Salesforce to add social media monitoring

Salesforce.com has moved to acquire Radian6, creator of a social media monitoring platform, for approximately $276 million in cash and $50 million in stock.

The addition of Radian6’s platform to Salesforce.com is designed to boost customer engagement for customers of Salesforce.com, according to the two companies. The company was formed around the idea that companies need to monitor the social web to join conversations with customers and prospects.

The Radian6 platform captures hundreds of millions of conversations every day across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, blogs and online communities. Users of the platform also can analyze their own social media efforts to critique their own efforts, and track what is being said about their brand on various social media platforms.

On the Radian6 blog, the company’s CEO, Marcel LeBrun, describes the two companies’ complementary vision of the role social media plays in how companies connect with their markets.

Radian6 is used by many large companies, including AAA, Dell, GE, Kodak, Molson Coors, Pepsico and UPS. With social media usage expanding so rapidly, integration of the kinds of tracking capabilities a company like Radian 6 offers into Salesforce.com’s cloud-based tools is a smart and effective way to meet enterprise customers’ evolving needs with a single solution.