SocialBakers acquires EdgeRank Checker, moving into deep Facebook analytics

Social media analytics company SocialBakers has acquired EdgeRank Checker, a Chicago-based startup that helps marketers analyze how they’re doing on Facebook.

The acquisition comes just a few months after Prague-based SocialBakers closed a $26 million third round of investment led by Index Ventures.

“EdgeRank” is the name of the secretive Facebook algorithm that determines which of your friends’ (and favorite brands’) updates appear in your feed. If your friend seems surprised that you didn’t know about her new baby or her new car, blame EdgeRank.

EdgeRank is becoming an important tool for marketers. Facebook has been gradually reducing the number of brand messages that appear “organically” in people’s news feeds (i.e. without the brands paying for placement), and now brands can reach only 6 percent of their Facebook fans organically. To reach the rest, they must buy sponsored posts. Naturally, understanding EdgeRank is critical in that situation.

EdgeRank Checker “provides social marketers with deep insight into Facebook’s News Feed, optimizing a brand’s news feed engagement by measuring content performance over time, industry, and location,” according to a press release on the acquisition.

Competitors to EdgeRank Checker include Virtrue, PageLever, and numerous social media marketing analytics tools.

SocialBakers already counts half of the Fortune 500 among its clientele. EdgeRank Checker has a similarly lofty customer list, boasting that “700 of the Fortune 500 and leading media companies” are customers.

SocialBakers has more than 2,700 clients in 100 different companies, its press release states. It’s not clear how many of EdgeRank Checker’s customers are also SocialBakers customers, so the combined companies’ total customer list is still unknown.

The companies also did not disclose the terms of the acquisition.