Buddy Media and comScore are partnering to provide mutual clients improved measurement for social marketing campaigns. The move combines the former’s social media marketing tools with comScore’s audience-tracking service geared to social media. The companies have agreed to integrate comScore’s panel-based data into the Buddy Media product suite to allow “seamless social marketing optimization and performance measurement.”

In addition to bolstering their own social media properties, the joint offering promises to help clients gauge the impact of “earned media” through metrics such as reach and frequency, demographics, online behavior and benchmarking of competitive brands in the social landscape.

Buddy Media clients now have the option to upgrade to the premium service that includes comScore measurement. In a blog post today, Buddy Media CEO Mike Lazerow pointed out that the alliance with comScore for now is focused on Facebook. He also noted the initiative is aimed at big brands, requiring clients to have at least 500,000 Facebook fans “to make the data actionable and relevant.” Over time, the goal is to extend the combined service to Twitter and other social networks.