Buffer, a popular social media manager, will now allow users to schedule and publish content to Google+ pages. Users will not be able to personal profiles, because Google has only opened its API for business pages.
Buffer co-founder Leo Widrich says Google+ sharing has been the most requested feature over the past two years. He explains that the site was given access to Google’s API about two months ago, and “hopes to be first in line” if and when Google opens its API for personal pages, although he noted that Google would not commit to a date for when that would happen.
Buffer also supports sharing on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and App.net. Widrich tells me Twitter accounts for about 60% of Buffer usage, followed by Facebook at around 20%. He noted that he expects Google+ to account for around 10% of usage.
Buffer is now up to 900,000 users, with about 500,000 accounts used for businesses, and the rest used as personal accounts.
The company made a name for itself early on as one of the best clients for scheduling tweets, but has lagged behind the leader in the space, Hootsuite, for a while. Hootsuite raised a $165 million Series B round earlier this month and has over 7 million users in over 175 countries, including 237 of the Fortune 500. Hootsuite began offering sharing to Google+ business pages over a year ago.
But Buffer has had a very strong year. The company has more than doubled its users in 2013, and now sees over $1.5M in annual revenue. Now with Google+ integration, it offers a strong stable of sharing options for users and could challenge Hootsuite if it can keep growing its user base substantially.