Make It With Michael

By Kate Funk Instagram ticks all the boxes for an app that managed to pick the top trends on the web. Social, mobile and visual. When it started it didn't even have a website. It was just an app. That has now been fixed. The pervasive social media networks have become a marketing trend has...

By Ryan Holmes This post was originally published by HootSuite CEO Ryan Holmes on the LinkedIn Influencer blog. Follow Ryan on LinkedIn: One of the best books I've read recently is “Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration.” Co-written by Ed Cat...

By Matt Diederichs You see the hashtags on Twitter every week: #SBizHour, #MediaChat, #CMGRHangout, and on and on. These tags refer to Twitter chats, one of the best examples of community building on Twitter. Using a shared hashtag, users meet at a pre-determined time to discuss issues of...

By Kristina Cisnero Your website is the cornerstone of your business' online presence. Alongside your website is its helpful sister, social media. Your social media and website presence should be integrated with one another in order to continuously drive traffic to your online assets. And with...

By Ricardo Casas So you've created a profile on LinkedIn. Then you copied the “About Us” from your website and uploaded your logo. And you think you are ready to start promoting your business on this professional networking site that has over 347 million users. Right? Not quite. There are a fe...

By Evan LePage If a Tweet is posted in your office, and no one else is on social media, does it really make a sound? That terrible joke describes a terrible reality for many social media managers who struggle to get other employees in their companies involved on social. You can spend all day...

By Amy Elderkin A key component of marketing has always been leveraging your fans and customers through word-of-mouth. While we know its importance, until recently the challenge has been measuring the success and reach of brand chatter. We now have the ability to measure the effectiveness of...

By Judith Schneider Facebook enticed you to play and then they made you pay. It's almost the perfect business model. You spent a ton of money investing in getting likes, shares and comments. This also enticed other people to join Facebook. Facebook then collected the demographic and social...

By Hootsuite Constituents have become sophisticated social citizens who expect timely communications and answers to their inquiries from their local and state governments on social media. Hootsuite enterprise customer Greg Licamele, Director of External Communications at Fairfax County, who...

By Hootsuite The internet has changed drastically in the 22 years since the launch of the first ever web page. It has grown into a communication tool, information resource, and a source of entertainment for over three billion users, and the print and publishing industry has had to adapt and...

By Matt Wong Your employees are invested in your success, which is why they can be your most trusted and effective advocates on social media. However, it's not always easy for organizations to show that trust. Empowering hundreds, even thousands of employees to talk about your brand on social...

By Donné Torr If you're connecting your WordPress.org account you will need to install the WordPress app via the Your content management system is the unsung hero of your content marketing strategy. If it's efficient and effective, you barely notice it's there. But if you're a small business, ...

By Sarah Dawley While many government leaders recognize the benefits of social media, it's still easy to feel overwhelmed by the work required to implement an effective strategy. With limited resources available, governments need to ensure that their social media initiatives are producing...

By Brian Jensen Want to win online? Then there is a lot you can learn from your competitors' digital marketing strategies, especially those that are currently outperforming you online. Gaining an in-depth understanding into the key strategies being used by your top performing competitors can...

By Donné Torr At Hootsuite we live and breathe social, which means that everything is in real time, our workplace is fast-paced, and social trends come and go in hyperspeed. We are not an anomaly when it comes to this environment. The tech scene and larger business world rewards speed. There ...

By Donné Torr Kraft Dinner was a staple in my university dorm days. And not just for budgetary reasons—I craved its perplexingly bright color. I found twisted comfort in seeing yellow dyes numbers 5 and 6 in my bowl of pasta. So it was with mixed emotions last week that I learned, as of Ja...

By Donné Torr Kraft Dinner was a staple in my university dorm days. And not just for budgetary reasons—I craved its perplexingly bright color. I found twisted comfort in seeing yellow dyes numbers 5 and 6 in my bowl of pasta. So it was with mixed emotions last week that I learned, as of Ja...

By Vivek As the famous 1999 Hollywood flick Notting Hill taught us, it's really all about how well you time it and you have to keep trying no matter what – A Little Late, But Still On Time. And, there's one simple underlying reason why this movie touched you. That perfect moment. That moment w...

By Jeff Bullas Twitter is reinventing itself into a much more visual platform. It has to. The competition demanded it. Instagram, Pinterest and other emerging visual social apps made it clear where the web was going. Mobile and visual It added Vine the looping 6 second video app in January...

By Hootsuite The government in Fairfax County in Virginia, US, provides public services for 1.1 million county locals every day—from police, fire and rescue, animal shelter, public transportation, health department, libraries, and recreation centers, to disposal facilities. For decades, F...

By Jaime Stein In the past three months, Hootsuite's main Twitter handle (@hootsuite) has Tweeted a single piece of content 44 times. Soon our social media team will probably do it again, making an even 45. We're not afraid to repeat our content, and we don't think you should be either. I...

By Olsy Sorokina Earlier this week, Twitter has announced that the last walls on direct messages are coming down: you can now opt to send and receive messages from any Twitter user, regardless of your following status. Latest updates to Twitter DMs also allow users to reply to any message they...

By Alex Pirouz How much are you paying for your leads? When you figure in the time it takes to pull together your free offer, the cost of the hosting software, and even the physical amount of money you shell out for marketing services, your cost can be pretty hefty. In addition, you are not...

By Sam Milbrath If you work at a large organization, you know the challenges of corporate complexity firsthand. From navigating compliance to coordinating global and local marketing initiatives, it can be difficult to build a comprehensive social media strategy. In our new eBook, How to...

By Sam Milbrath If you work at a large organization, you know the challenges of corporate complexity firsthand. From navigating compliance to coordinating global and local marketing initiatives, it can be difficult to build a comprehensive social media strategy. In our new eBook, How to...

By Olsy Sorokina Last summer, we did a roundup of Facebook features you may have missed in the past couple of years. In mere six months, however, Facebook marketing has seen even more changes, with some designed specifically to address the demands of advertisers on the network. We have...

By Olsy Sorokina Last summer, we did a roundup of Facebook features you may have missed in the past couple of years. In mere six months, however, Facebook marketing has seen even more changes, with some designed specifically to address the demands of advertisers on the network. We have...

By Ariana Biagi Everyone has a voice, and with social media, that voice has the opportunity to be heard across the globe. With so many engaged social media users on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram every day, nonprofits have used social media to successfully share stories,...

By Jason Parks Marketers are constantly frustrated with the return on investment from Facebook. General Motors was one of the first large brands to vent their annoyance when they cut their Facebook advertising spend back in 2012. If you work for a large company, increasing your brand presence...

By Kate Dunham A major challenge to sales and client services teams everywhere is the rise of the hyper-informed consumer. Consumers now have access to a vast amount of information online, enabling them to do their own research before making purchases. From picking the perfect running shoe to...

By Jaime Stein and Andy Au Live streaming video is all the rage since the launch of Periscope and Meerkat. People have used these apps to live stream all kinds of things, from concert rehearsals to Mario Kart tournaments. So what happens when you combine the power of Periscope with exclusive...

By Sam If you're thinking of adding Instagram marketing techniques to your social media plan, you're bound to see great results. According to the Social Media Examiner, over 92 percent of business owners reveal that social media is “important to their business.” However, in the growing sea of s...

By Aki Kaltenbach On Thursday, April 16th, the Hootsuite Talent team launched Operation #FollowTheSun, a campaign that showcased what life is like in our offices around the world using Periscope.Join @HootsuiteLife on @periscopeco today, 4/16 at 7am PST for Operation #FollowTheSun to get a...

By Hannah Clark Last week, it was announced that Snapchat would stop selling its original ad unit, Brand Stories. These ads made headlines when they first launched last fall, and not only because they represented uncharted territory for the teen-centric social network. Brand stories were also...

By Jeff Bullas In 1995, authors, experts and influencers sold $10 million worth of eBooks through Amazon. 18 years later that number has grown to $1.6 billion. Despite the growth, something is changing… As sales volume grew, authors began looking for new ways to sell their content without r...

By Donné Torr Oh, the playoffs. The smell of spring is in the air! Except in the 16 NHL locker rooms, where an entirely different odour denotes the most intense time in the pro hockey season. These locker rooms have something else in common, too: not a razor in sight. Why? Because hockey ...

By Vivek Ever wondered what the best thing about all the seasons is? Timing. Yep, seasons arrive at their perfect time, every single year. Year after year. Suddenly, I realised that it isn't as bad an idea to take a cue from this. After all, with all things social media, isn't it about timing,...

By Vivek Ever wondered what the best thing about all the seasons is? Timing. Yep, seasons arrive at their perfect time, every single year. Year after year. Suddenly, I realised that it isn't as bad an idea to take a cue from this. After all, with all things social media, isn't it about timing,...

By Hootsuite Video Team Live-streaming: a passing fad or a new social media marketing trend your brand needs to master? A few weeks ago, Sunny Lenarduzzi told us about two hot new apps, Meerkat and Periscope, that have been taking social media by a storm of streaming video. The latest Social...

By Shreeja Jamdar The battle of the sporting legends has come to the Twitter arena.Who will reign supreme – the swoosh or the three stripes? For the uninitiated, we had done a Twitter Analytics Face-off with Pepsi and Coca-Cola as the contenders. Check it out here Adidas was the undisputed k...

By Donné Torr If you are a consultant looking to find new clients, LinkedIn is one of the best places to start. LinkedIn has created a unique opportunity to take professional networking online, so growing your client base is no longer stressful, and doesn't have to require a lot of legwork. In ...

By Jeff Bullas It is rumoured that Facebook was going to call the like button “awesome”. But they didn't. That is a good thing because the word awesome is over used already. It is often trotted out to try and make the ordinary a little more extraordinary. You may also have noticed I used it in...

By James Mulvey In this post, you'll discover four examples of innovative government social media strategies. You can find more examples and expert guidance in our new free resource, The Social Government. You don't need huge budgets to build an innovative social media strategy. Expensive apps...

By Olsy Sorokina Landing pages are an inseparable part of the web browsing experience: we have all visited one at some point, whether or not we were conscious of the fact. Whenever you click on an online ad, register for a webinar, download a survey or a white paper, it's likely that a landing...

By Juan Jose Mendez The war among social media juggernauts is no news; Facebook, Twitter and Google+ have been battling for years to get the crown. We know who has won that. But this year is quite special: two of the most important social networks are attacking the mighty YouTube together in...

By Evan LePage So much content is produced about social media managers that it's easy to forget that social media is now often the domain of teams. Where large enterprises might have a handful of people working on social media full-time, even a small business with limited resources frequently...

By Hootsuite Unless you've been living under a rock for the past two weeks, you've likely heard of the hot new app Periscope. For the last couple weeks, our CEO has been hosting live Periscope broadcasts from his office, talking about everything from his view on the newest apps to the time he...

By Jeff Bullas When I discovered social media 7 years ago I was attracted by its potential to gain free global attention. You didn't need to pay for an online audience or traffic. You attracted website visitors by writing great content, giving it away for free and growing your social...

By Sarah Dawley Adding social content to live TV broadcasts and sports games is a proven way to capture and keep your audience's attention. But the process isn't that easy. For one, digital teams need to ensure that they review each piece of content (to keep it safe for the big screen), and...

By Jaime Stein The puck is about to drop for the National Hockey League's Stanley Cup Playoffs. On Wednesday, April 15th, it's game-on for the remaining 16 teams, as well as the social media pros working behind the scenes to keep the fans fired up. One of the NHL's most followed teams on...