WPP Partners With Buddy Media to Take Social Media Management Global

WPP, which bills itself as the world’s largest communications services group, has just announced that it is making a $5 million cash investment in Facebook management platform Buddy Media. This comes less than two weeks after Buddy Media announced its $23 million Series C round. WPP’s investment brings the size of the round to $28 million.

In addition to the cash investment, the new partnership will also integrate the Buddy Media Platform with WPP’s own tools and products so that brand can more easily converge its traditional and FacebookFacebook marketing efforts.

In a blog post announcing the new partnership, Buddy Media notes that the partnership will provide WPP with open access to the Buddy Media Platform.

The Buddy Media platform lets brands maintain, measure and launch their Facebook presences in multiple countries and in multiple languages. The company currently powers the Facebook management tools in place by seven of the top 10 largest global advertisers.

The partnership with WPP should only make those stats soar even higher. WPP has more than 140,000 employees in 2,400 offices around the world. It’s the parent company of advertising agencies like Grey Group and Y&R and is the world’s largest advertising company by revenue.

As more and more brands start to invest in Facebook and other digital forms of communication, it’s increasingly important for tools to be available to individuals that manage those accounts.

An interesting — and we think essential — part of the WPP/Buddy Media partnership is that the various WPP agencies will be trained on the Buddy Media Platform within the first year of the relationship. It’s not enough to just have the software and platforms, it is vital that the people using those tools have the training necessary to get the best results.

I frequently discuss social media management strategies with companies both large and small. Time and time again, the subject of how easy a system is to use — or how well a user has been trained — is brought up as the reason why a solution does or doesn’t work.

The social media management space is absolutely exploding, with companies like Vitrue, Involver and The Syncapse Platform all growing and improving their offerings.

This is certainly a space with plenty of room for lots of players. With its partnership with WPP, however, Buddy Media is certainly poised for even more success.

Disclosure: Buddy Media is a sponsor of MashableMashable.

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