Twitter is set to entice companies to purchase advertising for shows with a high level of social interaction in addition to overnight and DVR ratings.
“Tweet at least one unique tweet using the official tag for the show #AgentsofSHIELD in the couple of hours before, during and after Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. airs”
Recent studies determined shows that engage well on social media can actually gain viewers and that Twitter has become the new “water cooler” where people discuss shows they watch and care about in real time rather than at the office the following day.
For the first time this week media monitoring company Neilsen has started to track Twitter conversation relating to television shows and this data will be provided to networks who plan to use the statistics to sell advertising during their shows in much the same way they do with overnight ratings.
The new program is designed to compliment the existing ratings system by giving TV networks and advertisers the real-time metrics required to understand TV audience social activity.
The benefits of this for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are two-fold.
- Twitter users who have yet to watch Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. either because they haven’t heard of it or just haven’t got around to watching it yet may see Tweets on their timeline that gain their interest and encourage them to tune in live, thus growing the audience.
- Good social engagement will give ABC something to take to advertisers. Combined with the good ratings we have already seen, proving a strong Twitter presence will have a significant impact on the longevity of the series if it encourages companies to get on board with advertising.
Since ABC announced the series pickup in January Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has had a very strong Twitter presence, aided by ABC and Marvel getting on board early to establish official social media accounts. Statistics company Crimison Hexagon spent the Summer monitoring Twitter activity for all the new fall shows. For the Summer period Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. racked up around 220,000 Tweets compared to next in line The Tomorrow People with just 68,000. While exactly how they tracked this information is unclear what is obvious is that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. certainly has the potential to do very well using this new system of “rating” show popularity.
This makes it vitally important for those watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the US to tweet at least one unique tweet using the official tag for the show #AgentsofSHIELD in the couple of hours before, during and after the show airs. It is important to note, that while Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is targeted at a global market (for now at least) Nielsen is only monitoring domestic (US) activity on Twitter. This does not mean those outside the US should stop tweeting, point 1. mentioned above still applies.
Important things to note:
- Always include #AgentsofSHIELD in your tweets unless ABC is running a specific campaign that week.
- Unique Tweets from Unique Users count most.
- Retweets count, but not as much.
- Tweets from people outside the US don’t count, but if someone from the US retweets them it will count.
- Tweets 3 hours before, during and 3 hours after will be counted (currently unverified by an official source.)
- While it doesn’t count in the Nielsen data, other social media activity can also help so feel free to use Facebook, Getglue, Tumblr and Google + too.
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