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Do Discussions on Twitter Improve TV Ratings?
Digital Marketing Marketing

Do Discussions on Twitter Improve TV Ratings?

By Mainak Biswas May 27, 2013 - 707 views

Television viewers seem to really enjoy the opportunity to connect with others by following those who are like minded or share similar inclinations on Twitter. They regale each other by way of tweeting and posting pictures of their favorite entertainers, links to other sites such as Instagram.

Tweeting around TV follows a fairly predictable pattern: first, anticipatory tweets appear 15-30 minutes before the show airs; then, the tweets surge during the episode (with sharp spikes in response to surprises and reveals); finally, there is another 15-30 minutes of post-show buzz and reaction.

There are a number of small bands that gained predominance because of their association with social media giants like twitter. Twitter can give artistes exposure and astounding success, if he can manage to capitalize on the available resources and the stats recorded. Observing the trends and promoting in an organized manner can help video artistes garner a huge following and thus help to improve the rating of their shows.

Nielsen TV ratings and twitter

Nielsen entered into the foray of rating television shows in early 1950s and is still rendering class services. It is a global leader in measurement and information spread over a 100 countries around the world, providing its clients the most complete understanding of what consumers watch and buy.

It has found that for premiere episodes, an 8.5 percent increase in twitter volume resulted in a 1 percent increase in ratings among 18 to 34 year olds. For mid-season episodes, a 4.2 percent increase in tweets effected in a 1 percent increase in ratings. For 34 to 49 year old age groups, a 14 percent increase in twitter volume translated into a 1 percent increase in ratings.

Fake profiles on twitter

There are fake profiles on twitter which mar the image of many celebrities of tinsel town. You can only imagine the damage they can cause to your reputation by sharing hateful tweets and inciting quarrel among the people from your fraternity or other twitteratis.

While most of these impostors tweet demeaning messages on this social medium, others do it for fun to entertain people seeking humor. For example, there are a lot of fake profiles doing the rounds on Twitter to poke fun at celebrities. A popular one being that of  Kim Jong Un of North Korea. The tweets generated from this profile point to the reaction of Kim to the various issues and happenings or current affairs that find a place in the media.

What is the advice?

Being the popular medium that Twitter is, any user generated content on Twitter is instant news material. For the profiles of the former type, video artistes are advised to create a profile without much ado and verify their accounts via their email addresses. This is an ingenious way devised by Twitter to keep at bay the sick impostors who indulge in such activities.

Here are a few tips that a video artiste can consider:

1. Retweet information related to your TV shows and start trending topics about your shows.

2. Start tweeting about your upcoming events, concerts to keep your followers updated.

3. Engage viewers in real-time conversations regarding your shows.

4. The key is to keep the audience guessing and wanting for more by keeping the viewers updated about interesting plots in the available video through a number of tweets. Arousing curiosity in the audience’s mind has been the tried and tested method and the primordial aspect of wooing TV viewers.

Albeit a rapidly growing part of the business mentality, fuelled by the irresistible promise of reduced customer acquisition costs (nominal charges are levied on advertisers on twitter) and yet higher bottom line returns, the science behind managing audiences in the internet enabled age is still young. Social media was a major milestone, opening marketers eyes to the almost unfathomable potential reach of their messaging. Yet, in its current form, social mediums like twitter remain too self-conflicted and limiting to enable marketers to effectively gauge the value of audience built on such a network. I believe that these observations of mine can deliver to the video artistes like you, the bankable option that Twitter is and that it can provide a wholly enriching experience by growing under the refuge of its wings.

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