• by Wayne Friedman , October 11, 2011

Social media may be big with young people -- but not when it comes to social talking about all things television.

For example, while people under 18 years of age make up the biggest social media group at 34% of the entire social media population, they represent the smallest group in talking about television-related topics on social media sites -- just 12%, per new analysis for NM Incite and The Nielsen Company. (Those under 18 are 16% of the U.S. online population).

By way of comparison, older U.S. social media users ages 25-34 -- who comprise 17% of the social media population, the next-smallest group --represent a 29% share of the entire population on sites talking about TV. Those 35-49 are the biggest group of people talking about TV on social media, at 30%. That group represents 27% of the overall social media population.

Social media and television data roughly follows day-to-day TV ratings, general interest and start up dates of TV shows. For example, social TV buzz is highest on weekdays -- and Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in particular. This drops off on the weekend. Tuesday and Wednesday each pull in 17% of 7.3 million messages written about 255 TV shows.

TV shows have the highest buzz in May, when many shows have their season -- or series -- finales, at a 9.5% share. January is also a busy time of year -- with a 9.3% share -- when TV networks start up new original shows or episodes, coming right after the end of-the-year holidays when many networks are in rerun or holiday special programming mode.

Social TV buzz is high in September -- at 9.1% of all social media messaging, coming right before many TV shows debut. What are viewers talking about? According to the research, the biggest topic is "winning." (The analysis did not elaborate.) That topic pulled in a 14% share of messages; "entertaining" subjects were next, 11%, followed by "funny" subjects at 10%; and "physical attractiveness" topics with a 9% share.