Buddy MEDIA raises $ 54 M for brand-oriented management platform of social media

Leena Rao is currently working as a writer for TechCrunch. She recently finished graduate school of the Medill School of journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007 she helped lead efforts for advocacy and community relationships Congressman Carloyn Maloney in New York. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003 where it was ... ? Read More

Buddy MEDIA, a company that provides Facebook page and social media brand management raises $ 54 million in series d funding led by GGV capital with institutional venture partners, Bay partners and Business Insight. This brings total financing MEDIA buddy just under $ 90 million. GGV partner Jeff Richards joined Buddy MEDIA Board of Directors. One of Facebook's first ad sales execs, Kevin Colleran, also joined the company's Advisory Board.

Buddy MEDIA is best known for its management all-in-one social media to help create, manage and track your social campaign on Facebook. In connection with the Facebook platform enables brand managers agencies create, manage and keep track of Facebook pages in different languages to drive and increase user and brand. Users should not have any prior knowledge of form to create pages on Facebook and can create sleek and interactive pages pretty easily.

But Facebook is not only social media platform that brands should participate; Twitter has also has a powerful communications tool. A buddy MEDIA also offers Twitter management system, as well as CEO and founder Michael lasers tells us it's not just about Facebook and how brands participate through various channels, buddy MEDIA will provide them with the SaaS to manage this. He added that Google + scaling and ultimately adds feature brand and company, the company will look to provide integration with social platforms.

Earlier this year, buddy MEDIA acquired social analytics tool Spinback, which develops social commerce widget allows users to share products and purchase through Facebook, Twitter and email. This product is currently integrated with Buddy MEDIA SaaS

Of course when more brands look to social media to interact with consumers, buddy MEDIA results. Company's profit more than doubled since the end of 2010. In the past year, lasers told us that buddy MEDIA is on the way to make 20 million dollars in sales, profits can be at least $ 40 million.

Buddy MEDIA added about 200 new customers in 2011, including brands, retailers and media companies such as Ford Motor Company, Haines, ESPN, Hearst Corporation (more about this partnership) and Virgin Mobile, United States.

Buddy MEDIA staff had increased from 40 employees in 2009 to nearly 200, and the company opened a London Office this year. The last hired include CFO, Dennis Morgan, who headed the corporate finance and acquisition efforts for Yahoo.

Lasers said, the company continuously evaluates a couple of things: how brands more focused content on Facebook or on twitter; as they get the right content to man, and how to use the social graph for all fixed assets, it will happen. He explains that for major brands and companies to monitor social media complicated delivery audit and scaling in different countries. MEDIA Buddy simplifies this process, said lasers.

Laser and said that the company continues to grow, this capital will help scale development, global expansion, recruitment, sales, purchasing and much more. One of the problems, said he will hire the right people, but he plans to double the number of employees in the following year.

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SeatGeek Redesigns their site ticket starts sponsor platform

Jason Kincaid currently works as a writer at TechCrunch. He grew up in Danville, California and later moved to Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California, where he studied biology with a minor in "society and genetics". You can contact him at jkincaidtc@gmail.com (it has other addresses too, so don't worry if you have another). ? Read More

NYC-based SeatGeek startup is to add a fresh coat of paint on its floor ticket, introducing the revised design, which includes some useful new features. And he also announced a new route to monetize that he hopes will serve as a strong earnings, go ahead: under the auspices of the placements.

For those who haven't used it, SeatGeek is a search engine for the secondary ticket sales – it lets people buy tickets that are sold on sites like eBay and TicketsNow. And it has a focus on clutter that typically appear on other sites.

This week the company rolled out a clean look with a large amount of space allocated to view tickets and around stadiums. Now the site has more than 700 maps interactive Stadium, many of which include 3D-rendered images of your opinion actually looks like to the seat.

SeatGeek also recently introduced a feature called transaction account. Most sites allow you to rank the tickets for the price, but do not take into account whether those prices really good deal. In the end bleachers seats may be only $ 15, but if you had a chance to NAB tickets for home plate for 75% off, well, you can get these instead. This is where transaction account — SeatGeek will look at historical data to determine how many ticket normally sells for and highlights those that are particularly advantageous deal.

SeatGeek's new advertising placements are essentially very targeted advertising, pricing varies depending on the extent to which promotion he worked at the site. Different ads of people depending on the event that you are viewing, and where they are browsing from.

Some of these ads are a typical banner, while the most expensive accommodation actually pushes the button in the ticket yourself. For example, TicketsNow is now under the auspices of the button for some events, which allows users to view only tickets that are available through his website (see screenshot below). At the launch sponsor partners include Hipmunk, TicketsNow, ToughMudder and The Lion King musical.

SeatGeek team said that they are already excited about the sponsorship platform, because the Kayak (aggregator/search engine for airfares) creates more than 50% of its income from sponsorship programs. Right now the company works with each author directly, but he plans to submit a self-service platform for down the line.

SeatGeek is ticket search engine. The Web site collects sports concert, lists, and theater ticket in one place and blends those tickets at the charts Interactive seating.

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Facebook quietly platform update policy – developers, not links to your competitors!

Robin Wauters is currently staff writer for TechCrunch and lead editor of Virtualization.com. In addition to its activities, professional blogging, he is an entrepreneur, the organizer of the event, from time to time the Council consultant and an angel investor, but the most important champion of the full launch. He lives and works in Belgium, a small country in Europe. He can often be found work from their home or ... ? Read More

Facebook made some notable changes its policy platform 27 July 2011, adding a couple new terms developers need to be taken into account when creating applications for Facebook platform. Facebook does not seem to have brought these changes on the blog coverage of its developer or forum as far as I can tell, and amazingly, no one seems to have noticed the policy updates nor (per eagle-eyed blogger exception).

Here are two items that were added to the policy:

I. 10. applications can reward users with virtual currency or virtual goods in exchange for actions that do not involve third parties, but is offering a reward for user actions, including third parties shall be supplied from Facebook credits through the integration of Facebook credits.

For example, you can reward users with virtual currency or virtual goods in exchange for any action, in which personally identifiable information with third parties, you can reward users with virtual currency or virtual goods in exchange for a third party, such as toolbars or melody, and you can reward users with virtual currency for engaging in passive actionsare offered by third storonamiNaprimer, watch videos, play mini-games, or taking the poll. "

This is another step towards Facebook credits make application developers who can now no longer provide users with virtual currency in exchange for games, participate in a survey or watch the video provided by a third party. Some will inevitably rule the cry, but I think it's reasonable for a new term.

But more interesting is this one:

I. 11. Apps on Facebook could not integrate, promote, distribute, or redirect any app on the competing social platforms ".

Read that again. Facebook said that any application that runs on it's platform integration reference is prohibited or in any way linked any app on any competing social platform.

For the record that, in accordance with Facebook's advertising guidelines, which state that ads for competing products or services will be rejected. In my opinion there is a difference though.

Needless to say, this seems very broad, which could potentially affect the legions of applications that redirect or in any other way of links to sites such as Twitter, Google, hi5, Flickr, Foursquare, and numerous other social network services.

It may not be Facebook's intention to go after them, but the wording of the new terms of the policy framework should be of some concern to a number of application developers. For what it's worth, Facebook says that it does not prohibit any applications based on new conditions to date.

There is, however, at least the whiff of antikonkurenciû related to the new conditions.

The representative of the Facebook argues:

"Like many companies, we have policies that prohibit apps from user guides for applications for competing social platform. We recently updated the policy to make sure they're clear to developers, based on our platform. "

For what it's worth, I disagree with the Facebook policy is clear or standard, nor do I think, developers are actually aware of updates that have been made. I am also having problems, understand why Facebook chose not to report changes in politics through his developer blog or Forum, given the breadth of its third-party developer ecosystem and the feelings that come with such changes. They should about it now.

What is the last policy platform means for applications that link to a separate Web site or Web application – for example, Twitter.com – remains quite unclear, too. Obviously the new conditions limit the developers from references in no way platforms that compete with Facebook in the social network service.

But, for example, the difficulty of determining what is allowed and what isn't, and it remains to be seen if Facebook is to refrain from prohibiting apps from competitors for the violation of a rule.

Make of it what you will, but that's what Alex St. John, President and CTO of hi5 networks, talk about new terms in the Facebook platform policy in recent email:

"They are absolutely terrified of other networks like hi5, Google + WildTangent and does a better job of building a social graph, entertaining their audience and make more money from our users!

They do not give developers the ability to grow the audience for their games outside of Facebook. "And this mention of Facebook credits clearly shows how terrifying they other platforms, such as SocioPay, being able to better than them to monetize their audience."

Advertising links in the above quote aside, I also believe that Facebook updated their policies for fear of its competition, as a defensive measure against rivals such as Google and Twitter.

We contacted Google and Twitter to find out how they interpret Facebook recently made a change in policy. Google spokesman declined to comment on – we still expect to hear from Twitter.

In related news, Facebook just banned rival Netlog from its platform for violations (other) policies.

(Thanks to my wonderful with Blogger Jason Kincaid for assistance-though I would be happy to consider full credit for phenomenal image at top)

Also read:

Google + puts Facebook on the defensive? (August 2011)

Google + Ad on Facebook banned (July 2011)

AD .LY against Facebook: something doesn't add up (April 2011)

Facebook is the largest social network in the world, with more than 500 million users. Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook in February 2004, originally as an exclusive network for students at Harvard University. He ...

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