Nielsen has made it official- Multi-tasking across screens, particularly while watching TV, is now the norm. With US Smartphone penetration on pace to reach 80% next year (Asymco) and 2012 tablet sales of 136 million units, the era of Social TV has arrived.
A good example is the UK, where 40% of Twitter traffic during peak time is about TV programs. Two resources released this month, a twenty page booklet (available with registration) from Twitter and an infographic from Uberflip, suggest that social TV viewing and multi-tasking has already changed the TV business model. Maintaining engagement with consumers while they are on Facebook (Coca Cola, MTV, Disney, Red Bull, Comverse and Starbucks each have more than 33 million Fans is a good start but may be missing the point. American consumers spend 3x the amount of time watching television. The question brands need to answer in 2013- What's Your Social TV Strategy?
Levi Shapiro is a Partner at TMT Strategic Advisors, a research and strategy firm focusing on the technology, media and telecom sectors. He can be reached at levi@tmtstrat.com or via twitter: @levshapiro
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