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ICrossing launches social media monitoring app

For marketers keeping track of campaigns and brands, iCrossing has created Say What, an iPhone application to monitor social media sites.

Say What provides integrated search over the most popular social media sites such as Twitter and Digg, as well as thousands of forums and blogs. ICrossing said the application was created based on its own company?s needs.

?It was a tool we wanted to have for our own use,? said Rachel Pasqua, director of mobile strategy at iCrossing, New York. ?Being able to monitor relevant conversations was a pressing need for us, and as users built more and more apps, we didn?t see one that addressed our needs, so we built our own tool.?

ICrossing is a worldwide digital marketing agency that blends paid search, search engine optimization, Web development, social media, mobile, research and analytics. Some of the company?s clients include Toyota, Coca-Cola and Travelocity.

When the Say What application is open, iPhone users type in a keyword or phrase they are looking for and tap search. The application then pulls the most recent related mentions from Twitter and Digg, as well as various blogs and message forums across the Internet.

Right now there are no advertisements and no plans to monetize the application.

ICrossing created the application as a form of branding to let marketers know what kind of services the company can provide.

?We wanted to show ourselves and other people what we can do,? Ms. Pasqua said. ?We?re looking at the return on it as what we can learn from it, how it?s used, how it?s being talked about and the number of downloads.

?It?s an internal case study,? she said. ?We?re digital marketers and we?re appealing to digital marketers or anybody monitoring conversations in social networks and in social spaces.

?We think a lot of people on the agency side, digital marketers and people on the brand side who are monitoring conversations around keywords, brands and phrases will find this app useful.?

After a search is completed, the application displays what is being said, where it is being said and by whom.

With the application, users have the option to delve deeper into the responses of a particular source and a search history is saved so users can get updates on regularly-searched terms.

The application is being marketed through iCrossing?s social media networks and through word of mouth. Ms. Pasqua said that the company is taking a very grassroots approach.

Ms. Pasqua said that mobile social networking is very popular right now because social spaces have become part of consumers? everyday lives ? it is not something they stop doing when they leave the computer.

?We don?t live our daily lives on desktops,? Ms. Pasqua said. ?We live in the moment and mobile enables us to remain connected under those circumstances.

?Social and mobile are perfect enablers of each other,? she said.