Is Social TV Ready for Primetime? Research Sheds New Light on TV and Social Media

amp8220Social TVamp8221 is all the rage or so it feels An estimated 40 of Twitter traffic during the prime time period is about television according to Wired Magazineamp8217s recent amp8220Platinum Age of Televisionamp8221 issue amp8220And thatamp8217s why some day in the near future a showamp8217s tweetability may be just as crucial as the sheer size of its audienceamp8221 writes WiredBut what role does social media really play in driving peopleamp8217s viewing behavior Is social TV amp8220the real dealamp8221 as some argue or is the industry making more of it than consumer behavior would suggest it shouldAt the ARFamp8217s recent Audience Measurement 80 conference Beth Rockwood SVP of Discovery Communications and Richard Zackon from the Council for Research Excellence CRE shared results from an ambitious research program that sheds new important light on the topic We at the Keller Fay Group were pleased to be part of the multipronged research team that produced the study amp8220Talking Social TVamp8221 together with Nielsenamp8217s Life360 and NM Incite units and Bluefin LabsThis research goes well beyond a simple survey asking people how much they engage in social media when it comes to TV It also goes beyond tracking statistics about the number of posts on Twitter or Facebook which are unable to provide context for understanding where social media fits relative to other influences that could lead people to watch showsThis new research is based on a sample of more than 1700 consumers ages 1854 who kept track of all their exposures to prime time television and the late local news for a one week period via the use of a diary that could be accessed via a mobile app Any respondents who were not smartphone enabled were provided one so that they could participate The 1700 respondents provided data about more than 25000 interactions they had with television programs both while they were watching and at times when they were not watching Among the contact points they reported to us were social media both posts they made and those they saw talking offline to others about a show reading an article or blog about a show IM or texting about a show seeing an ad or promo etc This methodology provides a rich deep ability to understand social media in a way that has been heretofore looked at primarily in isolation from other factorsHow Many Use Social Media to Interact with TVHere is the key finding from the research The belief that social media is ubiquitous or nearly so is unfounded at least at present When it comes to direct influence on their TV viewing only 15 of respondents report being drawn to TV viewing occasions because of social media But it is important to note that number increases to 6 when it comes to their decision to watch new showsFurther consumer interaction with social media in relation to their television viewing is relatively modest compared to other forms of communication and lags behind other online media TV promotions and especially offline communication More specifically only 12 of respondents use social media one or more times per day for content related to TVSource Keller Fay Group amp8220Talking Social TV Understanding the Effects of Social Media ampamp Television Viewingamp8221 for the Council for Research Excellence 2013 A greater number amp8211 37 use social media at least once a week to engage with TV suggesting growth potential for social media as an influence on TV viewing if these infrequent users become more frequent over timeAmong the other key findings from this study Social media use varies by genre SciFi Sports and TalkNews show strong interaction overall Reality programming39s interaction is much stronger while people are watching less so before or after the program Comedy follows the opposite pattern with less interaction during the program and more interaction in reaction to the program Hispanics are more involved with social media than the general population While watching TV Hispanics are 50 more likely to interact with social media related to television and to interact with most television genres led by sports programming People who own mobile devices smartphones and tablets have higher social media interaction with TVThe results from this extensive research were integrated with data from various other sources such as Nielsen ratings data and data about TV promos by an academic team who created a statistical model that looks further at the role of social media in driving television viewing Those results will be discussed in my next post on this researchStay tunedEd Keller CEO of the Keller Fay Group has been called quotone of the most recognized names in word of mouthquot His new book The FacetoFace Book Why Real Relationships Rule in a Digital Marketplace was recently published by Free PressSimon ampamp Schuster You can follow Ed Keller on Twitter Facebook and Google or contact him directly at ekellerkellerfaycomRead all Edamp8217s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at WOM MattersCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentariesImage courtesy of JanPietruszkaFreeDigitalPhotosnet

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