For decades, Nielsen ratings were the industry standard for determining television ratings. However, in today's ever-shifting media landscape, the ratings--which are collected from either carefully targeted self-reported viewer "diaries" or Set Meters installed on select television sets--are becoming increasingly obsolete. As consumers increasingly shift towards viewing television online, new measurements must be developed to capture this burgeoning dynamic. Analytics firm Networked Insights has concocted a particularly relevant measurement for today's day and age, its SocialSenseTV network ratings. SocialSenseTV monitors "billions of interactions from millions of blogs, forums and other sources" to determine how much social media buzz television shows are generating. They've just released their top 20 list, which is topped by...drum roll please...Lost, a show that only ranks 10th in the Nielsen ratings.

Data like this confirms the obvious: the Nielsen ratings are increasingly becoming an outmoded analytical tool. Looking at the shows in the SocialSenseTV top 20 list, more than half aren't in the Nielsen top 20 list. Shows like The Simpsons, Heroes, Saturday Night Live, and 30 Rock all appear in SocialSenseTV's top 10, but none of them enjoy a Nielsen rating above a 35.

Why the disparity? Many of the shows on the SocialSenseTV list seem to skew younger and geekier, whereas the shows on the Nielsen list are mostly broad primetime fair. There's probably a generational gap opening up here, with young 30 Rock fans naturally gushing about their favorite show on social media outlets more than older CSI fans. Indeed, looking at both the Nielsen Network top 20 list and Broadcast 18-49-year-olds top 20 list for the week of May 3, several shows conspicuously place high on the first and do not appear on the later: CSI, NCIS, The Good Wife, etc. Basically, lots of grandpas are napping to crime stories on the boob-tube while lots of kids are watching Glee on Megavideo.

For the time being, the Nielsen ratings still capture the most value. But, as the population ages and the average age of social media and internet use grows, new metrics like SocialSenseTV will come to play an increasingly prominent role in understanding how people interact with media. You may be number ten to Nielsen, Lost, but you're number one for a lot of other people.