HootSuite just announced that it has partnered with Foursquare to let SMBs manage their Foursquare presence from the HootSuite dashboard. This comes at a time when Foursquare has been greatly expanding its own offerings for businesses.

“Currently, many companies do not actively manage their Foursquare locations, which means they are missing out on the opportunity to engage with customers who check in and leave tips about their business,” a HootSuite spokesperson tells WebProNews in an email. “The integration with HootSuite will give businesses the opportunity to better understand and leverage conversations and content on Foursquare in several ways.”

Those include: viewing most recent check-ins, the Mayor’s profile and customer tips left at the business’ venue, creating status updates (including deals, promotions and marketing message), and creating multiple Foursquare streams to monitor various locations and interact with users.

“Though Foursquare is extremely popular among consumers, small and midsized businesses are still behind the curve in leveraging the platform to better understand conversations about their business,” the spokesperson says. “By accessing venue pages through the HootSuite dashboard, SMBs can now use Foursquare as part of a larger effort to become active on social media, engage with customers and market their business.”

In October, Foursquare opened up its ad platform to small businesses, and shorty thereafter, launched a new web homepage, highlighting businesses on the web in ways it has only done on its mobile apps in the past.

Images: HootSuite