Can Sprout Social survive in crowded social monitoring market?

Sprout Social, a social media management and monitoring tool for businesses, today announced its official unveiling and public availability to all businesses. The company announced in May that it won backing from Groupon founders Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell, through their recently launched investment fund Lightbank.

Sprout Social gives customers a single Web-based dashboard to manage and grow all their social networks, including Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, LinkedIn, and Foursquare. The tool monitors the web for social brand mentions and then alerts the user of potential customers. A contact center and promotional tool then allows users to engage those potential customers. Engagement features include being able to cross-post across all networks and schedule messages. An analysis tool allows users to track the progress of their outreach.

The company joins a whole host of social media management and monitoring tools, including Radian6, Visible Technology and Scout Labs, which was recently purchased by Lithium Technologies. Though Sprout Social appears to have a leg up on the competition as it pairs social monitoring with promotional tools to turn potential customers into actual customers.

The Chicago-based company, founded in 2009, previously raised an undisclosed amount from Lightbank, which also invested in Facebook application Where I’ve Been and Poggled, a social aggregation site.

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Tags: Facebook, Foursquare, linkedin, Management, monitoring, social management, Social Media, social mentions, social monitoring, Twitter, Yelp