The 10 companies shortlisted for Media Player of the Year in Marketing’s Nov. 19 issue were at the top of their game in 2012. We’ll be featuring each one online as a lead-up to our January 2013 issue, where you’ll find out which media company will reign supreme.
This Vancouver startup is the social media tool of choice for the world’s biggest brands
HootSuite is the current gold standard for social media management. Its tools, which help companies post from multiple accounts, plan and measure engagement and discuss social activity internally, are used by the biggest brands in business.
As of October, 79 of the Fortune 100 use HootSuite for their social marketing. Clients include H&M, Kellogg, Tiffany & Co., eBay, UPS and both Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Stephen Harper and Barack Obama’s offices use the tool, as do the Red Cross and the Smithsonian.
This spring, the Vancouver-based company received yet another vote of confidence in the form of a $20-million investment from the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS). Derek Smyth, managing director of OMERS Ventures, said at the time that the group chose HootSuite after searching North America—“not just Canada,” noted Smyth—for firms connecting companies with the social web. “HootSuite has revolutionized the way companies create and execute their social media campaigns. In a rapidly advancing market, we believe this company has the disruptive DNA to lead this market,” said Smyth.
The OMERS investment, which was one of the largest Canadian venture capital investments of the past decade, is also helping push HootSuite towards a $1 billion valuation.
“It’s safe to say we’re well on our way to that goal,” says CEO and founder Ryan Holmes (right). “We’re comfortable with how we are positioned in the market, especially when looking at how much our profits have expanded in only two years. We’re still growing, and quickly.”
Holmes predicted $70 million in revenue for 2012 and was on track to pass the landmark of five million users this year. In 2012, HootSuite opened an office in London to service European clients and rolled out service in Indonesian, Spanish, French, Italian, German and traditional Chinese. It also added support for Sina Weibo, the popular Chinese micro-blogging service, which has 360 million users. Though HootSuite is still blocked in mainland China, the company is clearly zoning in on the Chinese market. It started new Twitter and Weibo accounts to engage in Chinese with users in Hong Kong and Taiwan (and ones using proxy servers in mainland China). It announced Chinese service and Weibo support in a blog posted in traditional Chinese, complete with its owl mascot dressed in customary Chinese clothing.
As the company grows, so does the HootSuite brand.
This year, HootSuite doubled its marketing staff to 20 employees, who focus on marketing to enterprise clients. “Over the past year we’ve basically built up an agency inside of HootSuite. We have a full marketing department, a social department, content, design and video,” says Ben Watson, HootSuite’s vice-president of marketing.
Telus has used HootSuite since 2009 and upgraded to an enterprise package last year. Katie Drechsel, digital and social media manager for Telus, says employees across several departments use HootSuite daily to collaborate on customer relations, PR, customer service and issue management.
HootSuite’s team, which often acts as digital consultants for enterprise clients, also meets with Drechsel’s team to discuss digital strategy. “Their account team has been phenomenal,” she says. “We work really closely with them. My team is based in Vancouver and so is HootSuite, so we’ve done brainstorming sessions.”
About 40% of HootSuite’s user base is located outside of Canada and much of its growth is happening overseas. But despite its growing global focus, HootSuite has fought the gravitational pull of Silicon Valley. Holmes has always been a vocal advocate of Vancouver and keeping the company on Canadian soil.
With an expanding international presence and ballooning valuation, Holmes says Vancouver is still the best home for HootSuite.
“I’ve been known to call Vancouver a ‘crystal cave of solitude,’” says Holmes. “HootSuite being located outside of San Francisco has allowed us to stay focused and develop on our own terms, avoiding ‘shiny ball syndrome’ in the process.
“I believe HootSuite has become such a global success because of the incredibly skilled and dedicated employees we’ve attracted and hired, a majority of whom are from or lived in Vancouver,” says Holmes.
“Everyone who works here loves this city,” he says. “And I would go so far as to say the city loves us right back.”
To read more about the companies that made the Media Players of the Year and Marketers of the Year shortlists, check out Marketing’s Nov. 19 issue, which is on newsstands now.
