BlogFrog announces new platform, office

BOULDER – BlogFrog Inc., a Boulder-based startup developing influencer marketing technology, is leaping off in a new direction, both online and geographically.

BlogFrog on Monday launched a new platform that will help brands and advertising companies better target important markets by working with online social influencers.

Social influencers are online voices, primarily bloggers, that have built credibility and large followings because of their expertise and passion about a topic, said Holly Hamann, co-founder and vice president for marketing at BlogFrog. By working with social influencers, marketers can run more specific campaigns that appeal to a narrow audience more inclined to buy their products.

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A commonly cited example of social influencers are the authors of “mommy blogs” written by parents of young children, who would be appealing to advertisers selling products for children, families and women. BlogFrog, founded in 2009, evolved out of that community.

BlogFrog’s new Influencer Marketing platform will help brands and marketers find those influencers from the more than 100,000 people in BlogFrog’s “influencer network,” Hamann said. The platform will automate a cumbersome process that typically was done by public-relations or advertising firms that reached out to one blogger at a time, and marketers also will have access to analytics to track the campaign, Hamann said.

The Influencer Marketing platform works for sellers and bloggers, Hamann said, because it will help bloggers find like-minded advertisers as they attempt to monetize their blogs.

Launching the platform is part of BlogFrog’s strategy to become more focused on software and technology development, Hamann said. Previously the company has worked a lot with bloggers and marketers to help them develop campaigns.

“We’ve moved and evolved quite far away from that,” Hamann said. “We’re definitely moving in the SaaS (software as a service) direction.”

To be near brands and marketers, BlogFrog has opened a New York City office, and co-founder and chief executive Rustin Banks has relocated there. The New York office will be focused on marketing, while software and product development will remain in Boulder, Hamann said.

BlogFrog also announced Monday it has formed a partnership with the Meredith Corp. (NYSE: MDP), the Des Moines, Iowa-based media company that owns Ladies’ Home Journal and Better Homes and Gardens magazines.

BlogFrog has raised $3.2 million from investors and employs about 30 people in Boulder. By the end of the year it plans to have a staff of about 50 between the two offices, Hamann said.