Hootsuite Acquires Sales Prodigy to Revolutionize Social Selling

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - March 29, 2016) - Hootsuite, the most widely used platform for managing social media, has announced the acquisition of Sales Prodigy, a mobile app built to help sales organizations tap into social selling opportunities. With Sales Prodigy, Hootsuite customers can quickly and easily find social selling opportunities and start conversations with prospects and customers in real-time on social media.

According to "The 2015 State of Social Business: Priorities Shift From Scaling to Integrating," a report by Altimeter, a Prophet Company, 64% of organizations have or plan to have a social selling program. The report notes that simply teaching sales to use social tools isn't enough unless it's backed up by an organization that can support and integrate social selling via a content repository, engagement tools, and performance metrics that reflects changes in expected behavior.

"Many organizations have invested in social marketing and social support, but there's a big gap in the market for social selling solutions, and we want to address it." says Matt Switzer, vice president of corporate development at Hootsuite. "Companies like Palms Hotel and Marketo already use Hootsuite as part of their lead generation efforts. With the addition of Sales Prodigy, we're bolstering our platform to better align with our customers needs for social selling."

Sales organizations across a wide variety of industries, from financial services to real estate, can use Hootsuite to efficiently source and close deals. Social selling solutions can help customers:

• Consolidate all of their social networks and online communities in one platform
• Filter out the noise through targeted, listening streams
• Track and measure success with comprehensive analytics
• Listen for the right opportunities to engage with prospects and customers
• Improve their understanding of target accounts in anticipation for sales calls
• Educate customers on social media policies and guidelines

"We started Sales Prodigy to help sales people build rewarding relationships with customers on social media. Hootsuite has been by our side every step of the way: as an inspiration, customer, and partner.", says Mik Lernout, CEO and founder of Sales Prodigy. "We've been impressed by their ruthless focus on providing their customers with best in breed solutions, and could not be more excited to join their team."

Previously, Sales Prodigy was a part of Hootsuite's open ecosystem App Directory, a versatile platform that supports more than 200 business integrations and applications, helping organizations extend social media into existing systems and programs.

More Information:

• Learn more about social selling solutions from Hootsuite: https://hootsuite.com/enterprise/social-sales

• Media Kit: http://media.hootsuite.com/media-kit

About Hootsuite

Hootsuite is the most widely used platform for managing social media, loved by over 12 million people around the globe and trusted by more than 800 of the Fortune 1000. With Hootsuite, brands harness the power of social. Our platform brings together your social networks and integrates with hundreds of business applications. It's the one place to build customer relationships, listen to the needs of the market and grow your revenue. To learn more, visit www.hootsuite.com.