One year ago, a Cassie Rice, the Founder, President and COO of Socialblaze was working in social media marketing and needed a tool to help her find out what people we’re saying about the brand she worked for. “There was no tool for that at the time. I need something to help me measure brand awareness,” says Rice.

One year later she launches Socialblaze, a social media intelligence application that helps companies measure and optimize their ROI. According to Rice, one of the main reasons why companies are unsure about venturing into the social media space is the inability to figure out if its worth it. She hopes her tools will ease more companies into the space.

Socialblaze provides companies with social media analytics such as pointing out effective posts and the most effective time to post. Socialblaze also provides a platform for companies to monitor all the online conversations about their brand, competitors and industry and analyze their engagement. Currently the service covers all of a company’s engagements on Facebook and Twitter, providing retweet counts and count up how many retweets.

The app itself provided more stats than we’ve seen elsewhere in a neater package. They notify you when you need to take action right away, say in response to a tweet or a Facebook message. Plus, they provide first time customers with a free trial, no credit card required.

So what Tweets do best? Those with a comical nature, according to Rice. And what about on Facebook? When people post pictures in addition to a link, the additional engagement really works, she says. Socialblaze isn’t monitoring Tumblr, YouTube, LinkedIn or Foursquare– yet.

Socialblaze, based in LA, currently services over 150 clients including Codeita, Marriage.com, Authetic Foods,  Southern California Public Radio, the 2nd largest radio station in Los Angeles.

Check out screen shots of the app below.