Networked Insights, a startup that helps marketers make media buys by analyzing cues from social networks like Facebook and Twitter, has raised a $20 million round led by Goldman Sachs (GS) Asset Management. That’s the same Goldman division that shopped around private shares of Facebook before media attention and government scrutiny forced them to take it back. In Networked Insights’s case, the Facebook connection is indirect. The company’s SocialSense platform looks at social data to help brands like Kraft, MTV, and Samsung figure out cost-effective media buys on TV, mobile, or social. But to differentiate from competitors like L.A.-based MarketShare, which also raised this year, AllThingsD reports that Networked Insights’ “pitch is that it’s particularly good at picking up cues from Web users on sites/networks like Facebook and Twitter.”
