Navigating Social Media:
Attentio Launches Brand Dashboard Version 2.0.

New tool helps marketers find their way in blogs, forums and social networks. The Attentio™ Brand Dashboard is an online subscription-based service that uses charts and graphs to visualize buzz trends and provides detection of emerging events by source, topic and region.

Brussels, February 12, 2007 – 2006 was the year of the blogger, and with the number of Web logs estimated to reach a new peak of 100 million this year, companies can no longer afford to ignore them. This, coupled with the ever increasing number of social media phenomena such as YouTube and MySpace, makes it difficult for enterprises to keep up to date with what people write about them online. In response, Attentio has now launched Attentio™ Brand Dashboard.

The Attentio™ Brand Dashboard supports marketers in monitoring the impact of their PR and marketing activities. By measuring ‘buzz’ and word-of-mouth in social and mainstream media in relation to their own and competitor’s products, the Attentio™ Brand Dashboard helps marketers protect and grow their online brands. Companies receive automated, near real-time reporting of buzz and demographics from blogs, forums and news. The more user-friendly version 2.0 was launched this week. It now includes a more comprehensive set of sources, plus new analytical features.

“The need to monitor brands in social media has become vital for companies,” said Attentio CEO, Simon McDermott. “There is now a critical mass of influential bloggers and forum users sharing their opinions. These opinions shape perceptions and buying decisions every day. Companies can’t control the messages any more, but the tools are there to help them understand how they are discussed and how they measure up against competitors.” In recent research on the topic, analyst group Forrester Research identifies the need for such brand monitoring and says that companies should have a strategy for this.

The recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2007) in Las Vegas was one of the first major trade events to fully acknowledge the power of social media by treating bloggers like members of the press. “And so they should,” said Attentio, co-founder and executive director Per Siljubergsåsen. “Not only can we gain valuable insights from bloggers, they are often disproportionately influential in determining a new product’s market acceptance or campaign’s success.”

Tracking from the Brand Dashboard shows that the overall CES blog buzz winner was Microsoft with blogs about Zune, IP TV and Vista. The iPhone propelled Apple into second place even though they didn’t show at the event. Some of the topics that featured heavily in blogs about iPhone and CES included the high cost of the iPhone, the success of Cingular in negotiating an agreement with Apple and the sleek design in comparison with other phones at the show.”

About Attentio: Founded by Simon McDermott and Per Siljubergsåsen in 2004, Attentio has been at the forefront of the emerging online intelligence market in Europe. Operating from Brussels, its central location enables it to support corporate and SME clients throughout Europe. The Attentio™ Brand Dashboard is used to monitor, benchmark, and analyze mainstream and social media such as blogs and forums in one web-based platform. It provides comprehensive real-time insight into consumer interests and attitudes.

Contact Information:
Name: Simon McDermott
Tel.: +32 (0) 22113470
Addr.: mBrussels Village, Rue des Palais 44, B-1030 Brussels
Mail: response@attentio.com
Web: www.attentio.com