Hootsuite announces deeper integration with Instagram

Social media platform Hootsuite has announced an upgrade of capabilities which will give Instagram users on the platform the ability to schedule posts in advance, something the Vancouver-based company says its customer based has been calling for.

“Hootsuite customers will now have the ability to securely schedule and manage Instagram content alongside all their established social accounts,” says Jeremy Wood, VP of Product Marketing at Hootsuite, to Cantech Letter. “This has been the biggest ask from our customers since integrating Instagram into the Hootsuite platform.”

The move features an update of the Instagram application programming interface (API) to Instagram Graph API, built on Facebook’s Graph API, which the company says will allow customers to better plan and organize their social media posts. More than two million photos and videos get shared on Instagram via Hootsuite’s platform, which is used by a reported 16 million people and employees at 80 per cent of Fortune 1000 companies.

“This is another step in Hootsuite’s ongoing relationship with Facebook and Instagram,” says Wood. “As a preferred partner, we’ve been working closely with the teams on testing and integrating this new API with some of our core enterprise clients and are very excited to be rolling this out to our complete customer base.”

The ten-year- old company has proven itself in the social media software field but has yet to venture into the public market, although investor interest will likely be strong if and when it does.

Earlier this month, Hootsuite hired a new chief financial officer, Greg Twinney, formerly of Real Matters, a tech company servicing the mortgage lending and insuring sector. The move comes on the heels of positive growth by the company in 2017, with Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes saying that public listing is but one option for the company going forward.

"The business is in a good position. We see so much opportunity,” said Holmes to the Globe andMail. “Right now, we're focused on building the business and we don't have needs for capital."

Hootsuite’s backers include OMERS Ventures along with a number of American firms. In 2014, the company scored a $60 million financing round led by Fidelity. At the time, the company was valued at $1 billion, but just two years later, Fidelity wrote down its investment in Hootsuite.

In 2016, the company reportedly turned cash flow positive for the first time. “2017 was a benchmark year for Hootsuite, with a number of strategic partnerships, acquisitions, and launches,” says Wood. “We’re continuing to build on that momentum through 2018, including this latest announcement.”