TV is battling to keep viewers glued to the TV screen, and social media is becoming one of the key weapons in the TV operator’s arsenal.

A new trend called Social TV  is helping draw viewers back to live TV and away from the DVR. Each night more and more viewers are turning on the TV, then jumping on their laptop, tablet, or smartphone and chatting about the show on social networks.

Since TV operators have started to capitalising on the natural social buzz, the competion between Facebook and Twitter to be the go-to solution for TV has started in earnest.

However, the two networks differ fundamentally in their core TV offering.  The difference stems from the reasons why people log into Twitter and Facebook:  People go to Twitter to see what’s trending now.  They want to see what their followers are up to, but the focus is on common interests over real-world relationships.

On the other hand, users log into Facebook to see what their friends are doing. The network focuses on personal relationships that may or may not include common interests. This means that each social network can offer a unique approach to TV.

 

FACEBOOK AND TV: TAPPING INTO THE PERSONAL SOCIAL GRAPH

Facebook’s main benefit comes from its extensive reach (600 million active users), and the sheer mass of data available.  Through the Facebook API, operators can build apps and interactive experiences around TV shows.Facebook boasts a huge social graph: the average user has 130 friends that they have specifically chosen to stay in touch with.  This means if a user’s friend has talked about a TV show recently, they would like to hear about it. Even if just one friend mentions the show, the comment is relevant because of the personal relationship.

Facebook recently announced that there are 1.65 billion TV show ‘likes’ so far. However,most Facebook users have tailored privacy setting in place – so not everyone’s data is available publicly. This makes it difficult to tap into real-time trends, an area where Twitter excels. Twitter and TV: Accessing Real-time Trends Twitter has a strong offering for TV because it provides large quantities of public, real-time statistics. Few users on Twitter hide their data and all tweets are meant for public consumption, making it much easier to tap into the zeitgeist.

This makes it much simpler to measure engagement with a particular show in real-time. TV operators can use Twitter data to interact with viewers, and get minute-by-minute feedback on what is and isn’t resonating with their audience.

Because people log into Facebook and Twitter with different goals in mind, different social TV offerings can be designed around each platform.  While Facebook is suited to TV experiences that involve your friends and chosen brands, Twitter is better for promoting real-time TV trends that people want to discuss with the world in general. Over the next year, expect to see the face of TV changing: it’s not just about sitting back and watching blankly anymore.

Who do you think will have a bigger impact on TV; Twitter or Facebook?

Emma Wells, Marketing Manager