The plugin marketplace for Seesmic Desktop 2 has been a huge hit. With over 50 plugins available for download and many more to come, we realize it can get a little difficult to find the plugins that you need. Because of that, we're going to be featuring two plugins each week, in the Featured Plugin Series. So sit back and enjoy the power that is, SD2. 

Ektron, a web content management, social and marketing optimization software and solutions provider, today announced an eIntranet plug-in built with Seesmic Desktop 2 (SD2).  Ektron's eIntranet SD2 plug-in allows users to access enterprise activity streams on the desktop alongside Facebook, Google Apps, Twitter and other social network streams.

Here's what Ektron had to say about the plugin - "Status updates, microblogs, and activity streams have become the de facto standard for sharing information quickly.  Today's intranets must keep pace with the digital world and become a mashup of internal and external content and applications that employees easily can manage and adopt. The combination of Ektron's social business and collaboration application, eIntranet, with Seesmic underscores the business-critical need for forward-looking enterprise strategies that manage everything influencing both external and internal Web use," said Bill Rogers, founder and CEO of Ektron.  "Ektron will continue to align with innovative companies like Seesmic to provide comprehensive, integrated solutions that protect and measurably enhance customers' enterprise technology investments."

To install the Ektron plugin, just visit their section of the marketplace here. 

It's been a little over a month since we launched Android TweetDeck 1.0. Thanks to a great beta period we were able to deliver a really solid first version of the app. Use cases had been polished out, bugs fixed, but still, there's always more to be done.

Today we're releasing Android TweetDeck 1.0.3 to the market with many of the features we've heard most requested since launch. Included is the ability to manually shorten URLs, change the photo service to Twitpic and more complete support for landscape mode.

Click the device Menu button to change image services or manually shorten a URL.

Change log for 1.0.3:

• Landscape mode for all update detail views
• Added support for Twitpic
• Manual bit.ly shortening
• Allow for dismissing Places notification
• Fix faving tweets on 3g in France
• Allow old style RTs for protected users
• Support FB Single Sign On
• Allow users to delete DMs that are sent to them
• Likes and comments on FB photos should stay in app
• Several bug fixes and performance improvements

1.0.3 is rolling out to the Android Market now and should be available for everyone running Android 1.6+.

While we think this is the best version of Android TweetDeck yet, it is by no means slowing down in development. High on the priority list is user name auto-complete, ability to upload video, native Facebook image posting and better widgets. 

If you're interested in helping us beta test new versions, need help or want to send feedback, please make sure to follow @deckondroid. 

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We're fighting to win the UCSF Children's hospital cause challenge. Please take 1 minute, go to the cause page and give $10 by clicking the donate button.

Influence matters much more than money. You should do it because

• It makes us happy and if you're our friend you will be happy to make us happy
• It's for a great cause of helping children in San Francisco
• We're fighting for victory with our friends Marc Benioff, Ashton Kutcher, Robert Scoble, TechCrunch, Zynga, Facebook, Ron Conway, Twitter, MC Hammer, Om Malik and more.

IT'S THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF $10 DONATIONS THAT WINS SO WE NEED YOUR HELP RIGHT NOW [to kick Scoble's butt at least]

GO DONATE $10 NOW

We will pick a random $10 donation and give a free LeWeb conference pass, as well as for the largest donation as of Nov 19th. We will choose a winner on Nov 26th. Here's more about LeWeb.

Learn more about the UCSF Challenge for Children in the video below, make an impact, donate for the holidays and spread the word!

In the coming weeks, I plan to spotlight several sessions from our recent Adobe MAX conference that cover the latest developments surrounding Adobe AIR.

In my first blog post in this series, I would like to encourage developers to watch the session "Introduction to Adobe AIR for Mobile" by Arno Gourdol, director of engineering for AIR. In this talk, Arno covers AIR support for the BlackBerry PlayBook, Android OS and iOS devices.

The wait is finally over…the highly anticipated HootSuite iPad App has just been released! And we have some even better news… it’s free!

We’ve artfully hand-crafted this mobile app specifically for the iPad’s unique interface and designed it to compliment your HootSuite web account. This new owl makes use of the iPad’s large screen size to maximize the tools you’d typically use on the device, plus includes most of the goodies that you currently enjoy in HootSuite.

Bevy of Treats

Much like the HootSuite iPhone and HootSuite web, HootSuite for iPad supports multiple social networks and profiles (including Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare), message scheduling, and on-board stats. Plus, its packed with plenty more to help owls on-the-go manage campaigns and monitor social networks anywhere from bus stops to board rooms.

Here are some of the remarkable tools built-into the new iPad HootSuite app:

• Multi-network integration (Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare)
• Message scheduling
• On-board click statistics
• Real-time Twitter search
• Built-in link shortener
• Geo-location aware
• and plenty more…

Head over to hootsuite.com/ipad to see the full list of features and add HootSuite for iPad to your nest today!

With HootSuite for iPad, you can quickly import accounts with a simple migration wizard to get started. So get your fingers on this Owl to build your audience and keep informed on important topics from your iPad, and be sure to tell us what you think at the Community Forum!

Related posts:

1. HootSuite iPad Revealed! See Screenshots & Sign-up for Alert HootSuite’s Mobile Fest is in full swing with BlackBerry, Android...
2. Mobile Fest! Free Social Media Apps for Blackberry, iPad, Keitai and More It’s a big week here at HootSuite with a...
3. Android Adds Facebook ~ More Free Mobile Fun from HootSuite There once was a time before owls and robots...

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Scenarios for Creating Teams at HootSuite

One of the most powerful tools within HootSuite is the ability to create teams of contributors for your social media channels. Once you’ve added someone to your team, you can assign messages for follow-up, securely share search columns, utilize draft messages, and manage any amount of social networks.

In short, your HootSuite account is scalable, and the more you need to do, the more people you can bring on board to efficiently manage your networks. This is particularly useful for large in-house groups as well as agencies and consultants working with multiple clients.

Three’s a Charm

HootSuite Team Members come in three levels:

First, there’s an account owner of which there is only one for each social network account within HootSuite. The owner has full control over administrative privileges on the account.

Next on the list are advanced team members who can be brought on to post to profiles, invite additional team members and do some simple account management tasks.

And lastly are the basic team members who can simply post to the networks, utilize draft messages and share the search columns.

All levels of team members can assign messages to their team colleagues for follow-up.  Also, different team members can be assigned to specific social networks; this is particularly handy for organizing groups around campaigns, projects, clients, or most any other scenario you can imagine.

Talking bout Teams

Since announcing the new premium plans which allow team members, we’ve listened to your feedback and questions. In particular, we’ve heard inquiries from agencies and consultants about setting up accounts for their clients to make sense from a billing stand-point. In other words, “Who pays – the agency or the client?”

With this in mind we’ve put together the following scenarios to illustrate the possibilities for team building within the premium HootSuite accounts. Take a look to see which is best suited to how you manage your social media campaigns and manage invoicing the associated costs.

Scenario 1 — Clients as Owners

Our first example is for those consultants or agencies that work with clients on short-term contracts or campaign-specific projects.In this scenario, the consultant or agency helps their client set up their own HootSuite Pro account (starting at $5.99 per month).

HootSuite Pro accounts include 1 team member which can be used to add the agency rep or consultant. This ensures that client retains ultimate control and ownership over all their social profiles and handles the payment of the account directly.

Since the agency or consultant is simply a team member, this doesn’t count against the maximum allotted accounts with the basic account. Plus the client is in control of their own social media accounts, so after the project or campaign is complete is completed, no transfer of ownership is necessary.

Scenario 2 — Hold Your Own

In another scenario, it might be more convenient for clients if the agency or consultant takes ownership over the social media account as part of your overall project deliverable.

To make this happen, the agency or consultant sets up individual HootSuite Pro accounts for each client and adds the cost to the monthly invoice cycle. This may also be more convenient for the client’s budget management to have all campaign costs streaming through the agency.

Once set-up, the agency can add multiple clients to a single Pro account and control which profiles team members can post to. Additional team members are billed on a per-team-member basis, meaning the agency can easily pass costs back to your clients on a case-by-case basis.

For example, if Client A requires 4 team members and Client B needs 3, the agency can easily track and bill with their usual invoice cycle while still maintaining management control over their profiles. If the time comes that the client is ready to take ownership of their social media management, the agency can easily transfer account ownership to the client’s own Pro account while still contributing as a team member.

Scenario 3 — Full Roster

Agencies working with numerous and/or large clients likely have multiple team members managing a number of accounts with rapidly changing needs.

In this case, the increased features offered in the ...

Since we launched bit.ly Bundles on Monday evening, our users have created over 14,000 bundles of bit.ly links! We’ve seen bundles of recipes, bundles of Complexity Dilberts, bundles of news, bundles of design, bundles of music, bundles of photos, bundles of fonts, bundles of domain name registrars, bundles of BBC, bundles of bundles, and bundles more. We’ll be sharing some of our favorite at @bitlybundles - let us know if you have a bundle to show off!

To make bundling even easier, you can now bundle links from anywhere on the web with our bit.ly Sidebar bookmarklet. Just drag this bit.ly Sidebar link to your browser’s bookmark bar (1), then click it while you’re on any page you’d like to bundle.

At the bottom of the sidebar, you will find a list of your 10 most recently shortened links (2), including your current location. Just select the links you’d like to bundle, hit the “Bundle” button, and voila! The links you have selected can now be reordered, annotated, and shared with a single bit.ly short URL.

If you’d like to add your own spin to another user’s bit.ly bundle, you can easily recreate and remix that bundle using the “Clone Bundle” button:

Once you’ve cloned a bundle, you can reorder and modify it however you’d like — you can even include a link to the original bundle to show where you got started. Happy bundling!

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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