Hootsuite dashboard for Facebook and Twitter gets an upgrade

Social media clients are almost a dime a dozen these days, but a surprising few of them are designed to help businesses tackle Twitter, Facebook, and the rest of the social web. HootSuite is one of these chosen few, and it has recently undergone a major upgrade in the name of simplicity, compatibility, and speed.

HootSuite is a web-based “social media dashboard” that can be used by just about anyone, but is really geared towards businesses and workgroups. Users can add multiple accounts, then grant co-workers permission to use those accounts and even assign follow-up work through HootSuite without giving away sensitive credentials for Twitter, Facebook and the other supported services.

With this upgrade, HootSuite aims to become a faster, more compatible, and more useful service. It’s been redesigned in HTML5, which brings a slew of new features for users with modern browsers (Safari 5, Firefox 3.6, and Chrome) like location-based, drag-and-drop file uploads and a sheer performance boost.

The new HootSuite also gained support for Twitter’s official “retweet” feature for syndicating a tweet to your followers, uploading photos to Facebook, viewing Google Analytics for your sites, and two new themes for a change of scenery while using the service.

Using HootSuite is free for both individuals and businesses, though the company offers both free and paid versions of its iPhone app. Soon, the company plans to introduce a pro account that adds premium features, such as more detailed link analytics and custom vanity domains for short URLs.