From Tokyu Hands to Martha Stewart Living, HootSuite is used by a wide variety of organizations. The dash’s many features help both large and small businesses take charge of their social media strategy to build their business.
Following the growth and success of handmade marketplace, Etsy, we’ve seen many retailers use social media to increase audience awareness and engagement through creative marketing. Indeed, the collaborative workflow features in the dashboard make HootSuite an ideal tool for time-constrained artists and sellers.
This News Roundup highlights independent online retailers who are using the business-friendly tools in HootSuite – including scheduling updates, analytics and RSS feeds – to generate attention for their products and brands.
Take a look and learn how HootSuite can help you get the word out on your wares!
From restaurants to governments, the HootSuite dashboard is a versatile tool which helps many industries solve problems from recruiting employees to broadcasting emergency messaging. Of all the industries seeing change and opportunity from social media tools, real estate is definitely near the top of the list.
With this in mind, we released an Real Estate Industry Sheet aimed at helping agents and agencies find the right nest for their clients in conjunction with HootSuite CEO Ryan Holmes‘ keynote at the 15th Anniversary of Real Estate Connect in San Francisco.
To create the survey, we asked the pros for their tips which resulted in surprising insights and a few simple tips which make big difference. The industry sheet focuses on four handy features – relevant to both the social media savvy agent and the digital newbie: Filters, Scheduling, Geo-location Search, URL Shorteners/Analytics.
With the conference and reaction to the industry sheet in the rear view mirror, today’s News Round-up focuses on opinions from these pros – including a video review – plus we’ve added a Youtube vid of Ryan on stage. Check out the articles, and whether you’re a real estate agent or not, give those features a try! Read more…
Starting a business isn’t just another day at the beach. Operations take time, money, risk and can make your stress levels reach unprecedented temperatures. Even more so during the hot – or in the case at HootSuite HQ: mild – summer months when the days are long, and everyone is in vacation mode.
That’s why the HootSuite team decided to create a mid-summer News Roundup which features articles for entrepreneurs and small businesses. Let the HootSuite Dashboard help you drive your business, while you kick back, relax and enjoy the summer months.
As HootSuite grows in popularity in North America, Latin America and Japan, we can’t forget about all the Owls around Europe. We’re listening closely to all the Tweets from across the Atlantic and even sent Owly on a trip – from Croatia to Paris – to check in on all the social media activities on the continent.
This News Roundup contains a collection of interesting articles from Europe that caught our eye starting with reactions to the 2 million milestone announcement in 6 different languages. Read more…
Whenever there’s a HootSuite release, new industry tip or an excited HootFan, we aim to be the among first to hear about it. Why? Because some of the handiest solutions and tips come from you – our Owls.
After reaching 2 million users, we took a step back to see what the web world was saying about HootSuite. What have we done right? What can do better? From mainstream news to the everyday blogger, we enjoy reading how you’re using HootSuite in your daily life.
In this News Roundup, we’re featuring articles which have burrowed into the HootSuite subconsciousness to see how the Owl works in real-world scenarios from starts-ups to meet-ups. Here’s what you had to say:
At HootSuite HQ, we continually work to keep the dashboard on the leading edge of social media tools. Indeed, constant innovation and refinement keeps the 1.85+ million fans of the dash happily Hooting to their friends and fans via all the social networks supported in the tool.
Last week’s Publisher release is the latest evolution of the dash with new scheduling and permissions features designed to aid the workflow for campaigns.
Today’s News Roundup is dedicated to the user feedback on this important development… including the return of the improved Pending Updates stream.
This News Roundup keeps it global by taking a peek at HootSuite at work in Nigeria, a variety of interviews with CEO Ryan Holmes, plus more treats! So put your seats up and stow your tray tables for a quick flight around the globe.
HootSuite has started the year off with high energy. We kick-started 2011 with the Mashable Award win, and the team is all charged up to continue offering the best features and new tools to all HootSuite users.
We are happy that the Affiliate Program release was very well received by our fans — it’s a chance for us to give back to those friends who recommend HootSuite and offer their advice to help friends, colleagues and industry peers make the most of their social media outreach efforts.
The momentum shows no sign of stopping in 2011 — in fact, experts predict a surge in the use of specialized tools like HootSuite — and we hope that all of the handy built-in features of the dashboard makes your social campaign management a breeze.
Here are a few posts from folks with something to share about our beloved social media dashboard:
The Hootsuite office is about what you would expect from a Web 2.0 firm. It’s very laid back with no dress code. There are no cubicles. Employees work in two big open spaces. Stress release is provided by a couple of fools ball tables and some really old Nintendo NES consoles.
Hootsuite. This is something our lead social media manager, Joan Barrett, uses on a daily basis for all of our clients. [...] Out of all the free online PR tools in this list, Hootsuite is the one we love the best. As long as you’re just managing one account, Hootsuite is free to use. If you’re using Twitter for marketing, it’s a must-have.
CEO Ryan Holmes hatched HootSuite in 2008 from his agency, Invoke, which also offered other web-based solutions before HootSuite. Before developing the application, he founded a pizza chain and built the top online paintball supplier in Canada.
“HootSuite was created at a digital agency called Invoke where we experienced the problem of managing multiple social accounts on multiple networks for multiple clients,” said Community Marketing Director Dave Olson. “So we set out to solve this problem elegantly. We created a comprehensive social media dashboard allowing you to manage multiple networks & profiles from one place, plus share access with teams without compromising security.”
From the Blogosphere
Jenny Anderson, blogger for the Indianapolis Museum of Art, thinks the price for Hootsuite Pro is reasonable.“If you manage more than just Twitter and Facebook accounts then this product is probably even more useful. And for $5.99 a month, the price is really not bad,” she said.
Business solutions coach Cindy Murphy simply enjoys the time-saving aspect:“One of my favorite time management tools, that has helped me save time and become more organized in my business, is HootSuite,” she said. “You can also add the app to your iPhone or android.”
Says Boagworld founder Paul Boag: “There was a time when all we needed to worry about was our website. Now we have cater for users on numerous social networks and monitor what people are saying about our brands online,” he said. “Constantly checking Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networks can be incredibly time-consuming. That is where HootSuite comes in.”
The 2010 Mashable Award winners were announced last Thursday at the Mashable Awards Gala in Las Vegas and Vancouver’s own Hootsuite was announced the winner of the ‘Best Social Media Management Tool’ category ahead of a feast of quality opposition. We are big fans of Hootsuite here at SplitMango, and we use it every day for managing our own social media campaigns and those of our clients.
Hootsuite announced their new affiliate program to help their most loyal customers earn money off of recommending their tool. Starting today, HootSuite Pro and Enterprise plan holders can earn commission by referring their friends to the HootSuite Pro and Enterprise products as well as the HootSuite University learning program.
Hootsuite, the social media dashboard web app, is giving away money to users who recommend the service on their sites. Writing today, Hootsuite HQ says that paid users of the HootSuite Affiliate Program, typically corporate users, will be able to receive ‘commission’ when they recommend new users to the company’s premium service.
I don’t mind. It’s worth every penny. Arrayed before me currently are 17 accounts that I manage. Tabs for these accounts appear across the top of the window, and within each are streams of social media updates from Twitter, Facebook and Facebook Pages, LinkedIn, Foursquare, WordPress.com, and other social media platforms.
Social media has given consumers a large platform to voice their opinions, and small-business owners are realizing the importance of actively monitoring their reputation on the Web. With dashboards and social media aggregators like Hootsuite and Spredfast, it’s easier than ever for small businesses to develop, nurture and track their stature online .
HootSuite won the Digital Media Technology of the Year Award at the 2010 CNMAs and last week picked up the Best Social Media Management Tool award in the 2010 Mashable Awards. In September HootSuite added a paid-model to the mix with freemium, premium, and entreprise HootSuite accounts just in time to welcome their one millionth user. Looking ahead to 2011, users can expect to see new integrations in HootSuite’s new App Directory.
A Whole Year Ahead
We have got a lot of owls in action out there working to offer the best features for you. If you want to provide great ideas on how to make HootSuite even better, please tell us in the HootSuite Feedback channel.
Remember, you can find answers to almost any question you might have in the Help Desk. The Twitter account @HootSuite_Help is another great resource to follow along for new info and quick fixes.
Happy New Year – we hope you had a great holiday season filled with lots of happy hooting! Owly had a nice vacation, and is back and ready for a big 2011.
The HootSuite App Directory is coming along nicely, and still on pace for launch early this year. There is a lot of excitement in the development community and we’ll have some big announcements to share with you soon.
You may remember the news about the App Directory in December – briefly, we previewed the popular Salesforce Chatter and Lead Scoring Apps, and released Ning as a live preview of what you can expect to see from the App Directory. These announcements certainly garnered some attention, and in case you missed it, here are some highlights of the coverage and feedback.
Imagine having a team chat built into your regular information tool? At TNW we, of course, have lots of tools to help us keep up with the news. Twitter is just one of them, but we have a back channel as well. We’re always looking for new solutions to explore. Maybe SalesHootChatterSuite might be just the ticket.
Chatter in the HootSuite dashboard (click for larger version)
Today at Dreamforce, HootSuite CEO Ryan Holmes revealed a preview of the upcoming Salesforce integration into HootSuite. This integration will tie into the HootSuite App Directory launch, which is slated for early next year.
This is a big feat, considering how huge Salesforce is. HootSuite has come far in its short life.
HootSuite is a Twitter client that has focused on building an app platform. In November, the company announced a new API and App Directory. HootSuite now integrates with Salesforce Chatter via the API. That means a user may view a Twitter stream and Chatter in the same interface.
HootSuite is a natural fit with Chatter. Both use the same river of news style. And both have a direct tie in to the fast adoption of social technologies in enterprise and business settings.
With this integration, the 1 million HootSuite users can now broadcast to Ning’s participants – which number upwards of 70 million users across 80,000 social websites – and connect with them on the topics they are passionate about. Will you find this new feature helpful?
Ning in the HootSuite dashboard (click for larger version)
Blogg-ing with Ning
Ning invited us to a special guest blog post on the Ning blog which explains the HootSuite / Ning integration. The post provides five things you can do with HootSuite today to help build and nurture networks and communities.
Broadcast over Multiple Services…
Monitor Member Activity…
Better Manage Multiple Services…
In-Depth Analytics…
Collaborate with Teams…
We were happy to contribute to their blog and share helpful tips about using Ning in the dashboard to build your audience. And we thought this would be a great time to let you know that even more exciting tools are on the way.
Twitter might want to become a service platform, but it looks like HootSuite wants to become the app platform of choice for Twitter clients. HootSuite announced today a new API and App Exchange to allow other providers and developers to build specialty add-on applications for HootSuite…
Real time chat integrated into my Twitter client? Maybe connected to GoogleTalk? That would be cool and it would eliminate an app I need to run. Connect to FriendFeed? Another. Really good alerts and Growl integration?
The more tools that HootSuite can replace with add-ons and still not bog down the app or clutter the interface up. The more people who will use it.
And keep using it.
From the Twitter-sphere
@andybryant: Great development for Social CRM: HootSuite to integrate Salesforce Chatter & Lead Scoring
@nmwallace: Yeah!! Wooohooo! HootSuite blog – Social Media Dashboard » Ning Social Communities Added to HootSuite Dashboard
@kentanjo: Talk about going social! Two powerful tools to engage online public: Ning and HootSuite
Stay Tuned
There’s more exciting news to share in the coming weeks regarding the HootSuite App Directory. Make sure to follow @HootSuite_Apps to stay up to date with all the latest.
Legions of HootSuite fans are happily hooting away, and we’ve seen a number of HootSuite Pro users singing the benefits of the plan that allows them to make use of advanced features and analytics, as well as team collaboration for their businesses.
We’re always keeping an eye on how our users are benefiting from our plans — whether through our feedback channel or by reading the many user blog posts that are published daily – and take to heart the many comments and posts about how HootSuite Pro continues to help make social media management more efficient for our users.
Here are just some of the articles we’ve rounded up that show happy users who have made the switch to the Pro plan — see how going Pro can help your hooting too.
When HootSuite decided to announce their Freemium model, I was a bit torn. I love free. Who doesn’t? My budget has never been insanely flexible to allow for payments of all sorts. BUT at the same time, I’ve written about how freelancing is not free and how people shouldn’t take me for granted and assume that I will be giving them my expertise for free, just because I’m a super nice guy.
So I figured that it was important that I spoke the language that I have always used with my own actions. Or as they say, “walk the walk as I talk the talk”. So, I took the plunge and decided to pay for HootSuite Pro.
As part of the 5% who might fit the Pro Plan profile, your friendly social media junkies here at Mashable do use HootSuite professionally; as daily users, we can tell you it fits the bill for organizations that have teams of very active social media pros.
As regular readers will know, I’ve been a huge fan of HootSuite since way back. My team and I find the software absolutely invaluable at work, and the new Pro package monthly subscription ($5.99, plus $15 per user – note, not per social network, which are unlimited with the pro plan) was a small price to pay.
Schedule Tweets and Facebook updates to appear when I (or my client) wants
See stats on Tweets – for example, how many people clicked
Create lists of people I follow
Find new people to follow
Keep track of specific searches
and more
I use HootSuite primarily for managing multiple accounts and scheduling Tweets for clients as well as collating stats – for my main Twitter account I use Tweetdeck, and it’s open all day.
However, without HootSuite my life would be a lot more difficult.
There’s more. HootSuite’s Pro Edition has many features that suit businesses. They don’t limit the Social Profiles, so you could, if they were willing, convince your cook and manager to start an official work-related account to help increase the profile of your restaurant. HootSuite supports its own URL shortener Ow.ly for links over Twitter. With the Pro edition, you can follow the stats without restriction or expiration. Another treasure to marketers is the Social Insights that comes with the Pro editions so you can access information about who is on your social network. This is key to enlarging your network and assessing if you need to change your marketing strategy.
How’s Your Hooting?
What kind of HootSuite user are you? We always enjoy hearing about the new and exciting ways that Hoot-fans find to use HootSuite — whether free or Pro — so please share your happy hooting experience so that owls the whole world over can learn from your tips and techniques.
Plus, follow us @Hootwatch for all of our latest news and releases to help make your social media management even better.
At HootSuite HQ, we continually work to keep the dashboard on the leading edge of social media tools. Indeed, constant innovation and refinement keeps the 1.85+ million fans of the dash happily Hooting to their friends and fans via all the social networks supported in the tool.
There is no shortage of buzz around the nest these days. The 
HootSuite has started the year off with high energy. We kick-started 2011 with the 
As part of the 5% who might fit the Pro Plan profile, your friendly social media junkies here at Mashable do use HootSuite professionally; as daily users, we can tell you it fits the bill for organizations that have teams of very active social media pros.
With HootSuite I can:
