HootSuite, pretty much the Mothership of all social media account management tools, recently announced the integration of Google+ Pages into the HootSuite dashboard. Holy sweet mother of convenience is that awesome news.
This news was apparently announced mid-November and somehow I managed to miss it. Imagine that – missing anything that happens in the information stream that’s literally moving at the speed of light. <cue: great hilarity><facepalm>. Google tapped HootSuite as the Official Launch Partner of the Google Pages Trial, which says a lot about HootSuite and what a great product it is. The V3 team has long used – and loved HootSuite, so this makes perfect sense to us.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that the Google+ Pages integration for HootSuite is in beta and only available to enterprise users.
Right now, HootSuite is one of a handful of companies, along with Buddy Media, HearSay Social, Context Optional, Involver and Vitrue, testing the interface for Google via their management tools, and the rest of us who offer brands social media management and community management services anxiously await the release from beta so that we can explore and experiment, too.
This is exciting because this allows users the ability to manage circles, publish to Google+ and monitor usage, all within the HootSuite dashboard. Seriously. It makes me giddy just thinking about it. Take a peek here …..
You can apply for access to the beta here. And if you want to see how slick the interface is, take a few minutes and watch the videos that are embedded on the application page. I’m betting it’ll make you as excited as we are about this bit of loveliness from HootSuite.
What do you think? Are you a HootSuite user (or user of any of the products from the above-mentioned companies) who, like us, is excited about the opportunity to use the interface to publish to Google+ as well as to make the platform more manageable and easy to use? Or – are you participating in the beta now? If so, let us know – we’d love to know what you think.
Shelly Kramer is a Principal Analyst and Founding Partner at Futurum Research. A serial entrepreneur with a technology centric focus, she has worked alongside some of the world’s largest brands to embrace disruption and spur innovation, understand and address the realities of the connected customer, and help navigate the process of digital transformation. She brings 20 years’ experience as a brand strategist to her work at Futurum, and has deep experience helping global companies with marketing challenges, GTM strategies, messaging develoment, and driving strategy and digital transformation for B2B brands across multiple verticals. Shelly’s coverage areas include Collaboration/CX/SaaS, platforms, ESG, and Cybersecurity, as well as topics and trends related to the Future of Work, the transformation of the workplace and how people and technology are driving that transformation. A transplanted New Yorker, she has learned to love life in the Midwest, and has firsthand experience that some of the most innovative minds and most successful companies in the world also happen to live in “flyover country.”
