The hashtag has been creeping across social networks, but the broader conversations often remain locked on one site or platform. A startup called Tagboard is looking to change that, and today it’s launching version 2.0 of its product.
Basically, Tagboard aggregates hashtag-associated content from across six social networks, including videos from Instagram and Vine. Customers can customize the content’s appearance, embed it, and browse analytics to see how it’s performing. The content can also be broadcast on a big screen, as it was in the recent One Direction live broadcast pictured to the left. (Co-founder and CEO Josh Decker said the broadcast was Tagboard’s “biggest event yet,” with millions of viewers seeing Tagboard content.)
Decker described the product as a way “to ‘magnetize’ the hashtag and have it pull together disconnected posts to create one larger, more powerful conversation.” The initial product was focused on adding social content to forums (he said he had the initial idea while trying to upgrade forum software) before the company shifted focus to real-time social media content.
Companies that have used Tagboard include Audi of America, Microsoft, Comcast, Clear Channel, Intel, Jaguar USA, and Engadget (which, like TechCrunch, is owned by AOL).
One of the big challenges, Decker said, has not been acquiring new customers, but rather on-boarding them through “a very manual process.” Version 2.0 features automated on-boarding, so companies can sign up for paid subscriptions in a completely self-service way. Other new features include a hashtag definition database and content moderation, which should reduce any brand concerns that they’ll suddenly broadcast offensive or inappropriate content.
Decker added:
The single most important improvement in Tagboard 2.0 is the completely rebuilt foundation which allows us to grow and scale to the future and build new features quickly. For example with this launch comes the ability for users to easily “own their hashtag” by registering and customizing the associated Tagboard. The other thing this allows for is for them to self-serve a suite of professional features like curation, embedding, analytics and live display so that they can get the very most out of their hashtag campaigns.
Tagboard says it has raised $2.2 million in funding from various angel investors.