• by Wayne Friedman , September 15, 2014

Social media and its connection with TV networks and brands keeps growing: Now 84% of smartphone and tablet users in the U.S. watch TV with a second screen.

Nielsen Social says when it comes to brands and people and using social media in conjunction with TV networks, some general trends have become clear when it comes to key advertising categories.

For “wireless network” advertising/brands the top “affinity” scores go to many sports networks: NFL Network (2.7), Adult Swim (2.7), CNN (2.5), WGN America (2.5), and NBA TV (2.4) get high marks. The average for all TV networks in this category is a 2.0 score.

Looking at other brand types: For “personal care” advertisers, young viewing networks did well: Adult Swim (2.8), Nickelodeon (2.7), E! (2.6), Teen Nick (2.6), and Oxygen (2.5) had the best results. The average here among all TV networks was a 2.0.

Household product brands earned the best marks with those networks heavy into reality TV shows. Here A&E (2.7), VH1 (2.5), FX (2.5), E! (2.4), and BET (2.4) did well. The average among all networks in this category was a 1.9 number.

Nielsen Social results were based on 100,000 “affinity” uniques from January to June of this year.