• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, January 23, 2012

Here I am hanging out in Key Largo with some savy branding folks and social media and marketing mavens and one of them, Laura Houghton, senior social media manager of Coca-Cola Co. just suggested on the “Google+” panel at MediaPost’s Social Media Summit in Key Largo that hanging out is actually going to be the next big social media application for brands.

“We’re getting ready to do the first coke hangout,” she said, referring to the new feature on Google+.

Houghton said Coke’s initial hangout will be with its “archives.” In fact, she said, for the first time ever, Coca-Cola will enable consumers to ask questions directly of Coke’s archivist about Coke memorabilia, etc.

“That’s never happened before, and it can only happen on Google+,” she noted.