Awareness Recognized as a Strong Performer by Leading Independent Research Firm

WALTHAM, MA--(Marketwire - January 12, 2009) - Awareness, Inc., the social media marketing company, today announced that Forrester has named the company as a strong performer in the January 2009 report The Forrester Wave: Community Platforms, Q1 2009, an assessment of the state of the community platform market and how each of the leading vendors stack up against each other.

Awareness, who builds online communities for companies who want to leverage social media marketing to engage with their customers, build their brand and increase revenues, was among the select companies that Forrester invited to participate in its Q1 2009 Forrester Wave report. In this evaluation, Awareness' personal top scores were for leadership, breadth of offering, data and social features in the Awareness on-demand Social Media Marketing Platform.

Although Forrester considers there to be more than 90 vendors in the community platform space, Forrester filtered this list to only include 9 vendors, like Awareness, that offer strategy, education, implementation, support and analytics services to brands. These companies were included in this list due to their healthy growth, established experience serving large brands and companies and their focus on interactive marketers, which Forrester views as the likely adopters for community platforms to create public, brand-sponsored communities.

"It's an honor to have our leadership, a category in this Wave, and hard work be recognized by Forrester," said John Bruce, CEO of Awareness. "This news combined with our launch of Sony's online community, which was announced this week during CES, is a very exciting way for us to kick off the New Year. Awareness is poised to continue creating innovative solutions to help marketers tap into the benefits of social media, and we're looking forward to continuing to deliver these in 2009."

Connect with Awareness:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/awareness

Facebook: Join our Social Media Marketing Best Practices (http://tinyurl.com/9ycpzf) and Social Media Marketing Mavens (http://tinyurl.com/7j7uop) Groups

LinkedIn: Join our Social Media Marketing Mavens Group (http://tinyurl.com/7vrnpv)

Blog: Participate in the Awareness Online Community and Blog (http://www.awarenessnetworks.com/community.asp)

About Awareness

Awareness builds online communities for companies who want to leverage social media marketing to engage with their customers, build their brand, and increase revenues. An early leader in enterprise social media, Awareness works with some of the world's most respected companies, including Kodak, McDonald's, Procter & Gamble, and Hershey's, to transform their marketing and create deeper relationships with customers. The Awareness solution features an on-demand Social Media Marketing Platform that combines user-generated content and social networking with security and control. Awareness also provides strategic guidance, best practices, and expert services to design, implement, and manage social communities.

Backed by Greylock Partners and NorthBridge Venture Partners, Awareness is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Contact Information: Media Contact Jennifer Gazin or Virginia Zimpel awareness(at)launchsquad(dot)com 415.625.8555 Awareness Contact Mike Lewis mike.lewis(at)awarenessnetworks(dot)com Twitter: @bostonmike