"We're thrilled with the initial response to Jive Market Engagement from Jive customers, prospective customers and partners," said JIve Software's Ben Kiker (pictured) as Jive Market Engagement was announced - a new solution that combines the power of social media monitoring with Social Business Software (SBS) for the first time.

The Jive Market Engagement Solution, Kiker explained, is designed to help organizations proactively monitor brand or product issues and competitive threats; enable quick collaboration on appropriate responses or interventions; and elevate and broaden the social conversations with a company.

"The solution provides organizations a foundation to build a comprehensive social media strategy," he said.

Kiker continued:

"'Are we next?' is the question many companies are asking, wondering if and when their next brand disconnect will make its way to the social web. While organizations understand that these disconnects will occur, they want to move faster in the moment of pain or the moment of opportunity."

According to Jive only a small percentage of organizations use monitoring tools, while most companies rely on a patchwork of alerts, people, and email to stay on top of conversations.

"While these approaches may help organizations listen in on the river of conversations occurring across the social web, they certainly don't allow companies to measure, share and engage with insights in a productive and timely way," said Kiker.

Once they start using Jive Market Engagement (JME), he noted, then they can listen, measure, engage and share insights. "They'll be able to identify real-time issues, collaborate more quickly with a broader set of colleagues internally and ultimately more quickly and authentically engage in active dialogues with customers and influencers," continued Kiker.

Jive's Market Engagement Solution is available now for existing and new Jive customers as a service to build cloud-based communities, he added.

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