Every week in connected, we talk about the evolution of the media business. My goal is to give you takeaways that help you to improve and evolve your approach to content and revenue development.

Getting to know your market is everything, whether you are in content/programming or sales. This week, I’d like to share some of today’s best digital resources for visualizing your market. These sites can help you get to know your market and “paint a picture” for your programming team and buyers alike:

1. Interactive Map for 2010 Census Data
See your market population with an interactive county-by-county map that uses the latest census data. This is a great tool for mapping your market’s white/Hispanic/Black population, whether you are mapping for programming or sales purposes.

Try it yourself.

2. Income, Education, Culture, Religion, and More
Want to know how much stimulus money hit the counties in your market? Perhaps you’d like to map the percent of homes in your market earning over $200k (and how you compare to the rest of the country)? These are free qualitative research resources for your sales department—excellent mapping tools to help you tell a story about your market.

Use them.

3. Local Trending Topics
In 2011, you can ALWAYS chart the “buzz” topics in your market. Every morning show should bookmark this page.

You can zoom in on your market and see which topics are trending on twitter in your market right now.

Also, see what people in your market are searching for on Google, by using Google Insights.

Also, keep an eye on connected for info-graphics that help you to visualize and understand the shifting media marketplace. Over the last two weeks, we’ve shared information on the state of social networking and growth of Facebook.