Nielsen Hopes Social Networking Whores Could Use One More ... for Data's Sake

You'd probably feel like an ass if you were tracking all kinds of data about the mountain-moving power of social networks without actually doing anything about it. And because it's in just that position, Nielsen is finally jumping aboard the buzz train.

The company has just sent us a beta invitation to Hey! Nielsen, a very late attempt to lavish in the data that MySpace and Facebook are swimming in.

We're still kind of tooling around with it. For obvious (er, metric-oriented) reasons, members are invited to air their views about movies, music, TV shows, online destinations and celebrity personalities.

And here's the Hey! Nielsen value-add: unlike with "other" social networks, the viewpoints of Hey! Nielsen's valued members may be "shared directly with key decision makers in the entertainment industry."

"We have every intention of making sure Hey! Nielsen members are heard," stated the company in an email to us.

The site opens to the public this 24th. Here's to hoping people will fall in love with it and participate obsessively, so marketers won't have to pay MySpace for stats that Nielsen will have to turn into palatable data anyway. We'll totally ignore the fact that MySpace has a head start comprised of years, and millions on millions on millions of users.