trueAnthem Raises $2.6M To Help Publishers And Brands Track Viral Content

trueAnthem, a company that allows publishers to track the impact of their content on social media, has raised $2.6 million from CrunchFund, Core Ventures Group, and undisclosed angel investors.

(Both CrunchFund and TechCrunch were co-founded by Michael Arrington.)

trueAnthem was actually started back in 2008, but CEO Chris Hart said that it focused on music content before pivoting a year-and-a-half ago to look at the social influence of a broad range of content. The idea might sound kind of generic, but Hart said trueAnthem goes further than just counting the number of times an article gets tweeted or shared.

“As a writer, when you publish a story and you’re interested to know about the social impact, you’re probably looking at the number of times those shares have happened,” Hart said. “We believe social infleuence is more important.”

After all, one reader who tweets your article might have only 100 followers, while another might have 10,000. In addition, that initial tweet might lead to subsequent tweets that drive still more tweets (and more traffic). To examine all of that, trueAnthem says it offers “100% tracking of your social sharing footprint.”

This is useful for news publishers like Yahoo and Fox Sports, who can see what content is actually resonating on social media and adjust their editorial strategies accordingly. Hart noted that online “earned media” (content that a company didn’t have to pay for) is becoming increasingly important to brands, as well.

Hart said this approach means trueAnthem doesn’t have any direct competitors, though aspects of what it does could be compared to social-sharing tools like AddThis and social influence companies like Klout.

Oh, and the company is also sharing some indicators that there’s really something to this technology: It says it received a patent this year on tracking social influence and a Gold Award from the Advertising Research Foundation.