Monday, November 7, 2011

Social TV - Successes?

There's a newish buzz word in the world of TV - Social TV.  As with many new buzzwords, the definition is not really specific - from an audience perspective it refers to people sharing comments and excerpts from favorite shows with their friends; from a fan perspective it may mean using social media to build a community with other fans and program producers around the show; and for marketers and advertisers, it means measuring the level of "social buzz" a show generates as both an indicator of level of fan interest and commitment, and as a predictor of future program success.
An article in Ad Age looked at early results from this fall's efforts to measure "social buzz" and what programs were successful in generating it.

Competition shows, like this fall's "The X-Factor" generally do well on "social buzz" metrics, as fans share thoughts on performances and their favorites with friends.  BET's "Born to Dance" also did well, considering BET's much smaller viewership.  The Ad Age article called BET's audience the "most social-media savvy of any network's," which may have helped.  Despite it's fourth place finish, Ad Age deemed the social buzz around "Terra Nova" a disappointment, given it's fan-friendly SciFi, time-travel, and dinosaurs theme, big budget, and Steven Spielberg origins.

I'll admit that the only one of these I've watched so far has been Terra Nova - and while production values are top-notch, I'm not so sure the conspiracies within conspiracies focus will keep my attention.  But then again, I'm not the typical "social TV" viewer.

Source:   Fall TV Update: Five Social-TV Success Stories (and One Ratings Disappointment),  AdAge Mediaworks

Edited - Included sourcing I missed the first time

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