making Twitter Simpler

Allan Hoffman, a guest columnist for the Star-Ledger,  contributes Lost in the Twitterverse?

You would think Twitter would be the ultimate in simplicity. After all, the service is famous for limiting posts to 140 characters, typically just a sentence (or a fragment of one). You type your message, press the “update” button, and that’s that. But is Twitter as simple as that? Not really. …

If you had any doubts about Twitter’s use by business, a tour of HootSuite will settle the issue.

Thanks, Allan! We try to make life simpler so people can concentrate on the benefits of using the social web. Plus, Twitter does becomes more enjoyable with trend tracking and conversation monitoring.

2010: A Social Odyssey

Sam Brace added his thoughts about coming trends in 2010: The year social media comes of age for businesses for Inside Tucson Business:

Facebook, Twitter, Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, LinkedIn. Where are these social media platforms taking us? Will there come a day when information is beamed directly into the cortex of our desired audience? While that seems unlikely, so did the concept of a social networking site like Facebook 10 years ago…

So how are marketers measuring social media investments? Third-party Twitter applications, such as Hootsuite and Tweetdeck, are free and can show how many people clicked on content in tweets. Facebook has a free program on its business pages called Insight that can determine similar values. Other sources are available, too.

This will prove to be an exciting year for social media and the professionals who strategically use these sites to build brand awareness and relationships. The new developments in the medium are sure to come. Adapting to the times and looking forward is virtually certain to be the most effective trend for any perceptive professional.

I agree, Sam. What used to be divided into “social media” and “traditional media” or “social marketing” and “advertising” will now be just “media” and “marketing” as the tools mold to fit the needs of business.

Scheduling for the World Market

Gideon Nieuwoudt reviews HootSuite on iafrica.com with tips and recommendations for his audience:

With social networking sites growing in popularity, but also in the way companies have begun to utilise it to talk to their customers, it’s becoming more and more important to get a proper tool to connect to the social network of your choice. To get the most out of one of these, Twitter, relies on getting the information you want to share out there as quickly as possible, while also having the information shared by those you follow available to you with ease.

In the last few years since Twitter’s release, a number of software packages have sprung up that does this, but none of them really works as well as the website HootSuite.

At the centre of HootSuite’s appeal is its clean, simple interface — it’s just easier to do what you want, when you want it (you can schedule your tweets to go out at a certain time, which is brilliant when you want to target an announcement to an audience that’s situated in a different time zone).

You can also access other social networking sites through it, like Facebook, LinkedIn, Ping.fm and even WordPress.

Gideon has a great point about different time zones. When speaking to a global audience, communicating to them at an ideal time is key.

Mayo’s Social Teamwork

Meanwhile in Ireland, The Mayo News shares a great HootSuite review in “A Site in my Sights” column. Here are some key points:

Benefits
Hootsuite allows multiple users to easily manage multiple social networking accounts. It has the added benefit of a basic (if inconsistent) analytics package for your short URLs. It copes well with Twitter lists and Facebook pages and can save Tweets and send them later at a prescheduled time. It’s perfect for corporate social networking – for example nine of us use it in The Mayo News for our five (so far) Twitter accounts and Facebook page. It can also be used for LinkedIn, Ping.fm and Wordpress. For those nasty corporations who want to prevent their staff from accessing Twitter and Facebook, Hootsuite allows monitoring and updating without accessing the actual websites, enabling the (short-sighted) blocking of the sites themselves (boo!).

Is it any good?
Yes, with the caveats above, Hootsuite is great. Its integration is extremely convenient and the iPhone app is extremely handy. Recommended. FK

Thanks for sharing an example on how to use HootSuite as a team. The admin/editor set-up takes a few minutes to organize but saves time, hassle, and provides better workflow tracking.

Coming Next

Tune in next week for the next news roud-up. In the meantime, keep the Hoots coming and we’ll keep sharing.

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With recent news about adding funding partners and the newly-released social media iPhone app, the web is brimming with articles about HootSuite. But of particular interest to us are the people and companies who are using the social media dashboard in inspiring and interesting ways – plus teaching others how to spark social media-powered campaigns designed to grow audience and spread messages.

With this in mind, here’s a round-up for reviews, tutorials, punditry and accolades from the past fortnight.

Mashed up for Business

First off, a double does of Mashable and American Express Open Forum – the wise minds and info curators @mashable contribute knowledge to AmEx’s space for SME’s and entrepreneurs to share tips and tactics.

Mashable’s Barb Dybwad (perhaps the coolest Twitter handle ever) shares Essential Social Media Tools for the Small Business which includes CoTweet as well as HootSuite:

If your small business has a presence on Twitter, you’ll want to look into two great and free tools for managing your account: CoTweet and HootSuite. You can think of them essentially as Customer Relationship Management tools for Twitter.

Both services offer a similar core functionality, allowing you to manage multiple individual accounts, give multiple authors access to individual Twitter accounts, search for keywords and monitor saved searches over time, and get message notifications based on certain criteria. Beyond that, each service has its own custom features — and which app is right for your business will depend on who in your organization needs to use it and what functions you need to access in your business.

Another @mashable writer Leah Betancourt contributed 5 Ways Small Businesses Can Avoid Social Media Panic which appear on Mashable and Am EX Open Forum and provides practical tips for busineses to get over the glassy-eyed feeling when adding social media-powered campaigns to their marketing mix – of course her tips include using HootSuite for tracking.

The notion of getting into social media might seem overwhelming for any small business. Spending time upfront before launch to create a plan with goals that includes how to translate that social media presence into dollars will go a long way toward achieving success.

Some examples of metrics to look at are: How many visitors came to your site from a social media site; Conversion (i.e. how many people clicked through to your site and then bought a product or service), Falls said. In minimal terms, be able to say something like: I spent X dollars and was able to track X amount of revenue (or percentage).

Link shorteners can help track click throughs on Twitter. Twitter tools such as Seesmic (), TweetDeck (), HootSuite () and others can help users track mentions, direct messages and @replies.

Hoots for Growth

Inc.com published Lori Highby’s experiences building her web design business in How to Use HootSuite for Business (article is dated Feb 1, 2010 which is in the future ~ whoa) – again practical advice for entrepreneurs:

I use HootSuite to streamline the process. It lets me manage multiple accounts on one dashboard. I can schedule tweets in advance instead of logging on every time I want to send one. When I write a new blog post, HootSuite automatically sends a tweet to my followers. If I’m reading an interesting article online, I can click on the Hootlet feature in my browser’s Favorites bar to send out a tweet with the story’s name and URL. A stats feature lets me see how many people clicked on any given link so I can tailor future tweets accordingly.

I also use HootSuite to keep track of tweets containing certain keywords. Anytime someone mentions Keystone Click, for example, it appears on my HootSuite dashboard. I sift through the responses at the beginning and end of each day, tracking both positive and negative feedback and reaching out to potential customers. I use the search term Web design company to scour Twitter for prospective clients.

BtoBMagazine’s Rich Karpinski addresses businesses looking to gain a foothold with their outreach methods in Twitter tools for teams – As Tweeting evolves into a group activity, applications offer options – and includes a comment from the Chief Executive Owl:

While many marketers still use standalone clients or even Twitter.com for their tweeting, the convoluted workflow requirements for keeping up with Twitter, not to mention all the other social networks, scream for a more capable tool. HootSuite CEO Ryan Holmes, for instance, calls his company’s app “the ultimate social media dashboard,” and in recent months has added LinkedIn and Facebook postings to its Twitter core. HootSuite counts Dell, Fox and MSNBC among its customers.

Author Holly Reville created a video about how to use Hootsuite to Manage Multiple Accounts & Schedule Tweets – Holly Reville is a humanitarian, an entrepreneur and an author and founder of Xpressive Marketing, specializing in corporate training, cause and social media marketing. (Note: Subscribe to Holly’s YouTube channel for more). Here’s the set-up:

Let’s face it in today’s busy lifestyles we can all use a little help making it easier to keep up with our Social Media efforts. Hootsuite.com is a valuable tool for doing just that. It gives you the ability to manage multiple twitter accounts and schedule tweets ahead of time. Check out this video to learn how!

Helping Haiti

from United Nations Development Programme's Flickr photostream

Speaking of humanitarians, Brad came up with a plan to use HootSuite to schedule reminders to encourage followers to donate to Haiti even when the stirring images fade from the TV broadcast on Lawn with Gnomes post: Hacking Haiti Donations.

I gave to Haiti, did you? While I did give, it just felt like it wasn’t as much as I would like to or can afford at the moment. I thought maybe I’ll take time to work in a local charity? Reality of course set in, the reality that I’m a full-time student and hold a part-time job.

So what’s the idea/hack? It’s simple; 1) Sign up or sign into Hootsuite.

Love that first step and best wishes for your noble quest to help Haiti. BTW United Nations Development Programmer are using Twitter

Quick Hoots

The Marketing Tech blog’s pundit Douglas Karr offers some gentle copywriting advice: Dear Tech Marketers: Stop Marketing Features over Benefits and was kind enough to follow up to my comment:

Congratulations DaveO on the new digs! You’re working for a company with an amazing product. I especially love your iPhone app, I believe it to be the best on the market. Hopefully you can get this post over to your web marketing team, I believe it will help you improve your penetration of the enterprise market. Thanks for coming out and responding – it says a lot about HootSuite!

Blogger James St. John lends a hand to HootSuite’s support efforts with a re-cap of key features including using lists plus adding Facebook and Linkedin in The Professional Twitter Client, for serious marketeers

Seeking More?

hootsuite news amex, blogs, business, case studies, growth, hacking haiti, haiti, HootSuite, mashable, news, sme, tips, tricks

Big times here at HootSuite HQ as I arrived in the office yesterday and jumped right in with the ace team of developers and designers. No relaxing after the big announcement around here – instead the crew is on full throttle to continually improve the beloved social media dashboard.

But I’m not the only new face around here – over the coming weeks, I’ll introduce you to the versatile bunch who are diligently evolving HootSuite into what YOU want it to be (probably anyhow ).

I’m DaveO, Say Hello

Rather than introduce myself awkwardly in third-person, here’s what TechVibes published yesterday:

Dave Olson joins HootSuite as Community Director

“One week after announcing that they raised $1.9 Million from VCs and Angels, HootSuite is putting that money to work and have hired Dave Olson as their new Community Director.

Olson will be responsible for overseeing marketing, outreach, and support for HootSuite and already has a number of educational and aspirational campaigns planned to evangelize the social media dashboard to content makers.

Olson was an early user of the initial Bright Kit tool and has actively used HootSuite for promoting his own projects – so this appears to be a perfect fit on both sides.”

Naturally, you can follow me on Twitter @daveohoots ~ ping me with your ideas for outreach and community building activities (and yeah, I tend a blog called Ephemeral Feasthouse). Of course for support-centric inquiries, please use HootSuite Support on Get Satisfaction and follow @hootsuite_help.

Creating Content Compulsively

I truly enjoy creating and publishing content to an audience using web tools – and I enjoy teaching others how to share their musing and creations with like-minded enthusiasts the world over (perhaps you’ve caught my shtick at SXSW, Northern Voice, WordCamp Whistler or various media outlets?)

Since my earliest days, I’ve created fanzines, newsletters, chapbooks and audio programs. When I “discovered” the web living on the island of Guam in 1995, my jaw dropped as I learned anyone can post words and pictures, in color, for free or cheap. The next day, I began publishing my essays, stories and collections on the web and never looked back. A barrage or citizen reporting, podcast documentaries and a Twitter stream-of-consciousness all followed suit.

In previous professional incarnations, I’ve used HootSuite as, well … a user, so in my brief tenure, I’ve shared ideas about features, tune-ups and tweaks to add even more functionality. Stay tuned for more frequent announcements about what’s changing, plus I’ve learned a few new tricks which I’ll share in the coming months.

What’s on Tap?

On this blog channel, look forward to a variety of helpful discourse about enjoying this powerful paradigm where “regular folks” can have impact world events and share musings from recipes to revolutions.
Case Studies – analysis and knowledge sharing about unique HootSuite-powered social campaigns
Featured Users - all sorts of people and orgs are Hooting ~ from governments to rock bands ~ we wanna tell their stories
Tips and Tricks - think you know it all? betcha we can show you features and tactics you haven’t found yet – or perhaps will you show us?
Webinars – want to exchange experience and best practices about campaigns? great, we’ll schedule online sessions to discuss & teach
Meets the Owls - the devs behind the screens are the unsung heroes of tech-centric companies – we’ll introduce the folks who makes your tools
On the Road - with financing and a growing user base, we’re traveling to conferences and events to extol the HootSuite message ~ and meet the true believers

How do you Hoot?

I get a thrill from coming across projects using HootSuite in ways I’d never thought about before. Are you doing something unique and innovative with HootSuite? Are you running social-media-powered campaigns using HootSuite? Working for social change at a NPO/NGO? Maybe you are a record label managing multiple bands and fans? Drop me a note to share your kung-fu with the HootSuite nation.

Photo Credits:

Dave Olson in old-timey hat by kk+ Flickr
Dave Olson at WordCamp Whistler by Ianiv in Flickr

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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?

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