Socialflow

SocialFlow, Inc.
IndustryInternet / Social media software
FoundedMay 2009
FounderFrank Speiser, Mike Perrone
Headquarters
New York City
Area served
Worldwide
OwnersPiano Software (since 2022)
Websitewww.socialflow.com

SocialFlow is a social media optimization (SMO) platform for brands and publishers. The company has provided tools to schedule and optimize posting on social networks using real‑time engagement data and proprietary algorithms. SocialFlow’s analysis of how news of the death of Osama bin Laden propagated on Twitter received broad media coverage and discussion about Twitter’s role in journalism.[1][2]

On February 10, 2022, SocialFlow was acquired by digital experience platform Piano Software Inc.[3][4]

History

SocialFlow was founded in early 2009 by Frank Speiser and Mike Perrone, who aimed to apply a more data‑driven approach to building and sustaining social media audiences.[5]

On June 7, 2011, Peter Hershberg joined SocialFlow as President.[6]

In August 2013, SocialFlow was briefly targeted in a phishing‑based incident attributed to the Syrian Electronic Army, which also affected accounts of several media organizations.[7][8][9]

Funding

On April 7, 2011, SocialFlow announced a $7 million Series A round led by SoftBank, with participation from RRE Ventures, betaworks, Highline Venture Partners, AOL Venture Partners, SV Angel and others.[10] On April 16, 2013, the company raised a $10 million Series B led by Fairhaven Capital, joined by existing and new investors.[11]

Acquisition

In February 2022, Piano announced it would acquire SocialFlow; the transaction was structured as a cash purchase and resulted in Piano acquiring 100% of SocialFlow’s shares.[4][3][12]

Research

SocialFlow published "Breaking Bin Laden: Visualizing the Power of a Single Tweet," analyzing the spread of the news on Twitter.[13] The case is also discussed in academic and trade literature.[14][15]

Another study, “Engaging News‑Hungry Audiences Tweet by Tweet,” compared audience behavior across several news organizations and explored the relationship between posting style and engagement.[16][17]

References

  1. ^ Filloux, Frédéric (2011-05-09). "Lessons from the Osama bin Laden coverage". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2025-10-23.
  2. ^ Solis, Brian (2011-05-11). "The End Of The Destination Web And The Revival Of The Information Economy". Fast Company. Retrieved 2025-10-23.
  3. ^ a b "Piano Acquires SocialFlow To Build A Social Media Optimization Service For Publishers". AdExchanger. 2022-02-10. Retrieved 2025-10-23.
  4. ^ a b "Piano Acquires SocialFlow to Connect Social Media Strategies to Customer Journey Orchestration". PR Newswire. 2022-02-10. Retrieved 2025-10-23.
  5. ^ Gallagher, Freyja (2010-10-12). "Interviews with Smart People: Frank Speiser, Co‑Founder of Social Flow". Zeitgeist NYC. Archived from the original on 2019-03-15. Retrieved 2025-10-23.
  6. ^ Empson, Rip (2011-06-07). "SocialFlow Gets Serious, Makes Veteran Entrepreneur Peter Hershberg El Presidente". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2025-10-23.
  7. ^ "Syrian Electronic Army hacks Washington Post Web site". The Washington Post. 2013-08-15. Retrieved 2025-10-23.
  8. ^ Murphy, Samantha (2013-08-14). "How the Syrian Electronic Army Attacked SocialFlow". Mashable. Retrieved 2025-10-23.
  9. ^ "A Phishing Attack on SocialFlow". SocialFlow blog. 2013-08-14. Retrieved 2025-10-23.
  10. ^ Siegler, MG (2011-04-07). "New Twitter Ecosystem Poster Child SocialFlow Secures The Firehose And $7 Million Round". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2025-10-23.
  11. ^ "SocialFlow grabs $10M for — what else? — social media marketing". Reuters. 2013-04-16. Retrieved 2025-10-23.
  12. ^ "CMSWire: Piano Acquires SocialFlow". CMSWire. 2022-03-03. Retrieved 2025-10-23.
  13. ^ "Breaking Bin Laden: Visualizing the Power of a Single Tweet". SocialFlow. 2011-05-06. Archived from the original on 2015-05-10. Retrieved 2025-10-23.
  14. ^ Hu, Mengdie; Kossinets, Gueorgi; Kleinberg, Jon; Stasko, John (2012). "Breaking News on Twitter" (PDF). Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Georgia Tech. Retrieved 2025-10-23.
  15. ^ Hernandez, Brian Anthony (2011-05-02). "Timeline: How News of Osama Bin Laden's Death Unfolded on Twitter". Mashable. Retrieved 2025-10-23.
  16. ^ Myers, Steve (2011-08-05). "How The Economist's conversational tweets drive clicks, while Al Jazeera's automation drives retweets". Poynter Institute. Retrieved 2025-10-23.
  17. ^ Kafka, Peter (2011-08-02). "Fox News's Twitter Triggers: Crime, Murder, Casey Anthony". AllThingsD. Retrieved 2025-10-23.

Further reading

  • Hu, Mengdie; Kossinets, Gueorgi; Kleinberg, Jon; Stasko, John (2012). "Breaking News on Twitter" (PDF). Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Georgia Tech. Retrieved 2025-10-23.
  • "Social media marketing – Background and concepts (German)". WebSeo GmbH (in German). 2025. Retrieved 2025-10-23. Overview of social media marketing and related optimization approaches; background reading relevant to SMO concepts.

See also

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