Neilson has long had a stronghold on TV viewer data and people have been filling out their surveys and attaching their measurement devices to their TVs for years. Now that social media’s becoming a bigger and bigger part of the media conversation, however, Neilson’s had to adapt to a new genre of measurement. Enter: Neilson Twitter TV Ratings.

Any company who advertises on TV or pays attention to TV-related rankings for marketing purposes is going to find this new data interesting, at the very least. The jury’s still out on how effective and accurate the rankings really are, but in the meantime, here are a few things you should know:

Are Twitter/TV Conversations Increasing?

Part of the reason Neilson’s jumping onto the Twitter bandwagon is the incredible growth this sector is showing. In the second quarter of 2013 alone over 263 million Tweets regarding TV habits were sent. Year-over-year, that’s a 38% increase in overall TV tweet volume which bears paying attention to. Currently, Neilson’s only monitoring 215 English-language programs, but plan on adding more in the near future.

What Exactly is Being Measured?

Neilson measures TV Tweets in several different ways that advertisers and media experts may find useful. First, they measure the actual number of Tweets and “Authors” surrounding any given show, say, “2,000,000 Tweets about the Breaking Bad finale” and “872,000 Authors of Breaking Bad finale Tweets.” Additionally, Neilson’s also monitoring the estimated “Audience” for these Tweets along with the estimated number of impressions.

How Does Neilson Measure That?

Neilson has an interesting system down that involves multipliers. In general, the audience for any given Tweet subject is about 50 times larger than the number of authors Tweeting about it. That means if 1,000 people are Tweeting about Glee, about 50,000 people are seeing those Tweets. This is particularly helpful information for ad planners and buyers.

What Does This Mean for Brands?

There are a lot of ways brands can use this information to their advantage. By knowing which show’s Twitter fans are the most active, a brand can plan a live engaging Twitter campaign. Never before have brands had so much insight into exactly what their target market is saying and talking about at any given time, or such an opportunity to insert themselves.

Who’s Using Twitter to Real-Time Tweet So Far?

Some companies have really driven the surge in real-time Twitter advertising. You may remember during the Superbowl Blackout earlier in the year when Oreo hastily scrapped together a fantastic Twit pic referencing the blackout and shot it out to its followers. That’s powerful marketing. There are a lot of implications for sporting events in particular, and in promotional tie-ins during shows that are shown to be big Twitter draws.

It’s yet to be seen exactly how the Neilson Twitter TV Rankings will impact the marketing sphere and TV programming. One thing’s for sure, though, and that’s that advertising is changing in ways the Mad Men could have never anticipated.

Ryan Currie is a product manager at www.BizShark.com, with 5 years experience in online marketing and product development. In addition to web related businesses, he also enjoys the latest news and information on emerging technologies and open source projects.