HootSuite blog – Social Media Dashboard

Global Owl

HootSuite is truly an international social media dashboard and we love it that way. Why? Because we find fulfillment from seeing the actions and activities of users all over the world who are helping one another learn how to use the social web to spread messages to audiences from anywhere.

We’re working on providing more people a personalized experience in their own language with translation and localization on both iPhone and web versions for HootSuite which is exciting enough to celebrate on your vuvuzela.

While we keep working at our tasks, here’s a fresh news round-up with a sampling of what people are saying about HootSuite in their countries to peruse while you watch the finals of the FIFA World Cup — after which Twitter traffic may even return to “normal.”

The original posts are translated from the native languages using the wonders of Google Translate to give you the gist of what they say.

Let’s get going:

TwitterSmash (Germany) – HootSuite im Unternehmen

HootSuite in the company – This post comes from Germany and the author describes why they have chosen to use HootSuite. They go through the advantages (Vorteile) and disadvantages (Nachteile) of the social media dashboard. Danke for the feedback.

Descary.com (French Canadian) – HootSuite5, l’un des meilleurs tableaux de bord pour réseaux sociaux

HootSuite5, one of the best dashboards for social networks – Benoit Descary is from Montreal and writes that he wasn’t the biggest fan of HootSuite until the introduction of HootSuite5. He goes on to describe many of the new features in the HootSuite5 release and calls HootSuite “a true dashboard for social networks.” Merci Benoit!

Internet Watch (Japanese) – Twitterウェブクライアント「HootSuite」が日本語化、HTML5対応の新機能も

Twitter web client “HootSuite” of Japanese language , HTML5 support new features – Japanese users are excited about the localized version for their language and in this article, they extol the virtues of HTML 5 including “drag and drop” ability and improved performance along with the Japanese-i-fication.

Midia boom (Portuguese) – HootSuite | Nova interface em Html5 e recursos aprimorados para Redes Sociais

HootSuite | New interface and enhanced features in HTML5 for Social Networks – In this post, Chico Montenegro writes about some of the new features such as geo-location and themes from the HootSuite 5 update. We hope this is helpful for HootSuite fans in Brazil.

GeeksRoom (Spanish) – GeeksRoom Review: HOOTSUITE renovado: Lo bueno, lo maluco y lo pésimo

GeeksRoom Review: HootSuite renovated: The good and the bad – In this frank review of the HootSuite 5 update, Eduardo Wheeler writes that he likes the improved profile view, the themes, as well as the not so new scheduling feature.

Eduardo balances the good feedback with the bad and mentions a few other things that he would like to see improved. In the end, Eduardo remains a daily user and recommends HootSuite to professionals managing multiple social media accounts.

elNuevavodia (Spanish) – No dejes que la tecnología te esclavice

Do not let technology enslave you – In this provocatively titled post, Leanne Italie shares life-hacking productivity tips from former Google exec and congnitive scientist Douglas C. Merrill incuding using HootSuit to manage your social interactions so they don’t get out of control and control your day. Not much about HootSuite but interesting nonetheless.

TechVibes – Hootsuite’s Vorsprung durch Technik

Techically written in English but TechVibes’ Jeffery Simpson has some fun with Google Translate in writing about HootSuite’s localization: Forgive Babel Fish’s shoddy German, but it just did not feel right to title a post about the addition of localization support to Twitter manager extraordinaire HootSuite without at least trying to make it multilingual.  Localization support for Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese and German joins the previous translation services that the application offered in its last update.

More HootSuite

Remember, you can catch all the HootSuite news via the social bookmark stream and/or by following @hootwatch for the full firehose feed of media mentions.

News Roundup french, german, HootSuite, international, japan, news, news round-up, translate, Twitter

This news round-up focuses on a few posts discussing social media efficiency, international versions, media convergence, plus planning and measuring strategic campaigns.

Take some time to enjoy the knowledge and let us know which articles you particularly enjoyed.

As always, catch more HootSuite news via the social bookmark stream and point out any articles we’ve missed in the comments.

Here we go:

Business Week – Stop Wasting Time on Social Media

Karen E. Klein and Ivan Misner (founder and chairman of business networking organization BNI.com) in a Q&A:

There are great services they should be using like Ping.fm, Seesmic, and Hootsuite.com. You can go there and it ties all your social media together. In other words, they’re probably logging on to their Facebook account and going to their page and typing in their message, and then going to Twitter and LinkedIn and doing the same thing. It kills time. If you use sites like this, you write one message and they ping everything so you’re not spending 20 minutes to do what you can in three minutes.

Some great tips for working efficiently – thanks Karen and Ivan.

ADO Strategies – Application Convergence: Have you seen the new Hootsuite?

Application Convergence: Have you seen the new Hootsuite? from ADO Strategies

Matthew Snyder writes:

What we have seen is that our friends in Vancouver  (Hootsuite) have really looked to market differentiation with these translation tools.

{snip}

When I saw the announcement in April by Hootsuite I felt like they were really listening to the customer; as there must had been lots others like me with the same predicament.  In my mind this is a big move by the Hootsuite folks in their attempt  at this and even though we have not yet seen this capability on Facebook,  MARK MY WORDS….. This is going to be one of the most important features for them with their 500M users in the coming months.  If they do not buy Hootsuite, then they will do this themselves by the end of the year.

Interesting points Matthew — we definitely feel it’s important to embrace users from around the world and take a true global view of the impact of the social web. Now, about HTML 5 …

CommunicateAsia – Hootsuite Awarded a Big Hat Tip (from me) for Thinking Like an Internationalist

Michael Netzley writes:

Hootsuite, one of the major tools for Twitter lovers, now has translation built into its iPhone app — Japanese, German, Spanish, and Portuguese. While this does give us access to one of the world’s truly leading digital markets, Japan, other Asian countries are not yet included (I remain hopeful). Still, a big hat tip to Hootsuite for thinking like an Internationalist! A rare thing in the 21st century, so much appreciated.

We’ve since added localization for Korean and Arabic to the iPhone with more language choices to come – thanks Professor.

thoughtpick – 4 Awesome Web-based Twitter Clients

M. Bamieh writes:

If you can appreciate the utility of an electric screw driver over its traditional cousin, you will appreciate Hootsuite. {snip} This is a heavy application, and certainly more enterprise centric providing you with a command console worthy of a marketing department HQ. If you have many Twitter accounts to manage or you are a star and would like to manage the accounts of your Twitter account ghost writers this is the tool to use.

HootSuite loves marketing departments and Twitter stars alike

inmanNews – How to measure social media strategy and success

Katie Lance writes:

Along with Google Analytics, I utilize the statistical feature in Hootsuite. I think Hootsuite is a must for any social media manager or anyone who is consistently managing a social media campaign on different platforms.

Once you are logged into Hootsuite, to view your statistics, look at the lower-left-hand corner of your screen and click the “Launch” button. From there you can check your stats summary or individual messages by clicking “Summary.”

Glad to hear Katie – have you tried the custom URL parameters yet?

Youngentrepreneur – 8 Awesome Tools Every Entrepreneur Needs

Navid Zolfaghari writes:

Through Hootsuite’s unique social media dashboard, you can collaboratively schedule updates to Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Wordpress and other social networks. Hootsuite helps organizations launch marketing campaigns, identify and grow audience, and distribute targeted messages across multiple channels.

Thanks for putting HootSuite at the top of the list Navid – we concur with many of your other tips too.

The WELDer – How To HootSuite Like A Pro

How To HootSuite Like A Pro from The WELDer

Gretchen Stone writes:

The beauty of HootSuite is that unlike some other apps, you can update multiple accounts from just one platform. So, for instance, if you’re tasked with managing your company’s profile, you can also update your own without having to log out. You can even send the same message to both, cutting your typing time in half.

{snip}

Short cuts like HootSuite take the frustration out of keeping up with your online presence and more importantly save time for busy executives.

Great tips and love that header graphic with the superhero lad.

StayOnSearch – Using Hootsuite to Manage Your Twitter Engagement Efforts

Mark Thomson writes:

In my personal opinion, I have found Hootsuite to be by far the best Twitter client out there.  I’m sure a lot of people can make an argument for clients like Tweetdeck and Seesmic, but I find Hootsuite to be the most user-friendly, feature-rich, and up-to-date Twitter client available.

The interface is clean, customizable, and includes a wealth of information about your twitter account.  Let’s take a detailed look into how Hootsuite can be used to manage your daily engagements for both personal and business use.

We’re glad you are on-board Mark and props on a very comprehensive roundup about HootSuite.

Social Media for Dealers -  Twitter tools profile: HootSuite

The first tool we’re covering is HootSuite. HootSuite is a “professional Twitter client”, fancy for “free tool that allows you to post, schedule future posts, track, follow and stay updated with your Twitter strategy”.   Check out the article “How to Get the Most Out of Social Media Using Hootsuite” by Zachary Sniderman on Open Forum. He does a great job over-viewing Hootsuite.

{snip}

HootSuite offers the best tracking options of the Twitter tools we’ll cover. It offers statistics and tools that can tell you anything from what links were clicked on (and when) to which sites are sending traffic your way.  Of course it also measures retweets, replies, and mentions.  It’s a great way gage your success and set benchmarks for the future.

In case you were wondering, “Dealers” in this case means RV dealerships – nothing nefarious

More

As always, catch more HootSuite news via the social bookmark stream and let us know about any we’ve missed in the comments.

News Roundup asia, business week, convergence, Facebook, japan, localization, news, News Roundup, pro, social media, strategies, strategy, tips, translation, Twitter

Big in Japan

Continuing on with Ryan’s busy schedule in Japan comes a video and interview in TechCrunch Japan which includes a special “hello” video message in the article: [jp] hootsuiteが7月に大幅アップデートを予定。Ryan Holmes氏インタビュー auto-translated to: HootSuite plans major updates in July – Ryan Holmes Interview.

One of the questions addresses the differences between HootSuite and other social media tools – here’s a translation:

How do you differentiate Hootsuite from Twitter Apps Seesmic and TweetDeck?

First, We think we should divide into consumer and enterprise Twitter users. For example, Twitter web page is used by the common people. Seesmic and TweetDeck are for power Twitter users. In our term of classification (or category), we are hoping to target the enterprise market. So, for the power user features that you have a Seesmic or TweetDeck and as such, the next step further for business users is to move to HootSuite for features such as teams and analysis.

In addition, Japan seeks support for services like mixi and GREE. HootSuite now offers Japanese version of the page and are listening to requests with two Japanese staff.

Lab Report

Photographer Zuco Pietro recapped the Open Network Lab event featuring Ryan along with Shinnichi Fujikawa, founder of Movatwi. Zudo is an Italian Photographer & Blogger , living between Tokyo, Rome and Barcelona and tweets in English, Italiano, Español & 日本語.

He had this to say about Ryan’s remarks about entrepreneurship in his post: Open Network Lab with Ryan Holmes from HootSuite:

I went to that meeting to learn something new. I hoped I could learn some new formula, something that will give me the elements to start my own business. Is there a procedure? Something that I should do first? Some ancient book with the secret of success?

At the end, after listening to their experiences, the initial problems they had, some advices and the whole saga… the conclusion was so so simple!

Follow your dream, don’t stop, listen to people with common sense and run away from the negative ones. Adapt, learn, and remember that mistakes are good and let you learn more. Jump!

More from the Road

touchannel station blog — by takaaki John TATSUMI and kazumichi Paul NISHIMURA, who “connect cocoro to kokoro” — spread the word about Japan and Ryan’s visit in: HootSuite – Hoot Tour in Japan フートスイート ツアー ジャパン – Ryan Holmes has come to Japan !!

matiere posted: HootSuite、日本語ヘルプデスクサイト開設 explaining that HootSuite has translated the iPhone App to Japanese, and added a Japanese Help Desk and Twitter account HootSuite Japan.

Netafull blog also shared the news about the Japanese community site in: HootSuite（フートスイート）」日本語サイトを開設 or {translated} HootSuite opened Japanese site.

Missing Owl

One small foible on Ryan’s trip is described by yOomii in Lost in flight – perhaps you can help?:

Oh dear, it seems that my mini hootsuite owly got lost in flight while on a business trip. He lost his way somewhere between San Francisco, New York, Washington, and Japan! If you see this small owl, please let me know. He’s probably scared being in a new area which he doesn’t know, and most likely he wants to be back home in Vancouver. If you spot him, please leave me a quick message to let me know, or help spread the word (especially if you live in these locations). Here’s hoping that he will be found and safely return home (:

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While gathering HootSuite-related news recently, we noticed all the international articles and sources. We are eager to be good global citizens so here’s a few posts from HootSuite users from many corners of the globe.

Note: Consider utilizing Google Translate to get a flavor of what these bloggers have to say if you are curious. Another translation tip is detailed in Translate Twitter and more in HootSuite at (HootSuite dev by day) David Chan’s personal blog.

If you have an article to which we missed, please add a comment or send a note @hootwatch and perhaps we’ll add in an upcoming New Round-Up post.

International News Desk

Webmaster Cosas de internet – HootSuite agrega nueva dirección corta – ht.ly (Spain)

Hadigunawan.net – Hootsuite Perkenalkan Ht.ly (Indonesia)

TwitterSmash – Hootsuite Team Collaboration Webinar (Germany)

News Roundup czech, germany, indonesia, ireland, israel, italy, japan, news, spain, videos

Tokyo Bound

HootSuite CEO Ryan Holmes in heading to Japan to outreach to the HootSuite fans, talk to social media agencies and all sorts media sources plus present to the Digital Garage Open Network Lab Event.

He’s bringing some special edition HootSuite stickers and t-shirts (complete with QR codes) and of course the popular HootSuite pins and tattoos.

Open Networks Event

Ryan will show the Japanese version of the HootSuite for iPhone at the Digital Garage Open Network Live event on Tuesday May 25th at 7PM Japan local time.

The event will be broadcast on Ustream as Ryan will share the app with 150 of Japan’s top engineers, developers and social media experts. We’ll post or embed the session so come back to watch.

Open Network Lab is an start-up incubation project supported by Digital Garage and other top Japanese tech companies.

Learn more about Open Network Lab at Crunchbase and in this article by Serkan Toto.

Meet and Greet

Also on his agenda is meetings with Softbank – the giant mobile handset and service provider, plus policy group DG, translation service myGengo, and media outlets New York Time (Tokyo bureau), CNET Japan, TechCrunch Japan and ITMedia. He’ll also stop by radio station Nippon Broadcasting and many more interviews and visits. Follow Mr. Holmes’ personal Twitter @invoker for more updates and news as he visits with social media luminaries and tech pundits over the next week.

Translations and Support

To better support and engage in conversation with the Japanese HootSuite users, we’ve added a Japanese-specific Twitter account – follow along at @HootSuite_Japan and are rapidly building FAQs and other support resources in Nihongo as well as offering a Japanese feedback and feature request channel.

HootSuite is committed to the Japanese market by releasing a fully-translated version of the iPhone App (along with Portuguese, Spanish, and German) with more native language versions to follow.

Big in Japan

Japan is a unique and exciting market for HootSuite and Twitter as supported by a May 18th Venture Beat article “Twitter’s explosive Japanese growth fuels Softbank handset deal” by Kim-Mai Cutler:

If there’s one market where Twitter is pummeling Facebook, it’s Japan.

Unique users are up to 7.52 million compared to Facebook’s 1.4 million, Nielsen Online Japan told The New York Times. Even third-party Twitter developers are seeing some of the action; HootSuite’s chief executive Ryan Holmes told us that roughly 30 percent of his service’s month-over-month growth is coming from Japan.

New York Times Tokyo-based reporter Hiroko Tabuchi documents reasons for Twitter’s explosive growth in Japan including Softbank’s Twitter ready handsets plus celebrity, political users and the familiarity with mobile phones “keitei” in Japan in a May 18th article “Softbank to Help Twitter Get Even Bigger in Japan“:

Twitter has taken off in a big way here in the past two years, fanned by media exposure and the use of the service by a flurry of celebrities: Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama tweets frequently, as does the astronaut and national hero Soichi Noguchi, who tweets from the International Space Station.

The number of unique users in Japan surged from 521,000 in April 2009 to 7.52 million in March, a 15-fold increase, according to the technology ratings service Nielsen Online Japan. Figures show Twitter is fast catching up to Japan’s biggest social networking site, Mixi, which had about 10.8 million unique users in March. An analysis by Semiocast, based in Paris, in February found 14 percent of the millions of tweets per day worldwide are in Japanese.

Arigato

Thanks to all the companies and reporters hosting Ryan and please let us know how we can help Japanese users enjoy HootSuite.

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