ShareThis Report Highlights Role of Social Media in TV Viewing

By Adam Flomenbaum 

ShareThis, the social sharing service whose button is featured on nearly every website, today released a social TV report combining its own first party data with Nielsen TV data. The report, which will be presented this morning at the IAB NewFronts Insights Luncheon, finds that there is a strong correlation between people who share content about shows and viewing of those shows.

There is also a reason why reality TV shows continue to proliferate: 47.1% of reality show viewers share content about the show, resulting in free marketing for both the show itself and the network as a whole. Surprisingly, streaming series (like those on Netflix and Amazon) drive 2.1 times more social engagement than broadcast TV series.

Below, additional highlights from the report:

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  • On average 16% of viewers share about the shows they watch – reality/variety shows driving the most engagement from their fans.
  • Timing of social engagement varies drastically by genre – for drama, it’s heaviest after the show show; for reality TV, it’s mostly during show time.
  • Timing of device and channel usage also vary drastically – tablet and smartphones spike enormously during broadcast, as does Twitter.
  • Social engagement has a strong correlation with higher tune-in rates – users who click on shared content about a TV series are 2.4 times more likely to become viewers.

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