Thismoment nabs $7.3M for social media management

Sierra Ventures bets that an all-in-one manager of social media efforts will be big business

I can't tell you how many social media sites I have signed up for and had to stop updating weeks later because it was too challenging to stay on top of everything.

Brands have similar issues, since they want to disseminate their updates and campaigns but are met with the challenge of how to post updates across all the platforms in an efficient way.

A young digital platform called Thismoment has tackled this problem of updating and managing numerous social networking pages by creating a content management system that allows users to change their posts across different sites.

It appears that it's a good enough idea with enough traction to attract a lot of venture financing as well.

Thismoment announced Tuesday that it secured $7.3 million for its Series B funding, led by Sierra Ventures, bringing the total funding for the company to just about $11.5 million.

Since launching 18 months, Thismoment has signed one in five of the Fortune 500 brands to its Distributed Engagement Channel (DEC) platform.  The company also states that its revenue has surged more than 300% year-over-year and it's generated net cash flow positive financial results.

Thismoment, whose clients include GM, Toyota, Intel, Sony, Disney and Pepsi, said that the latest round of funding will expand its operations in the United States and establish new offices in Europe, Latin America and Asia.

Currently the company has more than 70 employees serving 120 brands and a spokesman for the company told me that they are currently "hiring ravenously."

Advertsing via social media

Most brands increase their visibility on social media, not just to interact with their audience, but to tailor advertising campaigns. And with new technology launching each day, it has gotten easier to target people based on any number of factors -- from age to education to geographical location.

Its estimated that geotargeted social media advertising revenues in the U.S. will grow from $400 million in 2010 to $2.3 billion in 2015, representing a compound annual growth rate of 33.3 percent, according to a study released this week by media researchers at BIA/Kelsey.

Over the same five years, overall U.S. social media ad revenues are expected to grow from $2.1 billion in 2010 to $8.3 billion in 2015.

Promising forecasts like these, that show the continued growth of social media and marketing within it, only bolster the importance that groups like Thismoment have claimed -- having a strong online presence is no longer optional.

Benefits of using Thismoment

There are so many options on sharing and interacting with a given audience that brands often want to try many of them to see the results. But putting different amounts of effort on each platform is fragmented and time-consuming. By using a DEC, marketers can use the time it takes to update one platform and reach multiple audiences.

This aggregation of access also limits the number of needed login and administrators needed to preform marketing and pubic relation tasks.

Thismoment not only targets updates for platform feeds but also the entire experience from updates, to video, to photos, to live streams.

Thismoment is in a similar industry space as a Hootsuite, Buddy Media, Vitrue, Wildfire and Tweetdeck.

One of the biggest challenges facing brands is managing their earned, owned, and paid media assets. 

"We have to remember that the social network is but an extension of your brand and once consumers want to learn more about you, they will inevitably lead themselves back to your brand site," a Thismoment spokesperson told me. "Because consumers trust consumer messages more than they trust brand messages, we're helping to facilitate this interaction for the consumer, while simplifying the content management for the brand."

Because the needs of a brand differ grealty, the cost for this service is dependent on client need and not publicly disclosed.

With both mobile and desktop access, users can create "moments" that are tailored to any of the more than 45 publishing sites that Thismoment has partnered with.

The company touts that they are the first social media platform to be recognized as a preferred partner for  YouTube and a preferred developer for Facebook.

"Thismoment's mission is to build the world's premier digital marketing platform, and Sierra is the perfect partner to help us achieve this goal, Vince Broady, CEO and co-founder of Thismoment, Inc. said in a statement. "And we look forward to more of the same in the months and years to come."

Sierra's Mark Fernandes will join the Thismoment board, along with existing investor Tim Mayhew, managing director at Fenway Partners, a New York based private equity firm.