Social media and networking may be mainstream, but enterprise companies still need help using them
You’d have to be living under a rock to not know this, but Facebook is taking over the Internet. comScore says the social site accounts for a little over a tenth of time spent online by users in the U.S. And with that, here’s another startup shooting to help companies harness the power of social. 
Socialware, a self-described social middleware platform, announced Wednesday that it has secured $3 million in additional funding from existing investors, including FLOODGATE, G-51 Capital and Silverton Partners. The company has raised nearly $5 million to date. Riding the social media usage explosion, Socialware wants to help the enterprise use and respond to these new social platforms in the most beneficial way.
“As social networks continue to expand in industries like financial services, effective and flexible social tools will be critical to leveraging these networks for the needs of the business community and will continue to catalyze adoption," said Chad Bockius, CEO of Socialware.
Socialware Compass, for example, helps companies manage their social media usage policy. That is, companies can easily define which employees have access to social sites, analyze social media usage, archive social activity within the company, moderate content and more. You’d be naive to believe that the statistic I cited above--about U.S. users spending a tenth of their online time on Facebook--doesn’t just apply to the home. People definitely go on social sites at work, and companies could use more fine-tuned preferences for disabling or enabling employee access to those sites.
Another offering from the company, Socialware Sync, gives companies the ability to completely archive social activity on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, along with analytics and search tools to take advantage of all that data.
Finally, Socialware Insights presents webinars and guides to teach the enterprise how it can use social media to its best advantage.
Socialware offers a pretty substantial suite of solutions, but it’s part of a rising tide. It would be interesting to see how clients respond to the service. So far, the company has served nearly 100 customers, including insurance companies, broker dealers and wealth management firms, as well as other major financial brands.
The company was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.
Bambi Francisco Roizen
Steven Loeb
