HootSuite: Monetizing the Social Media Dashboard Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

HOOTSUITE: MONITIZING THE SOCIAL MEDIA DASHBOARD

1. HOOTSUITE AT PRESENT

HOOTSUITE is a cloud-hosted service provider whose aim is to help its users in using the social media dashboard to track as well as measure the responses per click and per stream. It equips its users with streams in each social network e.g. Facebook, Twitter, etc. so that users can participate in each conversations and posts, compose and send message as well as comment on others posts within each stream. The primary role of HOOTSUITE is to manage multiple social media platforms at a time while granting multiple accesses and controls to individual users and pro-users.

a. Market Overview:

The market for social media network is large and fragmented along with this the advancements in technologies make it hard for the industry incumbents to understand what will come up next. Several software have been developed for commercial control and involvement with the social media networks, some of them are internal such as onsite forums to communicate (one way or two way), propriety blogs etc. and can also be external that include social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter etc. where consumers exchange their perception about a particular product idea or innovation. In addition to this, the valuation of this market is hard to asses due to its embryonic nature.However, it is predicted that in future only a few number of vendors will be playing in this speculative market. Exhibit A in the appendix gives a clear idea about the external and internal environment of the Social Media Management System Market.

b. In Progress Situation

HOOTSUITE is a cloud hosted-based social media dashboard with integration of several social media platform that include, Face book, Twitter, Blogs, G+ and also LinkedIn. With a user base of 650,000 HOOTSUITE is seen to progress at a fast pace by promising rapid growth in the industry. It serves its clientele in multiple languages. The web based cloud hosting is done in Japanese, Spanish, English, French and Italian. It allows customization to many of its users and pro-users and also has rich media support in the form of attachment support (images, files etc), cutting downthelength of integration, and allows the user to visualize pictures and videos.

c. Target Customer Base

HOOTSUITE target customer base includes free users (willing or unwilling to pay), pro-users (regular bloggers and writers surfing the social media dashboard or any social media platform), the small-sized enterprises and the medium-sized enterprises.

d. Objectives

HOOTSUITE is planning to monetize its customer base both: free users and pro-users alike. It wants to do that in such a way that helps it to make its free users pay for the service that they are availing but without hurting its user base through forced payment. Therefore, to achieve this particular objective HOOTSUITE needs to set the price structure such, which prevents its existing user base from shunning away to other vendor. In addition to this, the growth rate needs to be sustained at a high level with forging a subtle price structure under previous situation.

2. ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS OF HOOTSUITE

a. PEST ANALYSIS

i. POLITICAL

The political environment in which HOOTSUITE operates is subject to compete for consumer attention on the network. Therefore, it needs not to surmount excessive application options on the social media dashboard as it is possible that consumer might find it information overload and feel reluctant to process it more.

ii. ECONOMICAL

HOOTSUITE is seen to be aggressive in its pursuit of giving its users and pro-users social media dashboard solution by giving them an opportunity to further instill and involve in the responses generated from the social media platforms. In addition to that, HOOTSUITE shows optimism in usage of new marketing tactics for its social media dashboard.

iii. SOCIAL

HOOTSUITE plans to integrate a multiple application infuse in the already existing dashboard. According to HOOTSUITE, this is an opportunity to be seized as this is a need identified by the customer itself.

iv. TECHNOLOGICAL

The technology that HOOTSUITE provides its customers includes mobility, the cloud hosting, secure enable and also crowd sourced with the customization feature. In addition to this, HOOTSUITE’s platform management capabilities include automated management providing RSS feeds and the respective scheduling. It has access to a variety of portals that are technologically compatible today and also user friendly e.g. iPhone, iPad, iPad Touch, Android and BlackBerry applications.

3. COMPANY ANALYSIS

b. SWOT ANALYIS

i. Strengths

HOOTSUITE permits it’s users to view in teams, with access on-any time or at a specific time. It also helps the users to stream easily with segmentation of different streams to go through. In addition to this, it provides a secure profile functionality for the enterprise teams that is a competitive advantage of HOOTSUITE and lets them pre-schedule the posts as well. Further, the company gives it members free or certification membership and a basic solution is also given to the user free of cost..........................

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HootSuite is one of the fastest growing SaaS (software as a service) social media panels on the market. Company vice-president of business development to define the best strategy for the segmentation and monetization HootSuite users. He should introduce a tiered data plan that generates revenue without alienating users. "Hide
by Raymond Pirouz, Ken Mark Source: Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation 18 pages. Publication Date: November 22, 2012. Prod. #: W12332-PDF-ENG