HootSuite blog – Social Media Dashboard

June 30th is Social Media Day — some cities have even made an official proclamation — and the folks at Mashable are hosting a barrage of worldwide events to celebrate and educate about the ways social web tools have revolutionized the way we share, communicate and engage with companies, government and friends.

Instead of planning a parade, HootSuite is celebrating with a release with a handful of fixes, tools to make your social media day more socially pleasing.

Tune-ups

In response to all the feedback and enthusiasm to last week’s HootSuite 5 release, we’ve made a few of the new tools a wee bit better — plus thwarted a few anomalies for a better experience.

Facebook Walls and Status: Facebook updates without links will post to both your Facebook Status and Wall, while messages with linked media will post only to your Facebook Wall along with thumbnail (help)

ReTweet Choice: Choosing default ReTweet style is a bit handier now with a pop-up window allowing you to choose whether you prefer “Old Skool” or “Twitter native” style re-broadcasts (help)

Quicker Scheduling: We’ve removed a mouse click from message scheduling — now simply choose the date on the calendar and click the button to queue your message to go anytime (help)

Security Migration

With many networks and services manageable from within HootSuite, information security is of top importance. With this in mind, next time you login to HootSuite, you’ll be migrated to OAuth security which is:

“An open protocol to allow secure API authorization in a simple and standard method from desktop and web applications.”

The process will be largely invisible to you and will make connecting to additional services easier — as well as keeping login information more secure.

Further, this move keeps us in step with Twitter’s evolving security protocols which are changing to OAuth exclusively in the coming days. There should be no action required and your part but we wanted you to know what’s up.

Coming Next

So we’ve knocked the top few most requested features in the Feedback Channel (including Native RTs and Facebook Media previews) and now are working on a few more stellar tools for your arsenal.

Here’s what on tap in the coming weeks:

HootSuite Blackberry — We know you can’t wait and it’s getting close — we’re making it great to be worthy of the Owl and Blackberry’s passionate users

Short Owly Pro URLs — HootSuite’s custom URL shortening service is in secret private beta and working great! Get on the list for your chance to get shorter

HootSuite iPad — Those who bought ‘em, love ‘em and we’re making an all-new tool for Apple’s popular tablet rather than a hacked iPhone or web app

HootSuite iPhone — A batch of new features will make users of the magically translating, updating, statistics-gathering mobile genius machine even happier

Fixes

Life in the browser can get tricky with so many different versions and varieties. As such, a number of anomalies popped up which are now hammered down for better performance (BTW, check out this post about which browsers work best with HootSuite).

These refinements include:

• Search result columns in IE 7 & 8 are no longer mixed up
• Deleted DMs are now completely deleted
• Klout influence scores are now displayed in bios

Help

Some some users have reported veeerrrryyy slow performance — we continuing to monitor these reports and request you first do a hard refresh (CTRL+F5) and then try a different browser for trouble shooting. Still something amiss? Please submit a ticket at the Help Desk after searching for an answer to your conundrum.

We monitor all the mentions of HootSuite on Twitter and tend to the HootSuite Facebook page with great pleasure. However, the best place to go for help is the Help Desk. There are hundreds of articles to both assist you and apprise you of known issues. Still haven’t found what you are looking for? Submit a ticket if there is something we missed.

Feature requests are an important part of our community and tool evolution — we love hearing them but request that you share with others by posting at Feedback Channel. This allow others to vote ideas up and helps us gauge interest in new tools.

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Built for Socializing

HootSuite adds more tools to the iPhone version of the popular social media dashboard including: instant language translation, geo-location, and Facebook integration plus several key interface enhancements.

With the latest update, you’re still able to manage and monitor multiple Twitter accounts, track keywords and brands, plus explore on-board click-through stats… but we’ve added even more treats.

This release adds the ability to translate Twitter and Facebook messages on the fly — in 50+ languages! Additionally, users can update Facebook accounts, compose Twitter messages in landscape view, share geo-location info, “reply-to-all” with one click, and “Bump™” iPhones to follow one another.

Time for a Holiday

No matter where you’re headed, this Owl will help you stay in touch and informed with instant translation to 50+ languages, geo-location to pinpoint yourself on the globe, and Facebook Profiles and Pages added to the mix — plus a few surprises in the suitcase. With all these new tools, the Owl decided to hop on the plane for a worldwide tour with iPhone in tow.

Check out the new features in action at exotic world locales in this video then get your thumbs on the updated HootSuite for iPhone for a bundle of surprises designed for any quest — from your neighborhood to around the world.

Facebook your Fans

The new release adds Facebook support, allowing you to update your status (in the aforementioned world languages), track your friends’ news updates, and schedule your messages for future publishing. Beyond Facebook Profiles, you can import Facebook Pages from your HootSuite account, and add “likes” to your friends’ posts.

Translate-ability

This Owl is international – Track Twitter conversations from around the world with instant translation to and from over 50 languages — ideal for monitoring relevant topics and brand mentions from global friends and customers. You can also compose in your native language and translate on the go — then post your update to both Twitter and Facebook — makes running international outreach campaigns easy.

Wherever you Go … Geo

Alert the world to your exact location by including geo-location data with your Twitter update. Great for chronicling a trip, remembering a special spot, or for helping friends find you for fun times. Just click a button to pinpoint your location, and your Twitter posts will be tagged with your whereabouts.

Well Groomed Owl

The new HootSuite for iPhone enjoys a freshened interface with large, intuitive buttons, plus a landscape view for composing Twitter updates in a larger, thumb-friendly space. Additionally, you can easily catch up with all the messages since the last time you checked with a “drag and refresh” option, plus quickly populate a message with all recipients using the “Reply to All” option.

Enter the Lab

Seeking a fun way to add followers in person? Dig into HootSuite Labs to try the “Bump™ to follow” feature — to try, just high five another HootSuite-enabled iPhone and you’ll see the chance to follow each other with a confirmation click. Fist pump, low five, freeze frame five — they all work. Enjoy testing this beta feature, no lab coat required.

More:

Press release with screenshots

HootSuite for iPhone page

Time for a Holiday video – features music “The Nostalgic Buffoon” by Jeremiah Jacobs (@jeremiahjacobs)

Note: “Bump” is ™ of Bump Technologies, Inc. http://bu.mp/

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