HootSuite Implements Freemium Business Model

For service users social media dashboard HootSuite, now have to get ready to see their favorite service implementing a business model freemium. Starting on August 11, 2010 yesterday, new HootSuite users will be asked to determine their plan to use their HootSuite account, whether to use free facilities or paid facilities, while for existing users, the implementation of the business model freemium will start next week.

Free service HootSuite will still be available, but with incomplete facilities, in contrast to paid accounts. There are two main packages that HootSuite offers, namely Enterprise Package and Pro Plans.

Enterprise Package which is intended for companies with various VIP facilities at a price of $ 1499 per month or an additional $ 499 per month if you want to add the Ow.ly Pro Vanity URL service. This package is intended for professionals and companies with a large number of team members who use HootSuite, in addition to several VIP facilities such as training on the use of the HootSuite application, program certificates from HootSuite and unlimited facilities for RSS Feeds and the number of social networks used are also available for the package. this.

As for personal users or small-scale companies, you can use the HootSuite Pro package facility, there are at least 4 packages plus free services that will always be offered by HootSuite. For paid services, the price offered starts from $ 4,99 to $ 99,99 per month, depending on the facilities provided. HootSuite also provides free trial for 30 days for all accounts on this HootSuite Pro plan.

In comparison, for a free account, HootSuite users can only use 5 social networks and then one source of RSS Feeds that can be used for tweet automatically, while the facilities provided for users who pay $99,99 per month can add unlimited social networking applications, unlimited RSS Feeds, can add team members as much as 8 people, ad-free, get support from HootSuite, statistics, and special URLs with add another $49,99 per month.

Model freemium is actually one of the monetization strategies that can be implemented for a service that has had considerable user growth, and that seems to be what HootSuite wants to implement too, as mentioned in their official announcement, this strategy follows several sites that use the same way as Salesforce, Basecamp and Flickr.

Maybe a bit biased because I myself am a fan of HootSuite, on the one hand freemium is a good enough path for a startup, especially if their services have advantages and have relevant functions for consumer needs, but on the other hand, as one of the early HootSuite users who is always happy with the emergence of their new features, as well as the many facilities that can be obtained with a free account, reduced facilities for free accounts and required me to pay to get the facilities that were previously available. I get it for free sometimes quite annoying too.

HootSuite will still be provide free facilities for their service, they even said that around 95% of their users would use HootSuite's free service. For a business, I think this is a good starting point for HootSuite and can serve as an example for startup local in Indonesia, when the service does provide the relevant functionality, even though it's only a 5% chance that users will pay, but that can be a good start, even though HootSuite will also continue to compete with other similar services some of which still provide free facilities which are quite good.

What do you think of the strategy freemium This HootSuite? And for DailySocial readers who use HootSuite, will you use their paid facilities or will you keep using the free facilities? We are waiting for your opinion in the comments column.