Social Media Has Small, but Growing Influence on TV Viewing

NEW YORK: According to a new study, consumers’ interaction with social media related to TV viewing is relatively modest, however, there is potential for growth.

The study, entitled Talking Social TV—spearheaded by the Social Media Committee of the Council for Research Excellence (CRE)—finds that only 12 percent of respondents use social media one or more times per day tied to TV. This number increases to 37 percent using social media when looking at one or more times per week, however, suggesting that there is potential for growth here. Half of these respondents report watching TV concurrently with using social media. 

Only 1.5 percent of respondents say they’ve been drawn to existing TV shows by social media. This increases to 6 percent when asked about new shows.

Sci-fi, sports and talk/news programs have the strongest interaction overall, both while people are watching and while they’re not watching. Reality programming has stronger interaction while people are watching, but less do so before or after the program. It’s the opposite for comedy; less interaction happens while the show is on and more conversion surrounds the reaction to the program.

The study identifies "Super Connecters" as those who are most actively involved in social media related to TV watching. This group makes up about 12 percent of the general public, and tends to be younger and skews female.

"There has been a lot of buzz about the relationship between social-media usage and TV consumption, but until now there has not been a lot of thorough analysis," said Beth Rockwood, the senior VP of market resources of Discovery Communications, who chairs the CRE’s Social Media Committee. "As was our objective, this study has helped us gain insights about the increased role of social media in television viewing and the impact that has on consumer behaviors. It also has given us a better understanding of how measurement of consumer behaviors can be improved, as well as the characteristics of the ‘Super Connecters,’ the most active and influential users of social media."