Thursday, August 7, 2014

Nielsen: Social Media Drives TV Viewers Awareness


The jury is still out on how strong an effect social media has on television viewing habits, according to  marketingland.com.

An NBCUniversal executive made a big splash in April with an emperor-has-no-clothes statement, saying that social did nothing for Winter Olympic ratings but Twitter, Facebook and others beg to differ.

This week, Nielsen added more data to the social-matters side of the ledger, reporting a study showing that 25% of U.S. viewers said they were more aware of TV programs because of their social media interactions. The study, using data from the fourth quarter of 2013, also found that 15% of viewers say they enjoy television more because of their social media activity. Both figures were significant increases from 2012 results (18% for awareness, 11% for enjoyment).

However, social media isn’t the primary second-screen activity according to other Nielsen data. Two-thirds of tablet users and about half of the smart phone users said surfing the web was their No. 1 secondary activity while watching TV. Shopping (24% phone, 44% tablet), checking sports scores (27%, 29%), looking up actors, plots, athletes, etc. (29%, 41%) and emailing or texting friends about the program (29%, 23%) all surpassed reading social media commentary about the show (12%, 18%) in popularity.

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