Customer-management software supplier,

Salesforce.com

, announced earlier this week its acquisition of social media monitoring specialist

Radian6

.

The company aims to enhance its product lines through the use of Radian6’s social media integration. It says the acquisition will allow the company to boost its fiscal 2012 revenue by about $45 million to $50 million.

Salesforce’s latest acquisition is seen as an endorsement of the growth and importance of social media monitoring within

CRM

.

Commenting on the news, Andrew Yates, CEO at web-based marketing intelligence solutions provider, Artesian Solutions, said, “The acquisition by Salesforce.com of Radian6 – hot on the heels of a half a dozen other such announcements recently of social media companies being acquired – really validates why social CRM is a stellar growth market which Gartner estimates will be worth $ 1.1 billion this year.

“[This acquisition] will be an interesting one in terms of the collision of two cultures – Radian6 come from the marketing and PR camp – Salesforce from the Enterprise software world of Oracle and Siebel.”

Salesforce.com purchase of Radian6 is expected to be closed in May.