Google today acquired PostRank, a company that monitors and aggregates social media data, as the search giant tries to revive its efforts in social networking.
PostRank measures tweets and Facebook status updates to see how far they spread across the web. These statistics help companies see what users and competitors are doing. Even more importantly, PostRank's service gives advertising and publishing agencies information on people's favorite brands, topics and other content, helping them plan their marketing strategies accordingly.
The Ontario-based company can give the Mountain View, Calif.-based search giant valuable analytics tools to sift through tweets and posts about certain brands like Coca-Cola or Nike. By eavesdropping on people's aggregate reactions to various products, advertisers can tailor their campaigns much more quickly and effectively than with traditional survey methods. PostRank is therefore like gold to Google, which depends on advertisements for most of its revenue.
