If you have more than one social network you want to update, you need a way to effectively interact with your Social Mesh — you need one centerstone from which all thoughts can spike and spire.

I am currently using HootSuite — a social media dashboard that you can configure to help manage updates to your online work life.  A major benefit of HootSuite is that I can think once and publish 20 times.

Propagation is now — the future is no longer singular — we are perpetually pluperfect.

In the past, I have not been a big fan of the social nets like Twitter and Facebook — just because they’re so ubiquitous and repetitive — but with the rise this week of Google+ Pages with actual, keen, usable, Vanity URLs, instead of a set of numbers, the notion of an interconnected social world has changed for me.

Did I finally catch up to the tech — or did the tech get caught up with me?

It’s been a long and painful two-year wait for Google to provide Vanity URLs for Plus Pages, but now that the time is here, there are a whole bunch of new, incredible, social media pathways that need to be regularly updated.

Enter HootSuite!

Using HootSuite, I can use all my social spokes and update them all at one time.  I can pick and choose my networks to update, including Google+ Pages.  Unfortunately, you cannot update your personal Google+ profile yet.

Using the AutoSchedule feature, I can let HootSuite determine the best time of day to send out my updates to each social network.

Yes, using AutoSchedule feels odd — you don’t get that immediate publication rush — but I’ve noticed in my limited testing that HootSuite’s AutoSchedule increases my updates being seen by a factor of three.  Every mention has a madness!

There’s also a new HootSuite “Hootlet” for the Google Chrome browser that allows you to use HootSuite power updating without having to be logged into the actual HootSuite website page.

The Hootlet Extension does all the heavy lifting for you.  Slick!

HootSuite is also available on your iPad and iPhone.  You are limited to only sending updates to your main social networks — no Google+ Pages here — but you can get your main message out fast and while on the mobile move.

One concern with HootSuite are the limits.  You can currently only update five social streams at a time from the HootSuite website using AutoSchedule and, if you’re on mobile, you are limited to updating three networks.

I’m also perplexed by the pricing of the HootSuite Vanity URL for link-shortening.  I understand part of their business mesh is forcing us to use the Ow.ly domain for their worldwide branding — but charging $50.00USD A MONTH to use your own Vanity URL for link shortening is just cruel madness.

Even $50.00USD a year is too expensive for that feature, especially when Bit.ly will let you use a Vanity URL shortener — for free!

HootSuite is a dynamic and popular service for maintaining your social networks road, and if you have more than one or two sites to update — give HootSuite a shoutout and see if Hooting while you Tweet will help you be found and heard above the din of the social stream.

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