The recent influx of funding for Geofeedia is big news for the future of social media marketing. The Chicago-based company allows its customers to monitor social media activity based on location, and it has just received 3.5 million dollars in venture funding, which it plans to use to double its staff over the course of the next year.
If Geofeedia broadens its reach among companies that utilize social media, it will have surely make geographic location far more relevant to social media marketing than it ever has been before.
Online consumer data was once lumped together into one mass of information, but that data is now being broken down to reflect the peculiarities of individual markets. In this new online landscape, local social media companies will provide a considerable advantage for certain clients. Social media outreach and social media monitoring can both be focused on local consumer demographics, and these are tasks better handled by local social media companies, which have particular insight into those demographics.
The growth of Geofeedia can be expected to affect both sides of a social media strategy. National companies will be able to use it to understand how their brands are perceived in Los Angles as opposed to in New York. And if current outreach strategies are effective only on the East Coast, the same companies may choose to hire a Los Angeles social media company to separate their West Coast social media from their broader marketing efforts.
The internet is no longer one homogenous consumer landscape. It has as many markets as the regions it serves.
