Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

For a while, it seemed like television was being supplanted by online video as cord-cutting increased dramatically. However, it’s becoming more clear that TV and social media are perfect partners, as tweets and other social posts spike around event television. New data from Nielsen Social demonstrates how much activity surrounds broadcast TV, streaming and cable.

Twitter users are highly engaged during popular shows and live television events, both in terms of hashtags and @mentions. #SB50, the official Super Bowl hashtag, received more than 3.7 million tweets. Other live events like the #Oscars also fared very well, with 2.9 million tweets. And scripted television events scored, with #Empire generating 702,000 tweets and @kanyewest receiving 489,000 tweets during his Saturday Night Live performance.

Whether it’s online streaming, cable TV or broadcast TV, recurring series seem to have remarkable staying power on social. Empire received an average of 387,000 tweets from 95,000 authors each episode, while cable-exclusive The Walking Dead received 435,000 tweets from 150,000 authors on average....

Earlier this July, video technology company Unruly released the results of its 20-page study, “The Science of Sharing,” measuring the viral effects of 12 Super Bowl commercials. Using a complex algorithm from their sharing analysis tool, ShareRank, Unruly was able to identify the parts of each video that triggered the strongest viewer responses, and grade the advertisements on their overall shareability (see below). By doing this, Unruly was able to give an in-depth look at why some viral ads perform well online, while others don’t. ...