Hootsuite.com is a social networking client that allows users to manage the major social networking sites they belong to and to track statistics on them. The application is geared primarily towards Twitter, but allows users to manage accounts on Facebook, MySpace and others. Users can issue updates to their networks directly from Hootsuite, and view their streams from these sites as well. The application allows the user to consolidate all of their social networking sites in one place. Users can also view usage statistics on their social networks, as well as see a summary view of all the people they are following by importing people lists from their social networks. Users can also schedule updates to their social networks to be delivered at specified times. To set up Hootsuite, the user registers for an account for the site, then provides the login details for all of their social networks, They can then use Hootsuite as a central location to access all of the networks. The site has 4 tabs for displaying information – Streams, Stats, Settings and People. Streams shows tabs for each of the user's social network streams, as well as tabs for Featured, which is a stream from Hootsuite, and Featured Tweeps, which shows updates from most of the social networking sites. The Stats tab allows users to see statistics for each of their social networking platforms. The Settings tab contains settings for the Hootsuite site, and the People tab allows users to view their people lists by social network. The app has an add-on for Firefox called HootBar, which allows users to post to different social networks from the web address bar.
Hootsuite was founded in November, 2008 by David Tedman and Dario Mell. Ryan Holmes is currently CEO of the site. In September 2011, HootSuite raised $3 million. A part of these money has been used to acquire TwapperKeeper.com, an app that can analyze, record and monitor tweets.
Competition to Hootsuite.com comes from sites such as Pepperjet.com and Plaxo.com. Pepperjet offers a very similar service to Hootsuite.com. Plaxo.com is more centered around the user's contacts from all sources, including social networks. Hootsuite.com offers more features specifically concerning social networks than either of these two sites.
Pages are clean and uncluttered. The site is very responsive, and the integration with social networks functions well. Page loads happen quickly, and updates to specific social networks issued from Hootsuite are seamless. Navigation is intuitive, and the site is very easy to use. There is no advertising displayed on the Hootsuite.com site.
Registration to Hootsuite.com is free and is required to use the site. The registration process asks for email address, name, password, timezone and company name. Validation of the email address is required to log into the site.
There is no premium membership offered to the Hootsuite.com site, and all features are available with a free registration.
Hootsuite.com is recommended to anyone who is looking for a solution to manage all of their social networking sites in one place. In addition, the site provides meaningful statistics about the user's social network activity. The site is a real timesaver, since updates can be issued to multiple sites at the same time. Setup is easy, and the site is very easy to use.