As your social outreach inevitably increases, you’ll be sending out messages to more and more people. Using the Draft messages feature in HootSuite is sure-fire way to ensure all your posts are proofed and fully loaded with the right content. To help get you acquainted with the Dashboard’s functionality, or just give you a refresher, we have a new #HootTip all about a handy HootSuite feature.
Drafting Messages
Do your customers often ask you the same questions via Twitter? Do you have limited time but many inquiries that you don’t want to miss? HootSuite is here to help! Drafting messages in HootSuite lets you write your messages in advance to save you time while ensuring accurate and appropriate responses.
With all the busy Owls out there, one needs make sure they’re making the best use of their time. Scheduling posts in HootSuite is an easy way to maximize both your presence and outreach in your social sphere. To help get you acquainted with the dashboard’s functionality, or just give you a refresher, we have a new #HootTip all about a handy HootSuite feature.
Scheduling Posts
Using social media to share and express your thoughts is as rewarding as it is entertaining. Whether you’re a startup, mid-size business, or a huge corporation, there may be times when you can’t be on your mobile or computer to be active in your social sphere. To stay on top of your game and multi-task your online and offline activities, schedule your messages and let HootSuite do the work for you. Scheduling messages you want to send out to your followers is also a great way to keep your information updated and timely. This way, you can send out a post for a time when you’re not plugged in to the world wide web. Read more…
Surfing the web is a favorite past time of many internet users. Why not use HootSuite to be productive while you’re doing so? The Dashboard is chock full of features and tools to help make the most of your social media management. Plus, we’re always adding more. To help get you acquainted with the functionality, or just give you a refresher, we have a new #HootTip all about a handy HootSuite feature.
Using the Hootlet
If you’re an Owl on the web looking for a quick way to easily share interesting content, the Hootlet is here to help. Using the Hootlet, you can send out a message to any of your social networks which automatically includes a shortened link to the page you’re on, the title of the page you’re linking, and you can personalize any message to send along. The best part is, you can do all of this without leaving your browser window! Read more…
Using HootSuite to grow your business and collaborate with teams is an easy way to maximize your social media efforts. The Dashboard is chock full of features and tools to help you make the most of your social media management. Plus, we’re always adding more. To help get you acquainted with the functionality, or just give you a refresher, we have a new #HootTip all about a handy HootSuite feature.
Managing Team Members
Team collaboration is a management style that is always in flux. As roles change and employees come and go, the status of your team members will need to be updated — either by upgrading or downgrading their permissions in HootSuite. Perhaps the scope of your campaign is changing, or more help is required for customer care; managing team members in HootSuite will give you the flexibility you need to be nimble in the ever changing landscape of social media.
Managing teammates is a quick and easy feature in the HootSuite Dashboard, and is the focus of today’s HootTip. Read more…
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.
Mobile HootSuite fans will enjoy an added bonus next week – as of noon PST on October 13, the full version of HootSuite for iPhone and HootSuite for Android will be absolutely FREE to download.
We also have a bundle of other mobile news to announce for all the high-flying mobile owls in the coming weeks.
Mobile Owl Goodness
HootSuite iPhone iOS4 free on Oct. 13th
That’s right. You can download the full version of HootSuite for iPhone and HootSuite for Android for free. You’ll be able to view Ow.ly clickthrough stats for your links, manage more than three social networks, and enjoy all the benefits of the full version of HootSuite mobile.
In the coming weeks and months, we’ll add even more features to the HootSuite mobile clients – including advanced stats and other features for HootSuite Pro accounts.
Our goal is to give Pro HootSuite users a mobile client that offers them advanced features, while still allowing free users to enjoy a high-quality free version of our app.
And keep in mind that the BlackBerry client and an iPad app are also in the works – and both of these will be free as well. Now these owls are even more worth the wait!
Grandfathered Owls
To those of you who have already paid $2.99 for the full version of HootSuite mobile, you’ll get to keep what you paid for. You purchased HootSuite for the ability to add unlimited social networks to your phone, to view ow.ly stats, and to have an ad-free mobile interface. You’ll get to keep all of these things on your iPhone, even after we make the app free.
IMPORTANT: You must have a HootSuite account to be grandfathered in, and you must use the latest version of the paid app with your HootSuite account before Oct 13 at noon PST.
Note that emailing, tweeting, or posting that you’ve paid for the app will not entitle you to this offer. We need to verify that you’ve paid for the app. We’re carefully counting each HootSuite account holder who’s running the paid app, and the only way to be counted is to upgrade and run the app before October 13.
Everybody Upgrade!
For all users who have purchased HootSuite mobile apps, we appreciate your support, and we’re glad you find HootSuite useful enough to pay for. We encourage you to upgrade to the latest version of the app and create a HootSuite account in order to take advantange of our offer to lock in the features you’ve paid for so you can continue the mobile experience you currently enjoy.
Enjoy HootSuite’s mobile apps — free for everyone on October 13th. Hoot on!
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:
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.
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).
HootSuite is pleased to announce new premium packages designed for business and organizations, while also continuing to provide a free version for most customers.
Following in the steps of industry giants like Salesforce, Basecamp and Flickr, we’ve crafted the package tiers to provide the most useful tools to as many customers as possible while also providing advanced tools to customers who need the business-centric features. We’ll keep listening closely to see how we succeeded in meeting your needs.
Tiers for All
We aim to continue providing free service to approximately 95% of our current users. Based on a customer survey (thanks again to all of you who offered your opinions), along with a comprehensive review of usage data, we’re confident we’ll achieve this goal.
This means most of you will continue to use HootSuite in much the same way you do today. Additionally, power users and enterprises with teams can confidently rely on HootSuite for critical campaigns knowing there will be continuity of service from a stable company.
What’s This Mean for Me?
Starting today (Wednesday, Aug. 11th), all new customers will be required to select a plan upon signing-up — including choosing the free option if desired.
The following week, current HootSuite users will be asked to choose a package with the help of a migration wizard to help you choose the best plan.
For all customers (aside from Enterprise-class accounts), we’ll include a 30-day free trial. This period will allow you to experiment and discover which plan best fits your needs. Again, we’ll continue to offer a free plan for those of you who don’t require advanced options at this time.
While you don’t need to select a plan straightaway, take a look at the Pro Plans and Enterprise Package to see what is included at each level.
Keep on Flying
Since first spreading our owl wings over a year ago, we’ve listened closely to feedback from all corners. In the past 8 months, we’ve rolled out iterations galore — adding thoughtful tools to help you spread messages, monitor conversation and track results.
And don’t think we’re slowing down the pace! The upcoming road-map is loaded with new tools and integrations which will make for more enjoyable surprises. Plus we’ll keep listening to your feedback and offering help as we continue to create the preferred dashboard for social media managers, community builders, marketing agencies, and passionate fans.
Thanks to You
We sincerely appreciate you sharing HootSuite with your friends, mentoring your colleagues, and telling your company about the power of our social media dashboard. We take your trust seriously and look forward to growing with you.
Stay tuned to the HootSuite blog for more info and feel free to share your thoughts with us via Twitter @hootsuite_help.
Email and social media are both powerful marketing channels on their own but, when by using the best attributes of each medium, you can enjoy even more successful campaign results.
With this in mind, HootSuite and email marketing company Constant Contact have announced a co-marketing partnership which will inject a bit of social-bility into your email blasts — plus provide ways to augment your social media outreach tactics with targeted email messaging.
Certainly, marketers want access to as many tools as possible so we’re excited to announce this new relationship which will add a few more implements to your mighty tool kit.
The gist of the partnership is summed up in the press release‘s tag line “Partnership Increases Reach of Two Industry Leaders; Extends Marketing and Social Media Tools to Meet Broad Customer Needs.”
“We look forward to working with Constant Contact as a co-marketing partner to provide more methods for HootSuite customers to spread messages and grow audiences. With Constant Contact’s stellar reputation and vast experience, we’re very pleased to add this powerful partner to our team.”
You likely know about HootSuite so here’s a little about Constant Contact in case you haven’t tapped into their services yet:
Constant Contact’s email marketing, event marketing, social media marketing, and online survey tools help small organizations grow their businesses by building stronger customer relationships. More than 350,000 small businesses, nonprofits, and member associations worldwide rely on Constant Contact’s easy-to use, affordable online tools to create and deliver personalized, professional communications that engage casual customers, members, prospects, and passionate customers wherever they congregate online — from their email inboxes to their social networks. All Constant Contact products come with unmatched education, training and personal coaching services, and award-winning technical support. Founded in 1995, Constant Contact is a publicly traded company (Nasdaq: CTCT) with offices in Waltham, Mass.; Loveland, Colo.; and Delray, Fla.; and a Silicon Valley office scheduled to open in 2010.
Sure, we think HootSuite rocks but of course, we’re a bit biased ;-). Fortunately others agree and created videos and tutorials to demonstrate their affection.
Here’s a selection of recent videos to check out … and there are plenty more now which we compiled into a fan videos playlist on Youtube which includes some which are a bit old (we change so fast!) but still enjoyable.
In this round-up post, we included the intro bits from the creators to set-up the clips, plus we’ve included a handful of other articles to inspire and educate. If you like ‘em, be sure to add a comment to let the vid-makers know you appreciate their diligent efforts.
As always, check HootSuite’s social bookmarks for the full firehose of news and/or drop a comment below if there is something remarkable we missed.
A very quick video I put together in an hour based off a screenr I took on 5 things I like about Hootsuite; Many more new @Hootsuite benefits to cover, including facebook pages, RSS and more
Music: Triple Chrome Dipped by Michna, Magic Monday 2008 Ghostly International
Hi everyone, and welcome to Tubetorial. I’m Lorraine Nepomuceno. This is the first in a series of video tutorials on becoming a Twitter power-user. Today, I want to show you how to start using HootSuite, a free service that will add a whole lot to the capabilities of your Twitter account. If, like me, you love Twitter, you’ll love HootSuite.
I have talked about some of the great features of HootSuite in one of my previous posts comparing TweetDeck to Hootsuite and if you are interested in knowing why you should be using the Twitter management client, you can read that post for more information on the features and benefits.
For those of you who are interested in checking out HootSuite I did a video presentation demonstrating how to use Hootsuite to manage multiple Twitter accounts, build custom tabs and columns, schedule tweets and more:
A great collection of what HootSuite has added recently including the Learning program, URL shortening, team collaboration tools, iPhone updates and more:
Hootsuite has been on a roll in the past few weeks making their site more friendly to marketers and heavy tweeters with tons of new features like: team collaboration tools, Hootsuite University, an additional URL shortener and a bunch of updates to their iPhone app like: translation, Facebook integration and geo-location data.
Seeking comparisons? Growmap’s post has a stunning list of head-to-head showdowns between HootSuite and many other social tools to help you choose the best for your purposes:
Based on what I’ve seen so far, HootSuite is the clear winner (based on current popularity among power users), a slightly less complicated but serious alternative is CoTweet, and I am still very interested in trying out Pluggio (formerly Tweetminer) which has some interesting features the others lack.
Configuring, setting up and learning tools takes valuable time so my best advice is to decide which tool you’re going to use and forget about the others.
Focus on learning to use it effectively and only change if there is a compelling reason. You will accomplish more that way and save yourself a lot of stress. Once you have mastered your first selection you can always learn another and use two as some of the comparisons below suggest.
Rahsheen wrote an in-depth review — including a detailed look at working with teams and assignments — geared towards brand managers:
With a few new feature additions, Hootsuite has filled in the gaps and taken your social media management to the next level. Most important is the Message Assignment feature. Use this to assign specific updates and messages to specific team members, including an optional note to give them a heads-up. This allows you to divide work among your team in an efficient and simple manner. For instance, customer complaints, technical support, blog posts, and kudos could all be handled by specific individuals. As the manager, you can see what your team is doing and ensure quality. Team members can also forward messages to each other in the case that another team member could better handle the situation.
To increase efficiency, reduce redundancy, and keep everyone on the same page, Hootsuite has shared columns and drafts. This means the whole team sees the same set of columns and messages. The shared drafts allow you to store pre-written responses to make sure there is a level of consistency in your communications. You can quickly see what messages have been taken care of, what is outstanding, and which have been transferred using the Assignment Tracking feature. Finally, use the Forward Updates by Email function to share messages outside of Hootsuite. This makes it easy to show off your hard work to upper management or handle special issues.
This emerging entrepreneur compiled a list of his favorite web tools to share with students:
My prime online web-base Twitter manager. The ability to control various profiles, set up columns, team management, and best of all the speed at which it runs is absolutely amazing. I have used other tools, AIR based like TweetDeck, and Seesmic (online also), but HootSuite by far has won my approval as my Twitter manager.
Pat Bartels wrote a lengthy review of many tools in HootSuite including statistics, people browser, stream and Hootlet:
If you’re going to use Twitter and other social networking sites, this a must have tool. I never thought I would have a use for this, but as time progresses, I’m finding it invaluable. If you use several social networking sites, this will keep you connected and organized all at once. There is a lot more to HootSuite then I have indicated here. I’ve just highlighted some of the features that I use most. You can check out the other features at HootSuite.com.
HootSuite has started the year off with high energy. We kick-started 2011 with the 
Some fans want to know *everything* about HootSuite. If you seek knowledge, consider following @
Hello HootSuite Community,
We aim to continue providing free service to approximately 95% of our current users. Based on a customer survey (thanks again to all of you who offered your opinions), along with a comprehensive review of usage data, we’re confident we’ll achieve this goal.
Starting today (Wednesday, Aug. 11th), all new customers will be required to select a plan upon signing-up — including choosing the free option if desired.
Sure, we think HootSuite rocks but of course, we’re a bit biased ;-). Fortunately others agree and created videos and tutorials to demonstrate their affection.
