SAN FRANCISCO, CA and AUSTIN, TX — (Marketwire) — 03/08/13 — Building on top of their unique ability to determine personality and unique character traits from social media footprints, Whit.li today announces the simplest way yet for brands to understand the true composition of their social following. The “brands app” enables companies to compare follower segments based on their interests, media habits and attitudes.

“We know that in the future, social data is going to be a major resource for corporate decision-making. For too long, brands have relied on Focus Groups, Segmentation Studies, Ethnographic Studies and the like — all of which are extremely expensive, time consuming and notoriously misleading. Whit.li makes it possible and easy for our customers to tap into that data and extract the information they need about their customers to make decisions about media spend, market size, communication style, and more,” says Jack Holt, CEO of Whit.li. “This is the real payoff for social media investment.”

delves deep into a brand-s social media presence to determine a complete picture of who those people are. Multiple advanced technologies such as complex pattern matching algorithms and native language processing are employed in the analysis. The app delivers straightforward segmentation of user types — Rugged, Wholesome, Daring, Sophisticated and Reliable. Other segmentation models can be developed using the Whit.li API.

“To understand the value here, think about a company like Ford,” continues Holt. “They have multiple products, trying to appeal to different segments in the market. Until now, there-s been no way for them to compare the relative proportions of the rugged people (who might be more interested in trucks or SUV-s) to the more sophisticated people (who might be more interested in factors such as comfort or environmental impact).

“We can allow Ford to instantly understand several key items about each of their specific segments,” says Holt. These items include:

The media that they-re really engaged with, which enables a more effective media spend.

Other companies they-re engaged with, and where there may be partnership opportunities.

The interests they have and how they may affect product design decisions.

What types of communication styles will be most effective for each segment.

Try the app now at . Or stop by the Circus Mashimus Lounge for SxSWi to see it in action:

Developers can sign up for the API at

Founded in 2010, with offices in San Francisco and Austin, makes it possible and easy for Enterprises to realize an ROI from social data.

Whit.li:
Murray McKerlie
(512) 538-5340

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