Earlier today, HootSuite launched the new version of their site.
However, early access to the public beta could only be granted if you authorized the sending out of a tweet, which resulted in the Twittersphere looking something like this:
An Apology First…
Before I continue, I have to admit that I am somewhat guilty of falling victim to sending out the now infamous tweet. As we wanted to get public access to the early beta with the express intent of reviewing it (as was done here), it was a necessary (and unfortunate) evil. To any of my followers, please accept my heartfelt apologies for exposing you to this marketing.
The Fallout
Although it seems to have died down now, the fallout continued somewhat sporadically over a 5 hour period:
… and a Conversation with Grace
We’d like to commend Grace Carter from Invoke for having the professional courtesy of taking the time to listen to our concerns and suggestions, and also for making it easy for us (and everyone else for that matter) to submit further feedback about their service. We will most definitely do so in the future.
With that being said, I had explained to Grace that while they have done an excellent job with the development and launch of the product, the strategy of sending out a tweet to get access to a public beta seemed a bit … off. A far more effective strategy, I explained, would have been to allow early access to the public beta in groups of 500. Give them the freedom to evangelize about your product without any limitations, and they will do so better than anyone could ever do.
Grace explained that they had led a private beta with a number of users (I don’t recall if she cited an exact number). She also said that the public beta would continue for a few more weeks (3, to be exact) and the “tweet to get access” button would be removed. At that point, the public beta will be over and each HootSuite user will be automatically upgraded to HootSuite 2.0.
What do you think? What would you have done differently? What would have been an effective social media strategy for the launch of HootSuite 2.0?
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