​​Nielsen released its first-ever Twitter TV ratings report Monday, rolling out a new service that the ratings company says will give advertisers and networks a clearer picture of the breadth and depth of the conversation people are having about individual shows on the social media platform.

The new report will highlight two basic data points: how many individual Twitter users are posting about a particular show, and how many people in the broader Twitter community see those posts.

For example, Nielsen says 98,600 Twitter users created posts during ABC’s two-hour season premiere of “Grey’s Anatomy,” a small sliver of the 9.3 million people who watched the broadcast. But while fewer than 100,000 people tweeted about the show, they created 225,000 original posts between them, and those were seen by 2.8 million individual Twitter accounts, a much larger reach than the number of people actively Tweeting about the show would initially suggest.

At least some of those Twitter users could then go back and watch that show on demand through a streaming service, a major selling point as Twitter tries to convince networks and Madison Avenue that it should be the second screen of choice in the rapidly evolving TV industry.

Twitter has been aggressively pursuing the TV industry in recent weeks, announcing a broad partnership with CBS to sell video ads in Tweets across all of The Eye’s properties. When announcing its initial public offering last week, Twitter leaned heavily on its potential usefulness to the TV industry as a selling point to investors.

The CBS partnership is just one of several that Twitter has forged in its battle with Facebook, its main competitor for TV advertisers’ dollars. The social networking company has also announced deals with MTV and the NFL.

The AP reported Monday that this weekend’s NFL game between the Cincinnati Bengals and New England Patriots showed exactly how such deals play out in real time:

Minutes after Cincinnati cornerback Adam Jones intercepted New England’s Tom Brady, ending the quarterback’s streak of 52 games with a touchdown pass, the NFL posted a video clip on Twitter. The clip shows Jones bobbling, and then snagging the ball before it hits the ground.

The 32-second clip was prefaced by an 8-second video ad for a Verizon Droid mobile phone. “Adam Jones ends the Pats undefeated season, Brady’s TD streak AND a rainstorm. With 1 INT,” the league tweeted.

But Twitter still has a long way to go to prove to advertisers that the platform is worth their money.

The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that ad buyers think Twitter just doesn’t have enough of a user base yet to appeal to mass-market clients. Facebook, it seems, is still seen as a more useful destination for ad spending: while 22 percent of U.S. internet users are on Twitter, 72 percent check Facebook at least once a month.

One potential saving grace for Twitter, according to the Journal? It’s heavy base of celebs, talent and stars. Many of the most active Twitter users are also highly influential, making them very attractive to advertisers.

Those celebs have inspired Twitter and Nielsen to make one future tweak to their new Twitter TV Ratings product: Nielsen is already planning a future iteration that distinguishes when a star Tweets about their own show versus a member of the general population. The point? To see which cast members are more influential in spreading a message about the show than others.

Read more: The New York Times, AP, The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company.

Brief Take: Networks and advertisers are clamoring for better data that can help them adjust to the brave new worlds of second screens and Social TV. If Twitter and Nielsen prove they’ve got a solid product, it could go a long way towards helping Twitter win the battle over Facebook as TV’s official second screen.

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