The firm said that the MD role was a newly created position within a strengthened management structure and reflects the “rapid growth of the business”.

Trufflenet started out in 2006 as Newscounter, a company that served as a ‘right to reply service’ for organisations that felt that they had been misrepresented by the media. This evolved into the Trufflenet social media monitoring technology, which collects digital intelligence about clients before running it through a human analysis team.

Nigel Clarke, the firm’s executive chairman, said: “We are delighted to have recruited Ed Chatham to Trufflenet at a time of exciting growth for the company. Ed’s experience at Harris Interactive will enable Trufflenet to continue to provide strategic intelligence to help companies make sense of consumer insights online.”

Earlier in his career Chatham has worked for Nielsen Online and Kantar Media.