Next week, Waggener Edstrom will launch its twendz pro service, a professional version of its free Twitter analysis tool that combines influencer analysis with strategic insights to show businesses the ongoing impact of their brand online.

Twendz allows users to measure and identify the tone of conversations taking place on Twitter free-of-charge, and the pro version adds a deeper level of insight for a fee.

This will be the second in a suite of data analysis tools and services Waggener Edstrom has created in house to help clients quickly and easily harness the power of social media. But what makes it so different from the vast amount of other tools on the market?

“Many tools provide standard metrics and reports, but the twendz pro service delivers analytics for Twitter by allowing you to filter the tweet stream in many different ways to find just the tweets you’re looking for. Software tools can provide you with information and graphs, but that’s just the start. The WE twendz pro service shows you where influence begins and where engagement happens,” said Kirsty Leighton, Vice President of Waggener Edstrom and Head of Client Development.

But does this tool really provide any extra insight that one of the hundreds of free tools out there can’t? Waggener Edstrom compares paid-for with free services on its ‘Thinkers and Doers’ blog; “it’s always fun to do the vanity search on your Twitter handle and see how you compare. One challenge, however, is in the automated input back to you based on your score — it is a bit too generic to provide strategic and applicable value. Plus, knowing that Perez Hilton, Ashton Kutcher and other celeb types are influential probably isn’t going to help your average business engage with its customers, partners or clients.”

The agency then goes on to talk about the tool’s ‘emotion-gauging’ feature (also known as sentiment analysis) as well as the ability to rank the most influential tweeters according to a specific topic. The idea that is that businesses will be able to get a better idea of what they need to do in order to make the most of marketing or communications activities.

The software on its own costs $150 a month, but really, the value lies in the reporting and consultancy that the agency is wrapping around the tool – which takes the investment up to $350.