Many managers at both growing or established companies struggle to find the time and  resources to manage multiple social media profiles. In many cases, an intern or junior employee is assigned the task of getting social networks set up plus tend to posting the messages on behalf of the organization.

Now imagine that the intern decides to take off to Australia to go backpacking for six months — or worse — leaves under less than ideal circumstances. Now what? How do you regain control of your online profile? Getting access back from social networks like Twitter or Facebook can be a support conundrum taking months to resolve – and by that time it could be too late to repair the damage.

Streamline and Protect

Social network profiles are quickly becoming one of the most important parts of your brand and your internal IP. That’s why HootSuite has created “Teams” allowing one account owner to assign tasks and various levels of access while protecting passwords and control.

So… What is Account Ownership?

Lets face it, when you’re dealing with people mistakes can happen. But with HootSuite you retain ultimate control of your account so that if it is compromised you can act quickly, removing users and deleting posts to minimize damage.

If you “own” a social profile in HootSuite, it means that you have the final say over all of the administration. As an account owner, you – and you alone – get to decide what happens with your social media accounts, including who gets to help manage them, and what level of access each team member is granted.

How to Add or Delete a Team Member

Because HootSuite is built as a collaborative social media dashboard, both Pro and Enterprise plans have the option to both add and remove team members, as well as maintain control over what level of access team members have. This means you can assemble a team to write status updates on behalf of your organization without revealing any account passwords. Inversely, account ownership also means you can revoke social media account access to a team member when they move on or change roles.

For most agencies or big businesses, it is necessary to have a number of contributors to your accounts. For example: junior employees monitor comments and mentions, marketers publish messages, contractors measure analytics, project managers delegate tasks and contribute messaging…  and so on.

Indeed, all of these people need access, but not necessarily the same level of permission. As an account owner, you can control who has access to what.

Team Levels

With the HootSuite Pro and Enterprise plans, each team has three levels of users:

Account owner

A social media profile can only have one owner. This class of user has ultimate administrative privileges, including transferring ownership when/if needed. An account owner can invite team members as well as revoke access to anybody. The account owner also decides what level of access team members have – as either advanced or basic members.

Streamline and Protect with HootSuite

Advanced team member

A social media account can have multiple advanced team members. These team members have nearly full access to the management of the account, including some administrative privileges. Advanced team members can invite other team members, or revoke access. They cannot, however, revoke an account owner’s access to a social media account, nor can they transfer ownership or change passwords. The advantage of the Advanced team member is that it allows others to manage your day-to-day social network needs without having total control over the accounts.

Basic team member

A social media account can also have multiple basic team members. This class of user simply has the ability to monitor social media streams and submit status updates. They have no administrative privileges nor can they invite other team members to social profile, revoke access, nor transfer ownership. This is perfect for outside contractors, interns, or team members that only need to post to one of your networks – but not all.

Account Management Best Practices

Account ownership is an important role, so to help you achieve the best management of your social media networks, we’ve put together these guidelines to keep you on track:

Ensure the Owner is in a position of ...

Choose Your Flight Plan

Long-time HootSuite fans have likely noticed we’ve begun the great migration to get all HootSuite users onto the plan that works best for their individual needs.

Since announcing the premium plans back in August of 2010, we’ve listened closely to your feedback and suggestions to ensure that we could tailor the plans to meet your different requirements and to ensure that the key features are as affordable and available as possible.

Be Free!

HootSuite was hatched as a free tool, and while we have added premium paid plans for increased support and advanced features, we haven’t forgotten the free users and we will continue to release more tools for all plans.

The Basic free plan still includes most all of the beloved HootSuite features offered before the we added team collaboration and advanced analytics (including Google Analytics and Facebook Insights).

Which Owl is Right for You?

On a budget but want to tap into the social web across networks? No problem, the Basic plan has you covered. Need advanced support, multiple team members or advanced analytics? We’ve got a Pro plan for you.

The free Basic plan starts you off with HootSuite staples such as scheduling, keywords monitoring and 30 day Ow.ly stat history, while the Pro plan offers additional benefits like team collaboration, unlimited social networks and RSS/Atom Feeds, plus Google Analytics and Facebook Insights.

Consider the Enterprise plan for even more. This full menu plan is ideal for teams with greater than 15 members plus includes 10 seats in HootSuite Learning Program so your team can gain advanced techniques to advance your social media efforts.

To learn more about the offerings, go to the plans page to see which is best for your unique needs.

A Little Hoot for Friends

We understand you may still have questions about your account and the different plans and features that HootSuite offers. No problem, we’re here to help you out. Start with a library of articles in the Help Desk to learn the ins-and-outs of our offering and/or you can always give us a hoot via Twitter @hootsuite_help.

Road-Map Ahead

There’s lots of great stuff ahead on the HootSuite road-map. For starters, CEO Ryan Holmes will be at TWTRCON in SF on Thursday with an announcement of some new tools coming shortly.

Be sure to follow @hootwatch for more tips and news, plus keep an eye on @hootsuite as well as the blog for articles and release announcements to help you make the most of your HootSuite dashboard.

Related posts:

1. Introducing HootSuite Freemium ~ Message from CEO Ryan Holmes Hello HootSuite Community, HootSuite is pleased to announce new premium...
2. HootSuite Goes Freemium — Premium Plans Added, Free Accounts Remain August, 11 2010, VANCOUVER, CANADA — HootSuite release tiered premium...
3. HootSuite Freemium Plans ~ Clarifications about teams, ads, stats & NPOs Pricing and Team Members There was plenty of reaction and...

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Owls of the world, we love what you do.

There are so many remarkable user-created tutorials and videos out there to help spread the word and share the love of HootSuite – it makes us happy to see that others share our enthusiasm for the great things the dashboard can do.

We want to share them all and collect some of the best in our User Created Tutorials forum – be sure to check them out and add your own to get your content in fromt of more of your fellow HootSuite fans.

With an eye towards tutorials, how-tos and use cases, here are some amazing fan-generated pieces that have caught our eyes and warmed our hearts in recent days:

Owl-thusiast Tutorials

Socialmedia.biz - 10 ways to create a social media dashboard

HootSuite: Integrate all your platforms: Our personal favorite is HootSuite because of the depth of its products and services. You can update multiple social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook and more) from a computer or iPhone, Android or Blackberry. A team of users can track results of their interactions and create a dash board that will work efficiently with their preferred social streams.

Love Your Work LIFE - Can’t find a job? Use your skills and make one! – The AelloLUXE Story (podcast)

Nicole Yeary

It’s becoming very clear that social media matters… to everything.  Looking for a job?  Social media.  Building business?  Social media.  Maintaining or developing friendships (professional or personal)?  Social media.  And guess what – it isn’t just for Gen-Y.  Twitter is mostly an adult and professional network.  So is LinkedIn.  Facebook is becoming popular among most ages.  The best part of all of this is that it is getting easier and easier to understand, use, and adopt every day thanks to tools such as Hootsuite.

Twitter has been introducing me to some incredible people around the world.  I’m blown away and humbled every day by the immense talent I am fortunate enough to spend time with.  Today is no different as Nicole Yeary of AelloLUXE shares her story.

Nicole’s back story is incredibly inspiring.  In this interview, Nicole tells us about her move to Chicago and how she lost her job only a month later (after signing an 18 month lease on a condo).  She talks about her job search, her difficulties, how she found a way through all of it, and how a business that showcases her tremendously valuable talents developed as a result of the whole crazy adventure.

If you are in a similar situation, this story is incredibly inspiring and can give you some ideas on how to take control of your own situation, too.  This call is also great if you are using social media but are not using a dashboard tool to keep up with all your social media profiles.  Nicole gives some incredible insight into Hootsuite and how it can explode your social media experience.

Alexandra Samuel - Using HootSuite as your Twitter dashboard

The main reason I use HootSuite is that it does a great job of scheduling tweets, so that I can queue up a day or even a week’s worth of tweets at a time. This feature is so valuable that I’ll write a blog post focusing specifically on how to use HootSuite for scheduling tweets. Yes, Tweetdeck (my preferred Twitter client for over a year) also has a “tweet later” feature, but I found it quite erratic.

The other benefit of using HootSuite is its support for team-based tweeting. Since I share a few of my Twitter accounts with colleagues, it can be useful for us to share Hootsuite tabs so that we can monitor the same Twitter searches or collaborate in drafting tweets.

The Poor Travel Blogger - HootSuite As My Travel Companion

Let me introduce you to my travel companion, Hootsuite. Before I knew anything about Hootsuite, I had the usual issue of having multiple tabs open all the time. One for facebook, one for Twitter (and only one account at a time!), this blog and whatever else I was researching at the time. But my good friend and Internet pro Paula Seymour, saved me from my own destruction by ...

The MobileFest juggernaut has generated responses and reactions from across the web and around the world.

In the wake of the series of free new mobile releases — Blackberry, iPhone, Android and the iPad reveal — we’ve got all sorts of articles to share, from a HootSuite BlackBerry review all the way from Thailand (in Thai!) to thoughts on the first look at our iPad app. Plus we’ve included more HootSuite tips, some accolades (’cause we like to share the hoot-love) and a Q&A with CEO Ryan Holmes.

We’re always keen to keep you in the loop, so tune into @hootwatch and be sure tap into our Delicious feed for even more.

And we want you to keep in touch with us as well, so send us a postcard. We’re still running our HootSuite postcard promotion, and we want to hear, in your words, “How HootSuite Helps Me.” Some lucky senders will get a HootKit full of limited edition mobile-owl fun. We’ve just received our first postcard from Japan, and we’re eagerly awaiting yours too…

Could tools like this make an iPad become a “second screen” (or third) that you can have open to see news and information?  I know a lot of people do this already for clock and weather apps, but I think keeping HootSuite for iPad open all the time, could become a pretty compelling use case.

TechVibes – Vancouver’s Hootsuite celebrates free apps with its own Mobile Fest this week

Sparked by Hootsuite making all of its mobile apps free, it’s stirring up celebration by adding potent mobile capabilities for Blackberrys, Android-platform phones, iPhonea, iPada, and even the Japanese Keitais.

Hootsuite is also running a contest. It’s an “interactive promotion” inviting HootSuite fans to send postcards explaining how they use HootSuite, and receive “Hootkits,” which are mobile-themed owl stickers to winning entrants.

ZDNet – 100 Brains: HootSuite’s Ryan Holmes and his solution for addressing social media ROI by Jennifer Leggio

How is HootSuite addressing social media other than providing apps? Founder Ryan Holmes talks about the company’s growth and solution for socmed ROI.

Q. HootSuite now has different versions of its products — consumer, enterprise, mobile. Which one is being adopted the most quickly and what are some of the drivers for that adoption?

A. We have had great adoption on mobile with iPhone, Android, and soon, BlackBerry. That being said, the web client is 1.5 years old and is our most popular product. We have over 800K users and 1.7 million social networks under management.

Q. Do you believe that there is a need for tools somewhere between consumer and enterprise so that small businesses can also scale, but keep these social tools within their budgets?

A. Absolutely, this is a large focus of our paid offering which…at $5.99 per month and includes rich analytics, three team members and unlimited social networks.

Mashable – 5 Superior Social Media Management Tools [Mashable Awards]

HootSuite is best for actively-managed accounts because its design focuses on streams, which are housed in customizable tabs. You have the flexibility to organize tabs by account, network or content, making it easier to monitor a specific type of feed more closely.

One of the greatest benefits of social media is finding out more about your audience. HootSuite takes this to the next level by providing a follower’s bio and Klout score along with links to his or her social media profiles. You can also create lists of followers you want to keep a closer eye on and increase engagement with.

The folks at Mashable also shared our mobile announcements at: Hootsuite’s Mobile Apps Are Now Free along with a disclaimer saying: ”Mashable editors use Hootsuite for the social-media aspects of our jobs.” That’s the best part for us!

Arena Movile - HootSuite llega a BlackBerry como beta pública gratuita (HootSuite comes to BlackBerry as a free public beta)

(auto-translated) And many were waiting anxiously and today is the day when users finally BlackBerry may prove the expected version of HootSuite for RIM terminals.

HootSuite application for BlackBerry was released with improved support for social networks ...

Know your Channels

In this social web world, everyone is a media channel of some kind – and each “channel” has a distinct audience and reach. By understanding who your powerful friends are, you can better understand the likelihood of attention for each message – from small-but-mighty local outlets still climbing the network ladder to influencers with the reach of an international broadcast conglomerate.

We’ve added a few powerful network intelligence tools to HootSuite to help identify influencers in your network – then you can get to know them – say “thanks,” send them a cupcake, a pair of unicorns or some other token to acknowledge their social attention.

Get started with this trio of tactics:

#1 Find Friendly Helpers

The people who re-teet your message and share your links, are a key part of your social outreach strategy. Acknowledge them, thank them, make them your pals.

To see who’s clicking and re-tweeting your updates:

1) Click the Owl and choose Stats > Summary and select a profile
2) Click “Most Popular Messages” to see a list of your top-performing posts
3) View (and click as desired) the smiling icons of your diligent sharers

Example: A few months back, HootSuite released a case study about a hospital which live-Twittered a surgery – using HootSuite, we can see it was clicked 876 times

Plus the messages was RTed by these smiling faces:

Tip: Within HootSuite, you can click the icons to pop a profile card and learn more about them.

Note: “Show number of retweets in statistics“ was the top request topic in the Feedback Channel. What’s next?

#2 Know the Influencers & Tastemakers

Next, check out which influential people mentioned your profile recently – these people are likely to be media outlets, people with large networks or otherwise gathered the attention of many eyeballs on a given topic:

To take a look at your network’s power-players:

1) Click Owl > Stats > Summary
2) Click “Influencers that have mentioned @username”
3) View the list of “highly influential” Twitter users who mentioned your handle

Example: This view shows which “highly influential” pundits, pros and fans have mentioned @hootsuite – be sure to keep an eye on them in future – In this case, we can thank these noteworthy folks for sharing our story.

Note: This tool is powered by Topsy (more at Crunchbase) who consider influence “the new currency of the web” and scour Twitter to help discover your network’s power-brokers.

Filter for Influence

Finally, see which influential people are mentioning your brand or any other search term – ideal way to prospect for influencers and customers for any industry from yoga to accounting.

To filter by influence score:

1) Choose a search/monitor stream and load up messages
2) Click the pull-down menu and choose Filter > by Klout
3) Slide the bar to drop-off mentions below the influence score – note the score displayed in the red box

Example: When viewing a search stream or a Twitter list in-steam, move the slider to display only profiles above a certain score.

Note: Along with the small red badge, you can also see Klout scores on individual profile cards

So, What Next?

One you’ve identified helpful followers in your network, you can outreach to build affinity – here are a few ways:

• Send an @mention to say “thanks” publicly (make sure you are following)
• Add to a Twitter list to follow more closely in a HootSuite stream
• If you see them helping/evangelising, offer treats or other wuffie
• Be helpful to them: answer their questions, offer assistance

Of course, the tactics and follow-up will depend on your product or service. What are your methods? Leave a comment with your best practices.

Measuring Up

Both Klout and Topsy have ways of algorithmically measuring reach and influence – Read more about Klout’s integration to HootSuite for additional ways to find the valuable operators in your networks.

As for Topsy, they say: “Influence is also transitive – the more influential people retweet you, the higher your influence will be.” Want to climb the ladder? Follow their advice: Your Topsy Influence increases when you say things other people find interesting. So go forth and be interesting.

Example: Using ...

The skimboards and surfboards are packed away, the kids are back in school, and HootSuite is on the road to share messages of social sharing to audiences around the world. From revolutionary gardeners to IT professionals, you can catch a HootSuite speaker or a HootSuite-sponsored event at venues near and far.

The HootSuite Events page has the full line-up from Vancouver to Mumbai, but here are a few noteworthy impending gigs:

Helping the Helpers

HootSuite and Zendesk are sponsoring a presentation series by Christopher Dancy – a specialist in using social media for IT service management, help desks, customer service departments, etc.

Here’s where you can catch Mr. Dancy’s HDI Western Road Tour presentation:

• Phoenix Area: September 8 at 11:00 a.m. at Apollo Group
• Los Angeles Area: September 9 at 11:30 a.m. at BT
• Orange County Area: September 9 at 6:30 p.m. at OC
• San Diego Area: September 10 at 11:30 a.m. at Gen-Probe
• San Francisco/Silicon Valley Area: September 16 at 11:00 a.m. at White & Lee, LLP
• Central Valley Area: September 16 at 5:30 p.m. at 1010 Building
• Sacramento Area: September 17 at 7:30 a.m. at Robert Hall Technology

Here’s more background from the press release: Unprecedented HDI Western Region Road Tour to Present Hot IT Service and Support Topics, plus a snippet to whet your appetite:

Dancy is the founder of ServiceSphere™, which is recognized as the most influential ITIL and ITSM Twitter organization globally. ServiceSphere is the first ITSM organization to market with offerings combining social media and ITSM. Dancy, who is known as @servicesphere on Twitter, has more than 20 years of IT experience that includes serving as a service desk manager, presales engineer, best practices consultant, and a sales and marketing executive. Through ServiceSphere, he has committed himself to helping IT organizations successfully adopt ITSM tools and ITMM practices.

The HDI Western Region Road Tour is being sponsored by two of the social support space’s most ground-breaking vendors: HootSuite and Zendesk. HootSuite is an innovative company that enables organizations to use social Web tools to schedule and publish messages to multiple social networks, as well as monitor results and efficiently participate in conversations.

Revolutionary Gardeners

HootSuite is excited to sponsor Beetnik Media’s Garden Writers Association party in Dallas — this is an event for gardening bloggers organized by Adriana (Anarchy in the Garden) and Fern (Life on the Balcony).

This event will bring garden writers and green social media people together to network and have fun at Mondule’s in Hyatt Regency. They say “It’s free. Please, invite your garden writer friends, the more the merrier!”

Date: September 10, 2010 from  7:00pm – 11:30pm

Blurb: Come to this cool party sponsored by HootSuite — A party with a hosted bar and delicious appetizers for the Garden Writers attending the 2010 Garden Writers Association conference in Dallas who will come to network with other garden writers and garden/green living/social media company representatives in an intimate, relaxed setting. And to have fun!

Follow: #GWA hashtag on Twitter.

RSVP at: http://www.facebook.com/BeetnikMedia

Deets: http://www.beetnikmedia.com/gwa-party/

More Hoots

These aren’t the only events going on either — Here are a few more HootSuite related events:

Twitter for PR & Marketing (London, UK)

HootSuite CEO Ryan Holmes is tripping across the pond to speak at this event for marketing pros.

Date: Thursday, September 30, 2010 from 9:00am – 5:05pm (BST)

Blurb: Join your fellow communications professionals at a dedicated Twitter conference for the PR industry. The will address the opportunities and challenges presented by the fast rise of this powerful new medium.

RSVP at: http://www.thesocialmediaacademy.co.uk/basket

Deets: http://www.thesocialmediaacademy.co.uk/product/discover-the-future-that-twitter-holds-for-pr-marketing/187

BarCamp Jonesboro (Arkansas, US)

This year BarCamp Jonesboro in Arkansas is sponsored by HootSuite.

Date: Saturday, September 25, 2010 from 8:00am – 7:00pm (CDT)

Blurb: Hosted on the campus of ASU, sponsored by leading-edge technology companies and local businesses, staffed and organized by local volunteers and featuring presentations by you and your peers. BarCamp Jonesboro is a full day of technology, creativity, networking, and education.

RSVP at: http://barcampjonesboro.eventbrite.com

Deets: http://www.barcampjonesboro.com

Social Media Camp (Victoria, Canada)

HootSuite Community Director Dave will speak about “Power tuning campaigns with HootSuite”

Date: Sunday, October 3, 2010, 2010 from 8:00am – 6:15pm (PT)

Blurb: Social outreach ...