TV Becomes Major Driver of Social Activity [Study]

TV conversations have migrated to social, with Twitter leading the pack during live broadcast time, according to a new study from ShareThis.

The company’s “Social TV Research Study” shows that TV drives 11 percent of online sharing. And on average, 16 percent of viewers share about the shows they watch.

Reality shows garner the most sharing, while streaming series from platforms like Netflix draw 2.1 times more social engagement than broadcast shows.

“[Streaming services like Netflix] have released a handful of very well-received series in the past year alone, drawing plenty of excitement and engagement from their audiences,” says Vivien Pillet, head of research at ShareThis. “This is also compounded by the fact that the movement toward non-linear TV is, in and of itself, generating a lot of attention and social buzz.”

During live broadcast time, the majority of sharing activity takes place on Twitter, followed by Facebook and Reddit, according to the study. This may be because Twitter has been actively trying to build a second-screen experience for TV shows, such as the most recent initiative Twitter TV Timelines, says Pillet.

Image Credit: ShareThis

“[And] the Twitter newsfeed, as a social platform, really lends itself toward the timely, snappy engagement we see during broadcast,” he adds.

The study also reveals that social activity helps drive TV viewership, as users who click on shared TV-related content are 2.4 times more likely to become viewers.

“TV viewers are a highly engaged audience on the Web and are therefore a prolific source of social data. This data is actionable in several ways; for one, it provides some powerful insight into audience behaviors that transcend viewership, and if used correctly it can significantly amplify tune-in and discovery for new viewers,” Pillet explains.

To leverage this trend, he suggests that networks should look for opportunities to use social data to “identify, target, and align messaging with their potential audiences.”

Image via ShareThis.