Spredfast Launches First Shoutlet-Based Feature, A Contest- and Poll-Maker

In August, social media management platform Spredfast bought competitor Shoutlet.

Today, Spredfast announced the first implementation of Shoutlet technology — a Promotions custom form builder that allows brands to create contests, sweepstakes, polls, quizzes, surveys and other interactive features, and capture the user data.

Previously, VP of product marketing David Prohaska told me, Spredfast had some polling capability and could handle collection of a few pieces of user data, like a Twitter handle or a Facebook ID.

Now, Promotions — which was called Canvas on the Shoutlet platform — allows customized templates to be created, contests and such to be added in an iFrame to a desktop or mobile site via a JavaScript tag, and all kinds of user data to be collected and provided to a customer relationship management (CRM) platform.

An outdoor gear brand, for instance, might want to conduct a contest for best photo of a hiking trail. Spredfast said that the accompanying Terms and Conditions usually give the brand the right to use the submitted material. Otherwise, the brand gets in touch with the user for permission. The user uploads the photo and submits name, email address and other info, such as thoughts about the brand.

Here’s a Promotions creation screen:

Promotions also allows the brand to conduct, say, polling, in which no user-generated content (UGC) is requested but user data is collected. Spredfast said this is the first functionality for its platform that collects data without involving UGC.

The Austin, Texas-based company said that there are similar templatized apps for Facebook from such vendors as Woobox. Tools like SurveyMonkey can capture user feedback in surveys and such, and social networks and other UGC platforms allow for the creation of engaging features like photo contests.

But Spredfast product lead Melissa Johnson said that Promotions is the first to offer a complete suite of functions: creation of interactive features like contests, fully customizable templates that can match a larger campaign, capturing of any kind of user data, integration with a CRM, and then display on a video wall or other broadcast experience through the company’s Experiences capabilities.

Spredfast’s acquisition of Shoutlet, which had focused on customer identity and integration with CRMs, is part of social media platforms’ growth as full players in the marketing data wave. Earlier this month, for instance, social platform Sprinklr announced its purchase of audience segmentation/customer data platform Booshaka.

About The Author

Barry Levine

Barry Levine covers marketing technology for Third Door Media. Previously, he covered this space as a Senior Writer for VentureBeat, and he has written about these and other tech subjects for such publications as CMSWire and NewsFactor. He founded and led the web site/unit at PBS station Thirteen/WNET; worked as an online Senior Producer/writer for Viacom; created a successful interactive game, PLAY IT BY EAR: The First CD Game; founded and led an independent film showcase, CENTER SCREEN, based at Harvard and M.I.T.; and served over five years as a consultant to the M.I.T. Media Lab. You can find him at LinkedIn, and on Twitter at xBarryLevine.