Social media has often been credited as a driving force behind President Obama’s campaign win, and obviously that’s not been lost on others trying to reach the White House.

Republican presidential candidates are not only taking to social media, but the social network of the hour, with Google+. And they’re not only taking to Google+, they’re utilizing hangouts. An update on the Special Report (the Fox News program) Google+ Page says:

On November 15, Bret Baier will begin the first in a series of Google + Hangouts with Governor Mitt Romney. Throughout the weeks leading up to Election 2012, Bret will moderate a Hangout with each of the GOP presidential candidates and several members of the public.

On that note, here’s an interview we did with Hugh Hewitt at BlogWorld last week discussing the impact of social media on the Presidential race:

Special Report has 2,106 followers on Google+. It will be interesting to see how this news is able to boost the follower count.

The Hangouts feature has been one of the clear stand-outs of Google+ since its launch, when comparing the social network to Facebook and Twitter. Recently, Google made Hangouts even better, with the addition of mobile Hangouts, Hangouts on Air, and Hangouts with Extras.

In fact, Hangouts are likely to be a highly engaging feature of Google+ Pages moving forward, and will no doubt be used by all kinds of businesses and celebrities.