Today’s blog post was contributed by my guest, Ann Smarty, who I have gotten to know through her managing the LinkedIn Subgroup “The Guest Blogger.”   Her post is about my preferred Twitter tool which I am also passionate about and use in my own social media consulting and implementation, Hootsuite, which just today released new Social CRM features allowing you to filter tweets by Klout score or keyword.  Ann is also currently Director of Media for BlueGlass.

Business power Tweeters can rejoice – the tool you need is finally here. Any business who has a social media policy and uses Twitter or Facebook extensively to reach out to customers now can fully manage their social activities through this site.

Hootsuite is an evolution of Twitter management that started out as “Brightkit” in 2008. While Brightkit began with potential, the creators found that the name was not in line with their services.  Subsequently, the company updated their service features, changed the name to Hootsuite, and developed a winning product that is more than suitable for business and personal social media activities.

Hootsuite offers numerous features that result in maximum benefits to business mini-bloggers. Here is a look at a few of the best ones:

Manage Multiple Social Networks

Hootsuite allows a user to integrate multiple social networking sites into one manageable location. The first and main network is Twitter, giving you the ability to manage multiple Twitter accounts. And alongside Twitter, Hootsuite helps you manage accounts with Facebook, LinkedIn, and the ability to update a host of other social networks through Ping.fm.

Create and Manage Team Workflow

Hootsuite allows accounts to add as many users as they want. New users can be added from around the country and be given editorial permissions to update certain feeds and share tweeting responsibilities.

Create Twitter Lists

If you follow any number of Twitter accounts, managing and reading all the feeds can be nearly impossible. Hootsuite allows you to create lists of Twitter followers so you can more easily read their updates.

Customize URLs and Upload Files

Your tweets or other updates with links or files are a breeze with Hootsuite tools. It uses its own URL shortening function that allows you to customize URL parameters. If you want to share a file with your tweets or other updates like a photo, Hootsuite instantly converts the file into a shortened ow.ly link embedded into your update.

Schedule Tweets

Scheduling tweets is a feature that many businesses have demanded, but few have provided. Hootsuite allows a business to pre-write a number of tweet updates and schedule them for later posting onto Twitter. This allows you to provide new and fresh Twitter content any time of day.

New iPhone and Droid App

Hootsuite works with the iPhone and Droid mobile devices. Now your Hootsuite team can perform their social media duties anywhere.

Tracking Statistics

Hootsuite tracking provides you with comprehensive data about how many clicks your tweets are getting, where they are located geographically,

So what does all this mean for your business? The Hootsuite social management tool gives you many benefits:

·       Manage your brand – Through Hootsuite, you can find out what people are saying about your company. Track backlinks and retweets, and follow how your tweets are circulating.

·       Increased Productivity – Hootsuite gives your business added productivity with easy team workflow, tweet scheduling, stat tracking, all in one place.

·       Better Social Policy Communication – Your business can more easily manage how it executes its social media policy through unified interaction with all social media team members.

Indeed, HootSuite makes tweeting for businesses more productive, intuitive, and effective.

Every time I present at a professional association, I am reminded by some of my attendees that they cannot access LinkedIn or other social media sites at their work.  And it always surprises me.  I always end up teaming up with those wanting to convince their superiors that, with the proper rules, they should be embracing selective social media sites.  And the root of the problem seems to be the same: their superiors just don’t seem to fully understand the various sites that are out there or are taking knee-jerk responses to something reported in the media.  It reminds me of when the Internet first started and access at the workplace was restricted…of course, over time that restriction was lifted and I feel it will be the same for most social media sites as well.

First of all, let’s look at each of the “Big Three” social media sites and discuss whether or not it makes sense for corporations to block them.  And I will conclude with the question of this blog post: why do corporate IT departments continue to block LinkedIn?

But before I even begin talking about each site, I wanted to remind everyone that social networking sites aren’t just for socializing: social media is also where people are increasingly going to look for information these days.  While one can debate that people are looking for more information on Facebook than Google despite the amount of time spent on Facebook has far surpassed that of Google, can anyone argue against the fact that Twitter has now become a real-time search engine superior to Google?

Twitter

So let’s start with Twitter.  Why should IT NOT block Twitter?  Let’s look at the ways corporations use Twitter now: brand management, customer support, business development, marketing…blocking access to Twitter can stifle your company’s growth and innovation.  And if your company can’t monitor Twitter, who will monitor the conversations that are being had for them?

Facebook

I would agree that there is more socializing going on on Facebook than on other sites.  However, many businesses have discovered that there is business to be found on Facebook, and now we see growth both in the number of corporate fan pages (sorry I couldn’t find the stats on this) as well as the fact that more than 10 million users join Facebook fan pages each day.  As with Twitter, if IT will not allow their employees to monitor these conversations, things could get out of control and adversely affect that company.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is fundamentally different from Twitter and Facebook in that it is a site for professionals (LinkedIn People) and businesses (LinkedIn Companies) rather than for “socializing”.  I like to refer to LinkedIn as the default yellow pages that professionals and businesses MUST be on in order to be found.  Why would IT departments block access then?  The only feasible reason I have heard is that there is a fear that their employees will spend time on LinkedIn looking for a job.  And anyone who has been on LinkedIn realizes that this is a poor excuse.  Before LinkedIn, recruiters were still able to cold-call and reach you at your office.  With the advent of the Social Web it is getting easier and easier to find people just because of the plethora of profile and other information out there.  Limiting usage of LinkedIn is like preventing your employees from attending industry exhibitions or going to professional seminars.  In my eyes, LinkedIn is the same thing, one big room of 50 million people that allow participants to develop business, find partners, recruit talent, join professional communities, and find answers to business problems.  Why would IT want to stifle these fundamental vital aspects of business?

Some people will read this and just say, “Well, why don’t we just restrict access to certain departments instead?”  This approach sounds reasonable at first, but with the growth of the social web, are there any parts of an organization that won’t be affected by social media in the near future?  I think not.  So restriction by IT is not the issue: a crisp social media policy on how employees can use the social web responsibly and enforcement of it is where companies should be trying to control things is the solution.  It is no different than usage of the Internet in general: Companies have much more to lose by restricting access than to gain.

Would love to hear your comments on this.  What has your experience been?

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