It seems proliferation in use of social networks has enabled the acquisition buzz getting getting shifted from social networks to social media marketing companies. Buzzgain, social media monitoring company based out of bangalore is getting acquired by Meltwater for $4 million.
Buzzgain currently provides social media monitoring solution which helps brands and customer service companies to find company and industry related mentions on social networks and other social media channels. The solution enables companies to monitor online reputation in-house along with building expertise in tackling vital issues online.
Buzzgain also provides a D-I-Y [ Do-it-Yourself ] PR solution PR professional to generate greater buzz and better media relations. The solution also reduces costs in PR management along with greater emphasis on blogger relations. Buzzgain claims to monitor more than 92000 media properties for its monitoring services.
Meltwater will gain strategic expertise from this acquisition as it already has presence in both social media monitoring [ Meltwater Buzz] and PR management [ Meltwater Press]. Meltwater currently has revenues in excess of $ 100 million and this acquisition will provide it required talent to wither growing competition in social media monitoring business from companies like Radian6, Buzzstream .
Social Media Monitoring turning into a hot space?
Social media monitoring services are getting impetus from the increased social media marketing spends from global and regional peers. The increase in demand for Social Media Marketing and Online reputation management services has also led to many social media consulting startups and thus increased overall demand for such online monitoring tools.
Many free tools like hootsuite , Cotweet & Twitterdeck has also found great amount of funding as they are being widely used by regular social media users and not just professional in order to maintain online relations.
Social Media Marketing spend is expected to hit $3.1 billion by 2014 and overtake mobile and E-mail spends. The patterns of social media marketing spend is different from that of digital advertising as majority of revenues are shared by consulting companies and monitoring tools. Thus any increase in social media marketing spend will have positive effect on such monitoring services.
