• by Staff Writers , December 6, 2010

Social media marketing firm Shoutlet has closed a $6 million second round of funding led by American Family Insurance and including prior investors Origin Ventures and Leo Capital Holdings. It brings the total raised by the company to date to 9.2 million.

Madison, WI-based Shoutlet, whose clients include brands such as Nissan, Perry Ellis and Burt's Bees, plans to use the new financing to accelerate product development and continue double-digit growth. "Today's funding announcement will allow us to implement our visionary ideas for social media management at an even faster pace," said the company's CEO Jason Weaver, in a statement.

Competing with businesses like Buddy Media, Context Optional and ViTrue, Shoutlet offers a set of software tools that help marketers manager their presence on social media properties like Facebook and Twitter. Its platform includes customer relationship management (CRM) features tailored to social sites as well as widget-building and real-time analytics to keep track of usage data.

Most recently, Shoutlet added the ability for clients to set up a digital storefront through through a new tab on their Facebook pages. The "Shop & Share" button allows marketers to display products on Facebook and drive e-commerce activity back to their main Web pages. Users can share product information and purchases with friends.

One feature the company believes sets it apart from other social marketing firms is a permissioning tool that allows corporate managers to deliver a directory of pre-approved content for employees to use in connection with social media efforts. American Family Insurance, a client as well as investor for instance, provides its 4,000 agents with access to the Shoutlet platform to track and update social campaigns.

Vendors focused on social marketing have been gaining increased attention from investors lately as social media becomes a more important part of brands' ad strategies. Buddy Media, for instance, raised a $23 million venture round in October for a total of about $38 million to date.