Toluna Empowers Brands to Engage Facebook 'Fans' to Gain Valuable Insight

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Sep 15, 2011, 09:48 ET

LONDON, England, September 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Toluna, the world's leading provider of online sample and survey technology, announces the launch of PanelPortal Connect - the integration of its pioneering online panel community management platform PanelPortal within Facebook.

Built on cutting-edge software and a decade's experience in panel and community management, PanelPortal Connect transforms the value of Facebook fan data through the addition of rich profiling information. This enables brands to tap into a hitherto dormant source of reliable, in-depth customer insight.

In practice, PanelPortal Connect enables brands to invite their Facebook 'fans' to join a branded panel community, hosted within their Facebook fan page. The fans, or indeed any Facebook user, can register, complete their profile information, then take part in polls, surveys, discussions, blogs, onsite activities and more - without ever having to leave the popular social media site. This offer's brands a new channel for fast, easy, cost-effective research to support strategic and tactical decision-making.

Commented, Frederic-Charles Petit, Founder and CEO, Toluna,

"PanelPortal Connect represents a revolution in the application of research within Facebook. Now, Brand Managers, Marketers and Insight Professionals can truly engage with their Facebook fans in an environment where they feel comfortable. This is in line with Toluna's strategy of ensuring the relevance of products and reflecting the needs of the market through emersion in social media."

PanelPortal Connect offers a number of advanced features to optimise the value of insights generated. These include: software to help manage fans' activity, profiles, discussions and more; an easy-to-navigate system for exporting survey results and packaging data into meaningful reports; with the option to implement an extended profile for survey targeting.

Added Mark Simon, Global Leader Technology Practice, Toluna

"Brands that already have a proprietary online panel or community can use PanelPortal Connect to turbo-charge their recruitment. Those who do not can now leverage their fan page on Facebook to engage with consumers in a deeper, more meaningful way - going beyond quickpolls to gain valuable insights."

About Toluna

Toluna combines its online market research panel with industry-leading research technology, enabling organisations to generate valuable customer insight by surveying their target audience quickly and cost effectively. It's popular social voting community site Toluna.com has 4 million members and collects more than 1 million poll votes and opinions a day across 34 countries.

Toluna has offices in the UK, US, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Israel, Romania, India, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Canada.