Alterian acquires social media monitoring firm Techrigy

The deal will enable Alterian clients to watch what people say about their brand on sites such as Twitter and Facebook and to have direct conversations with customers.

Techrigy's SM2 technology can monitor brand reputation online, analyse competitors and conduct online market research.

Alterian is promoting its new capabilities following the acquisition by providing a free version of the Techrigy SM2 system to its 1,100 customers and 150 business partners. The software can be upgraded to the subscription-based full version.

David Eldridge, Alterian's CEO, said: "Social media monitoring and analytics are a complex challenge.

"Social media and web 2.0 applications are developing and changing so rapidly that only those companies that can combine an understanding of social media with a solid history in marketing analytics will succeed in this fast emerging space.

"By combining Alterian's platform with Techrigy's SM2 technology, marketers now have a complete, easy and practical solution to understand the complete view of their customers and take action to use this to build brand equity and generate opportunity."

Techrigy was founded by Aaron Newman, who joins the Alterian team. He said: "We don't see this as the end of the Techrigy story, but the start of something bigger."

This article was first published on brandrepublic.com