Category Archives: Hootsuite

a social media toolkit used by millions. i was first Marketing Director and later VP of Community. launched many departments and programs plus sparked international growth and translations

Dogfish Head, Red Cross make Twitter oops a marketing boom – Feb. 17, 2011

Briefly, from the Hootsuite dossier comes evidence of what made for an interesting day for Red Cross, Dog Fish Head beer and we (me and my squad at Hoot) turned into a triple win. 

Dogfish Head, Red Cross make Twitter oops a marketing boom – Feb. 17, 2011 via CNN Money

What Don’t You Know About Hootsuite? via The Marketing Mentress

What Don’t You Know About Hootsuite?

Aug 1, 2011

Dave Olson is the Community Marketing Director for social media dashboard maker HootSuite. Working in the internet space since 1996, Dave’s experience includes ISP’s, e-commerce, open source web communities, movie promotion, a green business directory and an alternative accreditation program during the Vancouver Olympics. A graduate of Evergreen College in Inter-disciplinary Studies, he frequently presents at events and to the media discussion technology, art, and culture. After living and traveling worldwide, Dave now enjoys exploring his local North Vancouver mountains and forests.

We discuss how Hootsuite was a huge asset to getting the word out about the Egyptian uprisings in January. That country had set up roadblocks to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. However, with the use of Hootsuite and all its assets, the messages were broadcast in spite of the roadblocks the Egyptian Government tried to set up on the internet.

Hootsuite also was a big part of helping with the Japanese Earthquakes this year. You will find out how this all happened in this inspiring interview with Dave Olson.

Source: The Marketing Mentress » What Don’t You Know About Hootsuite? Dave Olson

HootSuite’s Dave Olson draws a crowd of newspaper editors in New Orleans via Georgia Straight

HootSuite’s Dave Olson draws a crowd of newspaper editors in New Orleans

by Charlie Smith on July 21st, 2011

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 At a convention in New Orleans, Dave Olson talked about hashtags, including those used by supporters of the Egyptian revolution.

Sometimes, you have to make it big elsewhere before you start getting noticed in your hometown.

That’s what Dave Olson, community marketing director for Vancouver-based HootSuite, said with a smile when I ran into him today in New Orleans.

He was there to give a presentation on social media at the annual convention of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. Several in the room were newspaper editors.

He told the audience that it took two years before HootSuite had one million people signed up to its social-media-dashboard service. The next million signed up in seven months.

HootSuite, a privately owned company based in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, attracted global attention during the Egyptian uprising when then-dictator Hosni Mubarak blocked Twitter and Facebook.

Rebels were still able to get messages out through HootSuite. This prompted Olson to remark that for 36 glorious hours, his company became the voice of the revolution. He quickly mentioned that it also became the voice of the counterrevolution.

The company has also attracted celebrity users, including President Barack Obama, Oprah, and Martha Stewart, according to Olson.

“Christiane Amanpour live-tweeted through HootSuite,” he stated.

After his company created an infographic, the Voice of America called and asked if it could be translated into Farsi.

That was followed by calls from the U.S. State Department andNational Geographic.

He said the greatest number of tweets per second came when Japan won the Women’s World Cup. Ranking number two was the massive Japanese earthquake earlier this year.

“Japan is our number two market,” Olson noted. Referring to his company’s mascot, he added: “Some of it is attributable to the fact that we have a really cute owl.”

Follow Charlie Smith on Twitter at twitter.com/csmithstraight.

Source: HootSuite’s Dave Olson draws a crowd of newspaper editors in New Orleans | Georgia Straight Vancouver’s News & Entertainment Weekly

HootSuite: A software-as-a-service success story via The Next Web

Source: HootSuite: A software-as-a-service success story By Mike Vardy,  July 6, 2011

HootSuite may just be a Twitter client to some, but there’s no denying that its software-as-a-service model as served it and its users well.

Earlier this week, The Next Web covered HootSuite’s achievement of reaching the 2 million user milestone. Considering that the Vancouver-based company has stood the test of time while other social media and Twitter clients have either sold out or bowed out, this is a remarkable accomplishment. But there’s a lot more to HootSuite’s success than just being a great Twitter client; HootSuite’s rise is a testament to how a great idea that stays the course can reach great heights. And the heights it has reached compares with that of some pretty stellar companies that are also part of the software-as-a-service/freemium business realm.

HootSuite has seen growth to date that is on a similar trajectory to the widely popular Evernote, Yammer and Dropbox. The data below outlining Evernote’s, Yammer’s and HootSuite’s rise to 2 million users illustrates that there is significant market success of SaaS tools and Freemium business models.

 

Evernote and Dropbox have continued to grow rapidly after the 2 million user mark, and HootSutie shows definite signs of trending in the same manner. International growth is a key contributor to HootSuite’s user base, having sped this via community building, outreach and crowd-sourced translation.

HootSuite’s reach and trends (courtesy of Alexa) also rank with that of the aforementioned companies, as well as Dropbox and SalesForce, other examples of business using the SaaS and Freemium models:

Also worth noting is the relative growth rate of users on each of these services:

HootSuite beta Launch: December 2009
HootSuite 1 Million: November 2010
HootSuite 2 Million: June 2011

Evernote Launch: June 2008
Evernote 1 Million: May 2009
Evernote 2 Million: December 2009

Yammer Launch: September 2008
Yammer 1 Million: July 2010
Yammer 2 Million: Feb 2011

Dropbox Launch: April 2008
Dropbox 1 Million: May 2009
Dropbox 2 Million: Sept 2009

While the data clearly shows that SaaS and Freemium models are fast becoming a widely used solution for many users, it also foreshadows something for HootSuite in particular: it may be the only third-party social media client left standing in the future because of how it has done — and continues to do — business.

Egyptian Revolution and Hootsuite in National Geographic Magazine

National Geographic collaborated with Hootsuite to share social media data around the Egyptian “Spring/Revolution” around Jan 25, 2011. They saw Hootsuite’s infographic and contacted me to share data to crate a unique infographic (below).

National Geographic Magazine – NGM.com

Hootsuite Celebrates Japan 日本 Anniversary (with message from CEO Ryan Holmes and Owly), 2011

A spontaneous video to recap the localization activities done for Japan by HootSuite led by Dave Olson including: app translation, customer support system, social media channels, kei-teinphone version, mixi app integration, Owly stickers – and a visit by the CEO to Japan to meet with companies, partners, ambassadors and media.

Article: Use HootSuite as a Marketing Tool via Mashable

Article: Use HootSuite as a Marketing Tool via Mashable by Meghan Peters, May 11, 2011

We talked to Dave Olson, HootSuite’s marketing director, for a primer on using the platform for social media marketing.

Secure Team Setup

With the vast reach social media can have, it’s important for marketing organizations to be aware of who has access to which accounts and how they’re using them. HootSuite has put a number of features in place so managers can keep accounts secure as teams grow and change, including the ability to add and remove members without sharing passwords.

“Because HootSuite was created by an agency to manage their social media needs, the functionality is specifically designed for marketing teams and organizations,” Olson said.

After a slew of embarrassing tweets sent by brands like Chrysler and the Red Cross when marketers accidentally clicked on the wrong account, HootSuite developed Secure Profiles. The feature prompts users to confirm or cancel tweets before sending them, preventing potentially damaging updates from being posted to corporate social profiles.

The New York Public Library is one organization that takes advantage of HootSuite’s team collaboration tools. It uses the platform to coordinate a decentralized team of contributors that maintains its online presence across a number of social networks. Team members share search columns, schedule updates and assign each other tasks within the tool. These coordinated efforts helped the @nypl Twitter account dramatically grow its following while increasing traffic to the site by more than 350% in a year.

Hootsuite’s Dave Olson on sparking the conversation via Newspapers Canada, Ink and Beyond

Via: Hootsuite’s Dave Olson on sparking the conversation – Newspapers Canada / Ink and Beyond

Social media has revolutionized the way audiences consume the news; changing not only the method of delivery, but the way that stories are shared and transformed in the process. On April 30, Dave Olson from Vancouver-based  HootSuite gave the final presentation of the INK+BEYOND conference, titled Sparking the Conversation: Creating a Social Media Plan.

Olson spoke about the history of the relatively young company and described how newspapers can, and should, incorporate social media into their online and mobile strategy.

In the new digital world, content creators can now analyze where audiences are coming from, what they are looking at and what they are responding to. “You can measure everything – slice and dice your channels and tune the timing and the delivery of your content,” said Olson.

From a business standpoint, social media dashboard services such as HootSuite help newspaper staff not only manage the delivery of content on a variety of social networks, but provide a number of features to help analyze and understand how audiences interact with content.

Some highlights include:

  • Integration of multiple accounts (Facebook, Twitter Foursquare) all on one platform
  • Customizable analytics and tools to track detailed readership statistics (interactions, demographics etc)
  • Determine the “clout” of certain users – algorithm that assigns an influence value to people allowing you to determine which users have authority
  • Custom search streams allow you to monitor mentions of your newspaper, competitors and key industry terms.
  • Drill down your searches with geo-location and filtering options

While anyone can go out and create raw content, traditional media contextualize all of the “stuff” with a built in credibility. “Education, practice and experience make journalists different than all of the other content makers,” according to Olson. However, it is important to remember that social media should never be used as a one-way delivery mechanism; it is always about creating a conversation between the newspaper and the audience.

Olson closed his presentation by reiterating that newspapers should integrate social media into their digital plan but must remain in control. “Technology is a tool, the tool will change – concentrate on what you want it to do, don’t become a slave to technology.”

Source: Hootsuite’s Dave Olson on sparking the conversation – Newspapers Canada