SocialFlow, Inc.
IndustryInternet
FoundedMay 2009
FounderFrank Speiser, Mike Perrone
Headquarters
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10017
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Jim Anderson (CEO)
Frank Speiser (President and Co-founder)
Websitewww.socialflow.com

SocialFlow is a social media optimization platform for brands and publishers. The company uses data from Twitter firehose, proprietary algorithms, and a link proxy to try and improve the delivery of messages on social networks. The company's analysis and data visualization of the way news filtered out around the death of Osama bin Laden via Twitter received international news coverage,[1] and led to questions about the role of Twitter in journalism.[2][3]

SocialFlow is associated with Betaworks, a New York-based venture capital company, headquartered in New York City.[4] On February 10, 2022, it was announced that SocialFlow had been acquired by digital experience platform Piano Software Inc.[5]

History

Early history

SocialFlow was founded in early 2009 by Frank Speiser and Mike Perrone, who sought to apply a scientific approach to the task of building and sustaining engaged social media audiences at scale.[6]

In 2013, SocialFlow was targeted by the Syrian Electronic Army, a hacking and cyber-criminal group organized in 2011 to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the Syrian civil war. The group gained access to SocialFlow’s social media accounts after sending a phishing email to the company’s employees. The attack resulted in the brief takedown of SocialFlow’s website and publishing platform that lasted about 20 minutes. To promote internet security and account protection, SocialFlow published a detailed account of the hack and their security response in a blog post.[7][8][9][10]

Investors

SocialFlow announced April 7, 2011, that they had raised $7 million in Series A funding. The Series A round was led by Softbank, with Softbank NY, RRE Ventures, betaworks, Highline Venture Partners, AOL Venture Partners, SV Angel and a group of high profile angel investors participating.[11] On April 16, 2013, SocialFlow announced they raised $10 million round in Series B funding. Fairhaven Capital led the round and was joined by existing investors SoftBank Capital, RRE Ventures, AOL Ventures and Betaworks, as well as new investors kbs+ Ventures and Rand Capital Corporation.[12]

Acquisition

On February 10, 2022, it was announced that SocialFlow had been acquired by digital experience platform Piano Software Inc. for an undisclosed amount.[5] The transaction is a cash purchase, with funding provided by Updata Partners, Rittenhouse Ventures and Sixth Street Partners, and results in Piano acquiring 100% of the shares of SocialFlow.[13]

Corporate affairs

The company announced June 7, 2011, that Peter Hershberg joined the company as President.[14]

Research

SocialFlow gained considerable media attention when it published "Breaking Bin Laden: Visualizing the Power of a Single Tweet".[15] The study demonstrated how Twitter had evolved into a primary news source, as the death of Osama bin Laden broke on Twitter.[16]

Their next study "Engaging News-Hungry Audiences Tweet by Tweet" looked at the Twitter audiences of Al-Jazeera English, BBC News, CNN, The Economist, Fox News and New York Times and revealed the similarities and differences between each respective organization's audience,[17] while simultaneously demonstrating the true value of audience engagement.[18]

Another study created by SocialFlow looked at the launch of the KONY 2012 video through social media.[19] As noted by Forbes writer Anthony Kosner, a study by the SocialFlow research group showed that, rather than emerging from big liberal enclaves on the American coasts, the initial wave of social media traffic that launched the KONY 2012 video originated in mid-sized, relatively conservative cities in middle America.

References

  1. ↑ Filloux, Frédéric (May 9, 2011). "Lessons from the Osama bin Laden coverage". the Guardian. London. Retrieved August 3, 2011.
  2. ↑ Solis, Brian (May 11, 2011). "The End Of The Destination Web And The Revival Of The Information Economy". Fast Company. Retrieved August 3, 2011.
  3. ↑ "FMS Online Marketing". Tuesday, June 16, 2020
  4. ↑ "How Betaworks is leading the new wave of intelligent media". Culttt. 2012-10-03. Retrieved 2019-08-22.
  5. 1 2 "Piano Acquires SocialFlow To Build A Social Media Optimization Service For Publishers". AdExchanger. 2022-02-10. Retrieved 2022-08-08.
  6. ↑ Gallagher, Freyja (12 October 2010). "Interviews with Smart People: Frank Speiser, Co-Founder of Social Flow". Zeitgeist NYC. Archived from the original on 2019-03-15. Retrieved 2023-05-01.
  7. ↑ Berkman, Fran (13 August 2013). "Syrian Electronic Army Targets SocialFlow, Journalists". Mashable. Retrieved 2019-08-22.
  8. ↑ Murphy, Samantha (14 August 2013). "How the Syrian Electronic Army Attacked SocialFlow". Mashable. Retrieved 2019-08-22.
  9. ↑ Temperton, James (2016-03-23). "FBI adds Syrian Electronic Army hackers to most wanted list". Wired UK. ISSN 1357-0978. Retrieved 2019-08-22.
  10. ↑ "A Phishing Attack on SocialFlow - SocialFlow". - SocialFlow. 2013-08-14. Retrieved 2019-08-22.
  11. ↑ Siegler, MG (April 7, 2011). "New Twitter Ecosystem Poster Child SocialFlow Secures The Firehose And $7 Million Round". Tech Crunch. Retrieved August 3, 2011.
  12. ↑ "SocialFlow grabs $10M for — what else? — social media marketing". Reuters. 2013-04-16. Retrieved 2022-11-28.
  13. ↑ "Piano Acquires SocialFlow to Connect Social Media Strategies to Customer Journey Orchestration". www.prnewswire.com. PR Newswire. 10 February 2022. Retrieved 2022-08-08.
  14. ↑ Empson, Rip (June 7, 2011). "SocialFlow Gets Serious, Makes Veteran Entrepreneur Peter Hershberg El Presidente". Tech Crunch. Retrieved August 3, 2011.
  15. ↑ SocialFlow (6 May 2011). "Breaking Bin Laden: Visualizing the Power of a Single Tweet". SocialFlow. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  16. ↑ Hernandez, Brian Anthony (May 2, 2011). "Timeline: How News of Osama Bin Laden's Death Unfolded on Twitter". Mashable. Retrieved August 5, 2011.
  17. ↑ Kafka, Peter (August 2, 2011). "Fox News's Twitter Triggers: Crime, Murder, Casey Anthony". AllThingsD. Retrieved August 5, 2011.
  18. ↑ Myers, Steve (August 5, 2011). "How The Economist's conversational tweets drive clicks, while Al Jazeera's automation drives retweets". Poynter Institute. Retrieved August 5, 2011.
  19. ↑ Wing Kosner, Anthony (April 5, 2012). "Suspicious Sequel: The Social Flow of KONY 2012 is Not What You First Thought". Forbes.
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