Due in large part to a tidal wave of requests, social media management company HootSuite has began offering Google+ page integration to all of its 5 million plus users. This feature, which until now has only been available for enterprise users, is now completely free, much to the delight of smaller firms that are fans of the Google social networking site.
Although approximately 13 months old, Google+ has proven to be a considerable hit, recently surpassing 250 million users, 75 million of which use the service daily (courtesy TechCrunch). Surprising to many, the social network has relatively strong levels of user engagement, with people averaging 12 minutes a day (360 minutes a month) on the service.
Google+ can now be downloaded and integrated into your HootSuite dashboard, allowing full control over your feed. The functionality makes brand management much easier and includes features that play to the strengths of Google+. One example of this is the ability to target specific circles with updates and messages. Another valuable feature is the ability to custom search keywords and phrases within public posts and content streams for easy and effective monitoring.
The other thing to be considered is that Google+ integration also allows control over other Google related sites such as Gmail and YouTube, the latter of which can be critical for brand management.
For more information on the Google+ integration including how to download it and what it is capable of, check out the HootSuite blog.