MADISON, WI — (Marketwire) — 05/18/10 – Networked Insights, the leading social media analytics company, has launched SocialSenseTV, a new analytical listening platform tailored specifically to the television industry. This new offering acts as a complementary data source to traditional ratings metrics by examining social media conversations to help provide insight that leads to more targeted buying and more effective selling.

“A critical metric to gauge the value and potential of a TV program is found through social listening analytics,” said Sean Finnegan, president and chief digital officer at Starcom MediaVest Group. “With this new approach, we can assess a show’s trends, buzz factor and sentiments from user updates, references and communities.”

SocialSenseTV analyzes social media conversations to help track the online buzz around TV programming by tracking themes specific to celebrities and shows. The platform builds upon Networked Insight’s current SocialSense product which provides a focused look at the conversations and interactions happening online. This new television-specific offering is tailored for the TV industry through a highly targeted virtual community identified by Networked Insights’ team of analysts and client services professionals. Through this process of selecting sites that will capture the right conversations from the right people, SocialSenseTV ensures rich veins of conversation around TV are found.

“TV programming has changed significantly in recent years as content and conversation shifts online — media decision makers are realizing they need to tailor the ways they are measuring and analyzing audiences to fit this new world order,” said Dan Neely, founder and CEO of Networked Insights. “Online conversations represent a better understanding of the audience so it’s essential to capture the social chatter about given shows. We’re bridging the gap between old and new ways to measure audiences to help not only track ripple effects but also demonstrate how media buyers and sellers can use engagement to assess and create value.”

Also available today is Networked Insights free SocialSense TV report which includes social ratings to help inform TV upfront decisions. Access the full report here: http://networkedinsights.com/socialsensetv/report/.

Networked Insights will also begin offering SocialSenseTV custom reports featuring specialized research to address questions for a specific television show, campaign or product. The company’s in-house analysts and extensive agency partnerships are available to provide information and insights that traditional research methods have yet to deliver to the television industry.

About Networked Insights

Networked Insights fuels insights by evaluating, interpreting and discovering meaning from the millions of authentic conversations on the social web. SocialSense, the company’s social media listening platform, analyzes the chatter from the individuals and sites that matter most to a brand — sorting the important news from the trivial, thus helping advertisers and marketers make better strategic and tactical decisions. Unlike monitoring software, SocialSense shows its customers what’s hot, what’s new and what’s changed — without reading every post.

Founded in 2006, Networked Insights is a privately held company based in Madison, Wis., with offices in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. More information about Networked Insights can be found at http://www.networkedinsights.com.

Networked Insights technology diagrams and photo of CEO Dan Neely are available at http://networkedinsights.com/news/media

What works:

1. Sharing how-to information for free to your friends, fans and followers.
2. Leveraging social media as a customer service tool to answer people in real-time.
3. Listening to what people are saying about you or your brand.
4. Monitoring employee consensus about your company or organization.
5. Taking polls or surveys and collecting useful, timely data

What does not work:

1. Pitching, presenting or pushing the same products again and again.
2. Asking blanket questions like “how’s the weather” to start a conversation.
3. Trying be too hip and using techie jargon to seem “with-it”
4. Running fake promotions that you will never follow-thru on.
5. Posting infrequently and/or erratically, people need to see that you’re consistent.

A good social media campaign will be transparent, consistent and engaging. Most successful businesses using social media have a part-time resource helping to manage it. Many have full-time people, sometimes even teams of 3 and up. It really depends on your goals, your budget and your audience.

It should also be noted that much of what takes place on social media sites like Twitter and YouTube will get picked up by search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. This means that you are able to kill two birds with one stone. If done correctly, your website’s ranking in search engines will increase and thus create an added benefit for participating.

Survey respondents were asked about the top qualities they sought in their advertising and marketing agencies in the coming year. Based on the survey results a Top 10 Wish List for Agencies of the Future was created.

1. Greater knowledge of the digital space. With more than a third of marketers surveyed revealing that they are not confident that their current agency is well-positioned to take their brand through the unchartered waters of online digital marketing and interactive advertising, it’s clear that agencies need to have a greater knowledge of the digital space in order to thrive. In fact, nearly half (45 percent) of the respondents have switched agencies (or plan to switch in the next 12 months) for one with greater digital knowledge or have hired an additional digital specialist to handle their interactive campaigns. Further, when it comes to an agency’s area of expertise, 79% of respondents rated “interactive/digital” functions as ‘important/very important.’

2. More use of “pull interactions.” When trying to engage consumers with their brand, 90 percent of respondents agree that it is becoming increasingly important that their agency uses ‘pull interactions’ such as social media and online communities rather than traditional ‘push’ campaigns.

3. Leverage virtual communities. An overwhelming 94 percent of respondents expressed interest in leveraging virtual communities (public and private) to understand more about their target audience.

4. Agency executives using the technology they are recommending. Ninety-two percent of respondents said it was‘somewhat’ or ‘very’ important that agency employees use the technologies that they are recommending. For example, it is important that agency executives regularly use Facebook, Flickr, wikis, blogs, etc. in their personal social media mix.

5. Chief Digital Officers make agencies more appealing. Forty-three percent of marketers surveyed said that agencies with chief digital officers are more appealing than those without.

6. Web 2.0 and social media savvy. Sixty three percent of marketers surveyed said that an agency’s Web 2.0 and social media capabilities are ‘important/very important’ when it comes to agency selection.

7. Agencies that understand consumer behavior. Seventy-six percent of respondents deemed this as an ‘important/very important’ aspect of their agency’s online digital marketing and interactive advertising area of expertise.

8. Demonstrate strategic thinking. Seventy-seven percent of marketers surveyed ranked strategy/brain trust capabilities at the top of their agency wish list.

9. Branding and creative capabilities. Sixty-seven percent of respondents ranked branding at the top of their agency wish list while seventy-six percent ranked creative capabilities as ‘important/very important.’

10. Ability to measure success. It’s no surprise that marketers want an agency that can report on where campaigns succeeded, fell short and where they should be fine-tuned. Sixty-five percent ranked analytics at the top of their agency wish list.

Marketers want agencies that can deliver on these demands today – not by 2009 and beyond,” said Gaston Legorburu, chief creative officer, Sapient. “As the interactive channel becomes increasingly important, only those agencies that can create, manage and measure multi-channel campaigns will stay relevant and thrive in an uncertain economy. Marketers keep turning to agencies like Sapient to deliver more sophisticated, integrated digital marketing initiatives that truly deliver optimum levels of customer acquisition and retention.”