Vocus Launches Social Media Monitoring Offering

As expected, PR software company Vocus announced the launch of its social media monitoring product today. The company hinted at the release on its Q1 earnings call in late April.

The new solution provides, “a single comprehensive platform for media relations, news and social media monitoring, and advanced analytics.”

A company spokesperson told PRNewser, “we built software from the ground up, it’s our code.” Vocus had 1,800 current customers on a free beta version before rolling it out as a paid solution.

The offering costs $3,000 for one user seat per year. Vocus joins a crowded space, competing with start-ups like Scout Labs and Radian6, and established companies like Microsoft, Reuters and Dow Jones, who have their own offerings. Nevertheless, the company is hoping their large customer base can serve as a runway for rapid growth.

At least one client already likes it. “This is inherently valuable to my daily work of building relationships and engaging those voices that express an interest in our business,” said Tom Horrocks, communications manager with Killington Resort.

Full release after the jump.

Vocus Unwraps New Social Media Monitoring Module

On-Demand Provider of Software for PR Management Launches Integrated Social Media Monitoring Tool Designed Specifically for the Public Relations Professional

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Lanham, MD (PRWEB) June 8, 2010 — Vocus (NASDAQ: VOCS), a leading provider of on-demand software for public relations management, unveiled a major software release – its Summer ’10 Edition which showcases a new social media monitoring module. The new release is designed for the PR professional and provides a single comprehensive platform for media relations, news and social media monitoring, and advanced analytics.

“We believe that PR has taken the lead on social media and we set out to engineer a social media monitoring tool with that in mind,” said Bill Wagner, CMO at Vocus. “By the same token, the mainstream media still matters to the PR professional as it tends to fuel social media conversations, and the Vocus platform is the first truly integrated platform that meets the needs of the PR professional’s role – both traditional and emerging.”

The new social media monitoring module has the ability to monitor virtually every major social media site including public comments, groups and discussions on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, social bookmarking sites, including Digg and Delicious. In addition, Vocus’ open platform enables a user to input custom content – any data source with an RSS can be plugged into the system for analysis.

With the new module Vocus will monitor 20 million of the most prominent blogs, including blog comments. The new edition has also simplified search with the added ability to filter out or block content from sites that an individual user deems irrelevant.

Key highlights of Vocus Summer ’10 Edition include the ability to:

-Monitor Social Media in Near-Real Time. The Vocus system monitors most major social media sites, based on key word searches, in near-real time. The system goes beyond emerging social media and also includes the monitoring of conversations in forums, discussion groups, and blog comments, which can often be as influential as the original blog post. Users can also add custom data sources from any public forum that can be obtained through an RSS feed. Most importantly, Vocus provides automated sentiment analysis and toning, by applying natural language processing (NLP) including the prominence and impact of social media conversations which allows users to identify trends in interactions and discussions that center on their organization.

-Identify Key Influencers. Vocus has developed an algorithm based on several factors including relevancy, social influence and volume that enables users to identify the most influential voices on Twitter and in blogs – those voices that have the most impact on brand. This provides the user with the information needed to engage that influencer more intelligently.

-Influencer Relationship Management. The Summer ’10 Edition will provide a module for quickly and seamlessly adding any key influencer the user deems important directly from the Web, and also include links to public profiles from sources including Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. This feature is designed to enable the user to better understand their key influencers and their interests and engage them appropriately.

-Content Filtering. With the proliferation of Web-based content, the volume of conversations can be staggering. Vocus Summer ’10 Edition provides a simplified form-based search function and the ability to block content from outlets the user deems irrelevant.

Word cloud analysis. Word clouds are provided in the form of analytics charts that provide additional insight into the word choice their influencers use in conversations about the user’s organization – the result is a snapshot of trends at-a-glance. This enables users to refine content, use the same words their customers and prospects use, in order to speak “in their own language” in future communications. Additionally, word clouds can be used to monitor the word choice of their competitors for competitive analysis.

“Vocus is taking some of the guesswork out of identifying key influencers relevant to our brand,” said Tom Horrocks, communications manager with Killington Resort. “This is inherently valuable to my daily work of building relationships and engaging those voices that express an interest in our business.”

A publically traded company, Vocus is arguably the largest company in its space to develop its own social media monitoring product from the ground up, ensuring that it’s truly integrated with its existing platform. Founded in 1992, and launching its first on-demand software version in 1999, Vocus has applied more than a decade of knowledge about the challenges, needs and opportunities for PR professionals to the development of Vocus Summer Edition ’10.

Vocus launched its first edition of social media monitoring – a product freely available to existing customers using Vocus News On Demand (NOD) product for traditional media product – in the Spring of 2009. About 1,800 customers are currently using Vocus’ free social media monitoring product, which has provided the company the chance to study its customers’ needs and desires in developing the new product. The new module will be offered as an add-on or as a stand-alone module for $3,000.

“In a survey of 1,800 PR professionals late last fall, 80 percent said they would focus more on social media in 2010,” added Wagner. “The effort leading up to this launch of Vocus Summer Edition ’10 is indicative of our commitment to this market and to developing a leading product in social media monitoring.”

Vocus will present the new social media monitoring module to customers attending Vocus’ 2010 User Conference in a session titled, “Measure the Impact of Social Media.” The conference is running on June 10-11, 2010 at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Washington, DC.

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