The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

TV Tumblr Twitter

People may tweet while watching a show, but they turn to Tumblr afterwards to discuss

Author

By Ishbel Macleod | PR and social media consultant

April 23, 2014 | 3 min read

An hour after a TV show finishes, discussion is 31 per cent higher on Tumblr than it was when the show was airing, research from Pulsar in partnership with Tumblr has found.

Pulsar analysed how the audiences engaged with TV shows on Tumblr and Twitter by tracking discussion around five TV series (Sherlock, Supernatural, Pretty Little Liars, Sleepy Hollow, and Malcolm in the Middle) for 11 days, before, during and after key episodes in Fall 2013.

It was found that during the period studied, there were 7.3 million posts (including reblogs) on Tumblr, compared with 3.1 million posts (and retweets) on Twitter.

While the research did confirm that more people use Twitter while the show is actually airing, with 621,000 posts compared to Tumblr’s 91,000 posts, activity on Twitter drops and users seem to turn to Tumblr, with 72 per cent of posts about the TV shows driven by visual content. The research found that 24 hours after the shows air, Tumblr is two and a half times as active (40k posts per hour, vs. 16k on Twitter), a ratio that sustains for the whole period between episodes.Lee Brown, global head of brand partnerships at Tumblr, said: "The real conversations around TV start when a show ends, and those meaningful discussions are happening on Tumblr. Tumblr is where the fans live and where content is born, presenting a huge opportunity for TV networks and marketers to connect with their most engaged and passionate audiences in the hours, days and seasons before and after a show."
While the top TV tweets reach 50 per cent of their total activity in just 1.8 hours, Tumblr content is shared for 30 hours before it reaches the same 50 per cent point, the research stated, also finding that 94 per cent of Tumblr posts about TV shows are reblogs.Francesco D’Orazio, VP product at Pulsar commented: “The Social TV on Tumblr study shows very clearly that different social networks are for different kinds of social TV interaction. One of the key findings here is that Social TV, especially on Tumblr, doesn't just mean real-time second screen behaviour but sustained and deep audience engagement over time. And that represents a massive opportunity for networks and advertisers.”However, it was also found that there is a tie-up between Tumblr and Twitter, with more Tumblr content is shared on Twitter than from any other platform (48k Tumblr shares during the period tracked, compared to 40k YouTube shares, 20k Instagram and 19k Facebook) .
TV Tumblr Twitter

More from TV

View all

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +