PR Newswire has launched a new intelligence tool that monitors and analyses and measures the impact of what is being said across the social media landscape. Social Media Metrics monitors over 20 million blogs, 5 million forum posts, and 30,000 online news sources, social networks and microblogs including Twitter.

"Blogs, message boards and discussion threads can reveal invaluable information about how messages are resonating, what customers are saying about an organisation, who is supporting a brand, and when crisis situations are developing," said Allison Murphy, product manager for PR Newswire's monitoring and measurement services.

Social Media Metrics provides information through a series of tools. Its Authority Score can reveal the impact of a blog or social media network; the Top Topics Report identifies the most frequently discussed topics; and the Sentiment Report establishes whether discussions are positive, neutral or negative. The latter can create alerts that isolate negative mentions and warn the user that a potential crisis may be building.