Hootsuite today announced three new open APIs designed to better integrate the social management tool with other key business technologies. “While we do have a really robust platform,” said Patience Yi, Hootsuite’s VP of Platform, “we want to open it ut to bring social to whole the customer journey.”
As Yi explained to me in an interview, with almost 13 million users tied into a social solution they value, and 800 of the Fortune 1000 among Hootsuite’s business customers, it makes sense to inetgrate social management more fully with other key functions. This is especially the case given Hootsuite’s commitment to an open platform. “We know what we do well,” said Yi. “We’re never going to get into email marketing, CRM, analytics.” Customers with best of breed solutions in those classes are looking for closer integrations with Hootsuite. “We want to connect social to the other tech investments they’ve already made.
With this announcement, Hootsuite launches the following APIs:
- Hootsuite Publishing API: creating secure publishing integrations by connecting Hootsuite with existing content and creation management systems, and CRMs.
- Hootsuite User Management API: improving onboarding of new users, and also providing integration with CRMs.
- Hootsuite Ow.ly API: enabling shortening and customization of links and providing related performance data.
As Yi said, once a business has created content for various channels, a “broken experience” can result if users then have to figure out how to push it out into social media. The Publishing API will provide full functionality, including compliance and approval tools–although users will still need to go directly to the established Hootsuite solution to engage with responses to content.
The User Management API will not just save administrative time and effort, but through CRM integration can automatically surface the populations of prospects or clients individual users are nurturing. Ow.ly will tie statistics and data to any URL created and implemented through the tool, improving transparency for URL-based campaign performance.
“Hootsuite started about eight years ago,” said Yi, “simplifying social for business.” Now it’s servicing highly sophisticated enterprises, better management tools are needed. The new APIs will be available immediately.
