Twitter Drives TV Viewership

By: Julie LeVeque
Advertising Assistant

Twitter has been the source of breaking news, trending topics and a way for businesses, brands, celebrities and people to connect on the web. Recent Twitter trends are not only shaping the way people receive information, but it is also driving an increase in TV viewership.

There is no better example than the recent Royal Wedding of William + Kate, with over 1 million '#royalwedding' hashtags by mid-ceremony. Days later, another Twitter record was set with the death of Osama Bin Laden. In fact, it was one of the most tweeted events in Twitter history. With a staggering 4,000 tweets per second before and after President Obama's speech. I first found out about the death of Bin Laden via Twitter, then turned on the TV and subsequently tweeted about it myself. Not surprising for a woman of the millennial generation, but I wasn't alone- a Mashable Poll of 21,884 people found a majority of people, 29%, first heard the Bin Laden death news from Twitter, 20% discovered it on Facebook while only 17% found out first on TV. However, those who had first found out via social media were then driven to their TVs to learn more details and see it for themselves.

The video below shows how viewers can follow TV programs like CNN, Travel Channel & MTV for the latest information on Twitter while never actually turning on their TV. Twitter is simple when on the go in a society filled with information.

Lastly, large televised pre-planned events like the Grammys and The Super Bowl use Twitter as a tool to gain viewership. Partially due to social networking conversations driving viewers to their TVs, the Grammys viewing had a 35% increase in ratings in 2011 and the Super Bowl drew the highest ever audience. All in all, Twitter trends are becoming a staple tool for brand strategy in today's advertising world as well as all social media campaigns. If Twitter is sparking engagement to watch TV, what can a brand do to take advantage of this trend?



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Source: Mashable.com