Facebook has 5 times more social TV activity than Twitter, finds Trendrr

By Cory Bergman 

As we predicted last month, Facebook is getting serious about social TV. After all, rival Twitter has become the dominate player in the space, taking credit for driving ratings, partnering with Nielsen to create a new metric, and capturing an increasing share of TV advertising dollars. Limited by the private nature of its data, Facebook has been frustrated that it hasn’t been part of the conversation despite it’s superior reach.

So it shouldn’t be surprising that Trendrr has announced that it has partnered with Facebook to gain “preliminary access to previously unanalyzed Facebook user engagement data on chatter relating to television content.” And those preliminary findings reveal that Facebook outpaces all other social networks combined by a 5-to-1 margin with social TV activity.

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The findings include (taken over a one-month period):

– Activity related to broadcast television was 7 times as large, while activity linked to cable-television programming was 4.5 times as large.
– Second-screen activity levels on Facebook were particularly high among viewers of dramas and comedies.
– The volume of Facebook social activity regarding news programming was twice that of other social networks combined.
– Facebook activity involving Hispanic programming was significantly higher.
– Live events during airtime, such as sporting events, also showed dramatically higher levels of activity over other social networks.

That last data point may be surprising given Twitter’s traction during live events. Trendrr provided this graph of the NBA finals as an example. “(It) had 3 times the number of on-air interactions on Facebook as on all other social networks combined,” Trendrr said.

“Trendrr and Facebook are working on a public case study of TV-related Facebook activity as part of an effort to illustrate the full breadth of engagement on Facebook’s platforms,” Trendrr said in a blog post. “Ultimately, Trendrr hopes to begin incorporating this Facebook data into its Social TV Rankings charts.”

Beyond helping Facebook bolster its place in the social TV ecosystem, it breathes new life into Trendrr, which has watched two of its competitors get acquired in recent months — Bluefin Labs, for example, was swept up by Twitter. “This is the start of an exciting relationship between Facebook and Trendrr,” the social TV startup said. “The potential development of an open system for accurate measurement of the entire Facebook platform will provide our clients and the larger Social TV ecosystem with more insights and tools to make better decisions.”

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