Socialbakers Closes $6M Funding Round

Socialbakers has recently closed a $6 million funding round led by Index Ventures, with additional follow-on funding from first-round investor Earlybird Venture Capital. The company will use the funding to further expand its category-leading social media measurement platform.

“With this funding, we will continue building our platform’s social measurement features to help companies target their audiences more efficiently, while allowing them to react quickly to the ever-changing social media environment and providing dedicated global care to address their individual needs,” explained Socialbakers CEO Jan Rezab.

Socialbakers is one of the most reliable sources in the world for global social media statistics, monitoring 10 million social media corporate profiles. Its social media analytics platform is trusted by the likes of McDonald’s, Nestle, Henkel, LVMH, Vodafone and more than a fifth of all Fortune 500 companies. The company has more than 160 employees located in 10 offices worldwide, in cities like Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Dubai and Istanbul, in addition to its Prague, London, Munich, Paris and San Francisco.

According to Socialbakers, each month, more than 450,000 marketing executives use its comparative analytics platform to measure social media performance across all major networks including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Google+, and to optimize their social marketing strategy.

These statistics alone are enough to justify Index Ventures’ interest in the company. For Index Ventures Partner, Jan Hammer, Socialbakers’ name is now synonymous with intelligent social media measurement and benchmarking.

Eurovision 2013 and Why “What If” Won’t Ever Happen, Not Ever

This year’s Eurovision contest showed promise. Promise of human beings coming together in Europe, maybe across the world. Now, days after Denmark’s Emmelie de Forest, sanging the winning song in the finale, Only Teardrops the idea and ideology still enshrouds Europe. With Azerbaijan launching an investigation into its own voting schema, and an enrage Russian fan base, the Europe of medieval times just doesn’t seem so far off.

Jon Ola Sand, Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest - Courtesy Eurovision

ZOA Calls for Israel Commentary on Netzarim Junction Affair

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is calling for the state of Israel to hold a press conference to address a new investigation into what they say is a libelous past report on a Palestinian youth shooting.

A world, a people, outraged by reporting of an incident - courtesy Al Durah Project

EXCLUSIVE: Columbia Sportswear Sends Out RFP

Just in, Columbia Sportswear has sent out a request for proposal (RFP) for entertainment marketing firms to attend a coming campaign to focus on the Columbia Sportswear target demographic. Columbia Sportswear Company owns Columbia, Mountain Hardwear, SOREL, Montrail and the Pacific Trail brands, but according to the request questionnaire the company sent out, the focus will be exclusively for the Columbia brand name.

Ronn Torossian on Brand Angelina Jolie

With Angelina Jolie being lauded as a hero worldwide for her valiant effort to have a preventative double mastectomy, there’s also the BRAND and PR story of Angelina Jolie. Even previous to this, Jolie’s brand has shined – Best-selling PR Book “For Immediate Release: Shape Minds, Build Brands, and Deliver Results with Game-Changing Public Relations” by CEO of 5WPR Ronn Torossian had a section on Jolie.