• by Larissa Faw , August 20, 2015

In March, Ignite Social Media launched Carusele, a stand-alone company focused on social media content creation, syndication and distribution. "It's a very different product sold for a different need. Ignite sells ongoing social media services, like a PR firm or ad agency does. Carusele sells packages of content purchased more like a media buy. Often different buyers and different budgets and a different relationship," said Jim Tobin, President, Ignite Social Media and Carusele.

Now, the shop is shifting into expansion mode after receiving $500,000 in additional funding from existing and new investors. With the funding, the nine-person company will hire additional sales and marketing support, while also increasing its investment in network development and technology to increase efficiency. 

“Content marketing across social media, with guaranteed scale and guaranteed eyeballs, is incredibly difficult for brands to produce on their own,” said Tobin. “What we’ve done is packaged it up as a media buy, so it’s simple to buy, while focusing on high quality content creation. We then let the social web grade all the content, allowing us to syndicate the best performing pieces among them. It’s driving measurable results for our clients, including repeated examples of increased sales.”

Carusele has already exceeded expectations since it was launched as a separate entity. The company expects to sell over $2 million of programs in 2015 alone and has already executed more than 40 programs for clients. These accounts work across 5,000 content producers to create "high quality, sharable, branded content" and then are actively managed through organic syndication, paid syndication and aggregation. 

“We’re pleased with how our first year is shaping up, already working with some of the world’s best brands said Carusele co-owner Marcie Brogan. “This investment is the next step in accelerating that growth even further.”

The 50-person Ignite Social Media also continues to grow through work on behalf of clients including ConAgra Foods, Walgreens, On the Border, Staples and Lenovo.