Nielsen Social: Twitter TV loyalists present big opportunity for networks and marketers
Lots of people take to Twitter to tweet about TV throughout a show’s season, but how many people are talking about multiple episodes? If chatter is limited to certain points in the season, which?
Nielsen Social today released its findings from a study looking at these very questions across 113 program seasons, from premiere through finale, from September 2014 - May 2015.
The three main findings from the study are:
New social TV authors regularly join program conversation
There are a lot of Twitter authors that talk about a show regularly, but 10x times as many authors tweeted about a program in total across a season compared with the number of authors who contributed in an average week. So, it’s not only regulars who drive the conversation each week.
Nielsen Social’s takeway: “For many programs, there could be an opportunity through retention strategies (e.g., on-screen calls to action, live Tweeting by owned accounts, or paid social campaigns) to convert new authors that join the program conversation over the course of a season into loyal program authors.”
Loyal authors are valuable for more than just their social allegiance
Nielsen Social defined loyalty as the share of authors who tweeted about three or more episodes of the same show during a season. During the 2014-15 TV season, ABC’s Scandal had the top program loyalty on Twitter: 24% of Scandal Twitter authors sent tweets about 3 or more episodes .
For top loyal programs, 24% of authors met this criterion throughout a season. These same authors on average sent nearly three times as many tweets per episode compared to other authors who didn’t meet the “loyalty” criteria (they were also found to have more followers and sent more tweets about brands).
So, who do you think networks should be reaching out and building relationships with…?
Nielsen Social’s takeway: “There is also value for networks and advertisers in engaging loyal program authors—those who not only Tweet more regularly throughout a program’s season, but also send more Tweets about program content and brands and have larger followerships. By closely analyzing program activity during live airings, networks and advertisers could identify and engage with these loyal and influential TV authors to maximize program-related buzz.”
Big program moments inspire more fans to participate
- 25% of all unique program authors tweet about premieres
- 16% tweet about finales
- 38% tweet between premieres and finales
With the heavy-up premieres, marketers should capitalize on paid efforts during this time.
Nielsen Social’s takeaway: “Finally, the findings emphasize the importance of key moments—such as premieres, finales or other high engagement episodes. These are opportunities for programmers and advertisers to engage with more authors. Of particular note: 25% of authors Tweet about premieres on average. So, premieres could be a critical point at the beginning of a season to maximize early buzz and foster loyalty for ensuing episodes.”
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