Investigating social media and blogs is becoming an ever more important area for research, with tools already in place by Comscore, O&M via Technorati and Buzzlogic. Now comes another development, this time by market researchers Umbria. They investigate consumer generated media (CGM) to provide clients with a subscription based blog measurement tool called MediaSense Blog Measurement that attempts to assess the impact of online consumer conversations on their brands. (more…)

Comscore Networks and Federated Media are getting together to develop a measurement model for conversational media. These blogs and community driven sites are responsible for much brand awareness online which up to now has been difficult and controversial to measure. Federated Media represents over 100 conversational media sites like Digg, Protrade, BoingBoing and Dooce. (more…)

Ogilvy in the US is linking up with blog aggregating and indexing service Technorati to let clients tap into blogs, and other user generated content (UGC). The agency has already used blogs for Cisco, IBM and SAP. The alliance with Technorati is called the Technorati Conversational Marketing System.

Ogilvy will work with Technorati to bring together tools and strategies enabling clients to syndicate content, engage in online conversations and build relationships with online communities relevant to their brands. (more…)