Commentary
Measuring Link Between TV And Social Media
- by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, May 19, 2015
Some TV executives have seen a big connection between social media and TV program engagement. Still, you can find many critics dismissing what impact social media can have on TV viewing, saying that
the majority of content is coming from a skewed source -- just millennials.
In a recent study, …
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Wayne Friedman is West Coast Editor of MediaPost. You can reach Wayne at wayne@mediapost.com.
It is likely too obvious to gauge older-skewing shows with a younger-skewing social media tool. Even more obvious is that millennials won't be young forever.
It doesn't necesarily follow that the volume of tweeting about a particular telecast is absolutely predictive of its national appeal----but, as I pointed out in another discussion on the subject, were I in charge of programming at a TV network or cable channel, I would certainly look at such data. In reality, the actual number of tweets per telecast is fairly small---a few exceptions duly noted----and most of the tweeters are under 40, with better educations----which, in most cases, makes them aytpical.
It may still be that such data has predictive values---regarding trends in appeal and audience forecasting----but tweets are not even close to being a substitute for the ratings and other long-established anayltical disciplines. They are merely an interesting research add-on.
It's important to recognize that Social TV has an important link to OTT near-live consumption as well as live TV tune-in. While the live clipping market has been slower to develop than I might have predicted a couple of years ago, clips from in-process live shows have surely provided a boost to live tune-in but also plenty of near-live views that are just as valuable. The numbers are small today but the Periscope & Meerkat phenomena are proving out a radically new model for driving tune-in as well. We run a consumer tracking survey on this topic, search for the "SocialTV Index" to find it.