The Downtown Eastside social media juggernaut that was rumoured to be a Facebook takeover target announced an alliance with Google on Tuesday.
HootSuite is now offering Google+ Pages integration in its social media dashboard, enabling marketing managers a new way to connect with customers and create leads.
Hootsuite already allows users to manage their Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts.
The Google+ social network, a competitor to market leader Facebook, was launched last June by the Menlo Park, California headquartered online search and advertising company. After only one month, Google claimed Google+ had 25 million users.
“This high-quality integration provides brands with a valuable tool-set for engaging, monitoring and measuring social activities on Google+ and reinforces HootSuite's position as a comprehensive social media management system for business and organizations,” said Greg Gunn, HootSuite’s vice-president of business development.
The system allows brand managers to have greater control over customer relations with custom keyword and phrase searches within public posts. It also offers the ability to create, edit and remove circles (or groups) within the dashboard and permit analytics to measure daily growth. HootSuite also recently expanded its integrations for LinkedIn and Facebook.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s mysterious Vancouver trip in October sparked rumours of a merger with HootSuite. HootSuite founder Ryan Holmes denied rumours they were in talks.
HootSuite clients include PepsiCo, Disney and the White House. The company claims $1 million revenue monthly, with 75 staff and 2.5 million users.
Bob Mackin