It pays to time your tweets: SocialFlow debuts self-serve platform and eyes new funding

SocialFlow, which helps brands and publishers optimize their performance across Facebook and Twitter, is launching its self-service platform today. The company has had a banner year, growing from just two employees to more than 30 and graduating from the Betaworks building to its own office on the east side of Manhattan.

To get a sense of how the company works, let’s take the example from one of their clients, The Economist. With SocialFlow, which guides which messages The Economist puts out to its followers and when, the venerable publisher has grown its social media fan base five times faster than average and increased engagement with its audience at a rate eight times greater than before it used Social Flow.

“The best performing tweet The Economist sent out last year was between three and four in the morning on a weekday,” SocialFlow co-founder Frank Speiser told VentureBeat. “It was an article questioning the value of a PhD. No human would ever have predicated that was the best approach and the most significant article for their audience. Only an algorithm can key into an opportunity like that.”

SocialFlow’s new product allows anyone to tap into its platform for an affordable entry price of $99 a month. “We think this is something that could benefit a lot of individuals, not just big brands,” Speiser said. “If you have tens of thousands of followers, you don’t want to pollute their stream with errant noise.”

The company’s new office’s on 45th and Lexington will put it in close proximity to Facebook and Twitter’s New York outposts, allowing for increased collaboration. With 2,000 paying accounts, SocialFlow has a sizable revenue stream for an early stage startup. But Speiser says the company is likely to raise another round of funding this year. “We have so much demand for the product, it just makes sense to hire sales people to capture all that potential.”