A YEAR to the day after being formed, digital media company B-Smark has launched a public beta of its first product, an online service that lets people attach an emotional tag to content on social networks. The company has also beefed up its advisory board with experienced marketers and entrepreneurs.

MySmark is the company’s first product, a digital “smart mark” people can use on friends, links, posts, photos, events and videos that have been posted on social networks. The service is initially available for Facebook and Twitter, with other social platforms planned.

“The ‘Like’ button for interacting with content is anonymous – MySmark is a layer above that,” says B-Smark co-founder Nicola Farronato.

Users create their profile at MySmark.com, with an individual smart mark in the form of a flower-shaped widget consisting of 32 emotions. They can then register any of those moods about a piece of content and share it online.

Farronato says the attraction for a brand, product or service is that they can use smart marks to get market feedback in real time.

MySmark’s beta launch was intended to coincide with the company’s first birthday yesterday but the timing has an added dimension. TechCrunch is reporting that Facebook is planning a more granular version of its Like button, adding Read, Listened, Watched, and Want features.

“Brands are hugely interested in this but they know this binary ‘Like’ is the crudest form of commentary from a consumer,” says Noel Toolan, an international marketing consultant who has worked with brands including Diageo, the UN, Remy Cointreau, VHI and Iona Technologies.

“Anything that can measure the emotional connection from a consumer is of huge interest.”

Toolan was a judge in the NDRC LaunchPad Lift Off competition won by B-Smark in May. He was “blown away” by the proposition and has joined the company’s advisory board. Also joining are Prof Piero Formica and Richard Bendis, founding president of Innovation America.

Prof Formica established the International Entrepreneurship Academy and has held posts at universities worldwide. He leads an international research team on start-ups with NUI Maynooth.