A new site called Wetpaint has developed a way to measure engagement of audience online rather than just traditional viewing audience. Wetpaint touts its TV Fandex as the first measurement tool to measure a TV shows online engagement. Wetpaint will use sources like Facebook, Google, Twitter and other Wetpaint fan sites to gauge the TV Fandex of each show.

Shows like NBC’s “Chuck” did not necessarily have great ratings, but online buzz and a Twitter campaign by fans of the show #savechuck gave the show new life. It persuaded NBC to give the show a partial 3rd season. The new TV Fandex plans to measure this type of online fan engagement.

The tool could be a useful tool for marketers and media buyers and planners when used as a complementary tool to traditional TV ratings. Wetpaint’s Fandex could help make planning decisions like whether or not an online pre-roll buy could be used in a campaign- seeing that most commonly online buzz mirrors with some online viewing.