Salesforce.com, which offers customer relationship management tools, says it’s acquiring social media monitoring platform Radian6 and will integrate the company’s platform into its own products in a $326 million deal that’s expected to close by the end of July.
Radian6 helps companies monitor chatter on social networking sites and join conversations with customers and prospects. The company captures hundreds of millions of conversations every day across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, blogs and online communities, providing actionable insights in real-time.
Real estate professionals should know what people are thinking and saying about them and their company, said Adam Hirsch, chief operating officer at technology news site Mashable, speaking in January at Real Estate Connect New York City. Hirsch said helpful apps for tracking social media conversations include Radian6, Cision, peoplebrowsr, HootSuite and Google Alerts.
Hirsch, a former brokerage director of business affairs, also recommended customer relationship management applications including Salesforce.com, Batchbook and SugerCRM as useful tools for agents and brokers.
"Salesforce.com recognizes that the incredible adoption of social media has brought about a massive shift in the industry," the company said in announcing an agreement to acquire Radian 6 for $276 million in cash and $50 million in stock. The proposed acquisition will help companies "better manage the social interactions taking place both inside and outside their companies."
Salesforce said it plans to combine Radian6’s social media monitoring and engagement platform with its own products: Sales Cloud, Service Cloud and Salesforce Chatter.
Salesforce Chatter feeds — private social networks companies can provide for their employees — "will be filled with real-time insights from fans on Facebook pages, followers on Twitter, comments on blog posts and more," the company said.
Developers will be able to build apps for the Force.com platform "that tap into the power of Radian6, putting the social Web into everything they build," Salesforce said. "In such a dynamic market, this acquisition will present a huge opportunity for salesforce.com to extend its developer and partner ecosystem with technology not available anywhere else."
