????幾年后，蘭瑟姆和查得上了MBA，查得在斯坦福大學(xué)（Stanford），她在哈佛大學(xué)（Harvard），在那里他們開始嘗試著在網(wǎng)上推廣Access Trips。他們決定在Facebook上提供一次免費(fèi)旅行，但找不到什么軟件能實(shí)現(xiàn)這一點(diǎn)。因此，他們勾勒出了所需的軟件功能——不僅可用于Access Trips，也能用于其他品牌——并在愛沙尼亞雇傭了開發(fā)人員制作軟件。2008年，他們建立了另一家公司W(wǎng)ildfire，提供一款可下載的應(yīng)用軟件，允許用戶設(shè)計(jì)抽獎(jiǎng)、競賽和其他促銷方式，并在Facebook上運(yùn)行，無需再雇傭編程員。客戶很快就從夫妻店發(fā)展到了索尼(Sony)和聯(lián)合利華(Unilever)這樣的跨國大公司?？蛻糁Ц兜馁M(fèi)用低到5美元/次、0.99美元/天，高到1.5萬美元由Wildfire設(shè)計(jì)和執(zhí)行的整套推廣活動(dòng)不等。

????2008年秋季時(shí)社交媒體還在增長，但華爾街危機(jī)重重，投資者不愿進(jìn)行交易。蘭瑟姆和查得竭力維持Wildfire的運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)，一直在自家的客廳里工作，直到能搬進(jìn)一家墨西哥熟食店樓上的辦公室。他們以低成本方式組建了一支銷售團(tuán)隊(duì)，雇傭應(yīng)屆畢業(yè)生尋找和提供銷售機(jī)會，給資深銷售人員支付最低基本工資加豐厚的傭金。一年內(nèi)Wildfire就實(shí)現(xiàn)了盈利，沒有對外籌一分錢。(2010年7月，蘭瑟姆和查得賣掉了Access Trips。)

????蘭瑟姆和查得還努力與Facebook建立關(guān)系。首先，他們通過在Facebook工作的商學(xué)院朋友，闡明Wildfire能讓Facebook成為更有效的營銷工具。然后，為Facebook的法律和國際增長業(yè)務(wù)進(jìn)行了營銷推廣。他們用4個(gè)月時(shí)間爭取并得到了Facebook內(nèi)部創(chuàng)業(yè)孵化器fbFund 25萬美元的撥款。(甚至連他們的員工也與Facebook有關(guān)聯(lián):他們甚至雇傭了馬克?扎克伯格的妹妹和妹夫。)

????Summit Partners、500 Startups等投資者很快跟進(jìn)，向Wildfire注入了1400萬美元。隨著擁有更多資金，Wildfire進(jìn)一步擴(kuò)展了軟件功能。如今，企業(yè)能追蹤粉絲和關(guān)注者動(dòng)態(tài)，監(jiān)測顧客在Facebook和Twitter上是怎么說的，并進(jìn)行其他社交媒體分析。

????Wildfire與Facebook的良好關(guān)系對于谷歌具有巨大的吸引力，谷歌曾經(jīng)試圖通過Google Buzz、Google Wave和Google Plus等產(chǎn)品，打造自己的社交平臺，但成效有限?！肮雀韪信d趣的是看看Facebook擁有什么樣的數(shù)據(jù)，這項(xiàng)技術(shù)如何運(yùn)行，了解Facebook如何與第三方共享社交用戶信息，”弗雷斯特研究公司（Forrester Research）副總裁兼首席分析師奈特?艾略特表示。蘭瑟姆和查得將繼續(xù)在谷歌領(lǐng)導(dǎo) Wildfire，向主管AdWords和谷歌其他廣告產(chǎn)品的蘇珊?沃西基匯報(bào)。蘭瑟姆表示，幾年后他們可能會再建一家公司或?qū)Ｗ⒂诖壬剖聵I(yè)。

????隨著Facebook和Twitter增長，對社交營銷公司的需求也在增長，新一輪的初創(chuàng)企業(yè)收購方興未艾。蘭瑟姆從沒想到過自己也會成為其中的一份子。“就拿谷歌來說，我們從未預(yù)料到會被收購，”她說。“我們一直想的都是打造一家偉大的公司，看看到底會怎樣。”

????譯者：早稻米

????After a few years, Ransom and Chuard entered MBA programs, he at Stanford and she at Harvard, where they experimented with new ways to promote Access Trips online. They decided to give away a free trip on Facebook, but couldn't find software to do so. So they sketched out how the software would work— both for Access Trips, and other brands— and hired developers in Estonia to build it. In 2008 they launched Wildfire as a separate business: a downloadable app that would allow users to design sweepstakes, contests and other promotions that could run on Facebook, without having to hire a programmer. Clients soon ranged from two-person catering shops to Sony and Unilever. They paid as little as $5 a promotion for $.99 a day, up to $15,000 for a campaign that Wildfire would design and execute.

????Although social media was growing in the fall of 2008, Wall Street was in turmoil and investors were reluctant to do deals. So Ransom and Chuard bootstrapped Wildfire, working out of their living room for as long as they could before moving to an office above a Mexican deli. They built a sales force on the cheap, hiring a mix of recent college graduates to prospect and pass along leads, and more senior salespeople, whom they paid minimal base salaries and a generous commission. Within a year Wildfire was profitable, without having raised a dollar in outside funding. (In July 2010 Ransom and Chuard sold Access Trips.)

????Ransom and Chuard worked hard to develop a relationship with Facebook (FB). First they tapped business school friends who worked there, and made the case that Wildfire could make Facebook a more effective marketing tool. Then they did marketing campaigns for Facebook's legal and international growth groups. They spent four months competing for— and winning— a $250,000 grant from fbFund, the company's in-house business incubator. (Even their staff has ties to Facebook: They eventually hired Mark Zuckerberg's brother-in-law and younger sister.)

????Investors like Summit Partners and 500 Startups soon followed, injecting $14 million into Wildfire. With the additional funding, Wildfire built out its software; companies can now track their fans and followers, monitor what customers are saying about them on Facebook and Twitter, and do other social media analysis.

????Wildfire's connection to Facebook is a huge draw for Google, which has tried with limited success to build its own social platform with products like Google Buzz, Google Wave and Google Plus. "What would be interesting to Google is seeing what kind of data Facebook has access to, having a peek at how the technology works, and understanding how Facebook is communicating information about social users to third parties," says Nate Elliott, a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research. At Google, Ransom and Chuard will continue to lead Wildfire, reporting to Susan Wojcicki, who runs AdWords and the rest of Google's advertising products. After a few years, Ransom says, they might start another company, or focus on philanthropy.

????As Facebook and Twitter grow, so has the demand for social marketing companies, hence the recent round of high-profile startup acquisitions. Ransom never expected be a part of that club. "In the case of Google, we were not looking to get acquired," she says. "It's always been, 'Let's just build a great business, and then let's see.'"