Startup KnowEm, which helps both large companies and small businesses stake their brand claim in social media landscape and manage their presence on these sites, has recently acquired FriendsCall.Me, a similar service, for an undisclosed amount.
FriendsCall.Me launched in April 2009, and like KnoweEm, helped both individuals and companies mange and secure their identity in the social web. FriendsCall.Me was the brainchild of Darius Monsef IV, the creator of the design community, COLOURlovers.com, and community organizer for Microsoft’s Photosynth.com. Existing FriendsCall.Me customers will automatically be transferred to KnowEm’s service.
On KnowEm’s site, brand owners can instantly check the availability of their branded usernames and keywords on more than 330 social media networks (for free). KnowEm returns a list of social networks where the brand is and isn’t registered. Brands can then choose to have KnowEm secure company and product brands across networks and will also set up profiles for each company or brand. And companies will have a dashboard on KnowEm where they can access all of their profiles on social media sites from a centralized platform. The dashboard also includes an aggregated feed of mentions of a brand across the social platforms, including Digg, Twitter, and more. KnowEm’s freemium packages range from $49 to $349 and users only pay a lifetime flat fee. Over 200,000 profiles have already been secured and created through KnowEm for a range of clients whose names cannot be disclosed, including one of the three major search engines (Yahoo, Bing or Google), a large pharmaceutical company and restaurant chains.
As social media becomes a more necessary playground where companies and brands need play, KnowEm’s services become necessary. With reasonable pricing and growth of brand engagement on social media platforms, KnowEm is gaining a loyal following and growing.