Hearsay Social, a Sequoia- and NEA-backed company that helps large organizations manage their social media presence across local branches and sales teams, is announcing that it has opened an office in London. Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Steve Garrity said it is the first step in the company’s European expansion.
The new office will be led by Peter Caryotis, who previously managed IBM’s Northern Europe Platform Computing business. The company says it has also updated its products to support German, French and Spanish.
One of Hearsay’s big selling points is the fact that it enables salespeople to post to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and elsewhere in a way that’s compliant with regulations. That’s presumably one of the reasons why Hearsay customers include a number of financial and insurance firms, including Zurich Insurance, Allstate, AXA Equitable, and Northwestern Mutual. So does expanding into countries with different regulatory requirements present a big challenge?
“Although regulations are different worldwide, they are generally focused on the same key issues, such as privacy and consumer protection,” Garrity said, adding that the team wants “to enable social selling in diverse regulatory environments.”
In the press release, Caryotis made a related point: “Social media usage continues to grow in the UK, but many organisations, especially those in highly regulated markets such as financial services, are still trying to figure out how to leverage the social networks to generate revenue.”
Garrity added that Europe isn’t an entirely new market for Hearsay, since it already works with some U.S. companies that have a European presence.