November 14, 2012
By Judith Aquino,

HootSuite Beefs Up Facebook Targeting Capabilities

Enterprise social media management company HootSuite has released new targeting and analytics features for Facebook users. Announced yesterday, the new features allow users to segment their messages by age, gender, interests, relationship status, and education, as well as use geo-fencing profiles that can limit target audiences for individual posts by language or location.

The enhanced demographic targeting capabilities are part of HootSuite's strategy to make its offerings more appealing to companies with a global audience, according to HootSuite CEO Ryan Holmes.

"With features like demographic targeting and geo-fencing, more companies than ever will be able to prioritize social on their home turf," said Holmes in a statement.

"These functions are an extension of our effort to make HootSuite a truly international service offering,"

HootSuite also enhanced its analytics capabilities. It now lets users measure their Facebook page's reach and see how many people are talking about their brand by demographic or region.

As HootSuite extends its offerings, it is also working out a few kinks. Earlier this week, Holmes issued an apology to customers after the company inadvertently sent emails to users that included the email addresses of hundreds of other customers. The error, Holmes explained, was a result of the company's efforts to migrate its recently acquired Seesmic customers to the Hootsuite platform.