In a post last week for the Twitter’s Media Blog, Anjali Midha, the company’s Head of Global Media & Agency Research, unveiled the findings from a look into the short-term and long-term benefits of shows, stars, and brands live-Tweeting. The study stemmed from a May survey in partnership with FOX, the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), and db5, which showed that 66% of Twitter users like to see Tweets from official show accounts (61% from actor/cast; 35% from the official show account; 24% from judges/host).
The most current study, according to Midha, “looked at two groups of like programs (for example, top dramas or reality shows) from the U.S. 2013-14 season: one that implemented regular live-Tweeting and one that did not. We then looked within each program to understand how episodes with live-Tweeting compared to their ‘baseline’ conversation levels on Twitter during episodes that did not feature live Tweeting.”
Below, the findings from the study, followed by an infographic of follower growth due to live-tweeting across different genres:
Live-Tweeting lifts the Twitter conversation
One frequent question we get asked from our partners is, “How can I increase the volume of Tweets about my program?” As it turns out, one of the most powerful and direct ways to drive conversation about a program on Twitter is to have the stars of the show engaged on Twitter, particularly during the airing. In fact, we found that shows live-Tweeting from cast members during the premiere had 64% more Tweets that day compared to programs that did nothing. Shows that live-Tweeted from the official handle also saw a 7% increase over those that did nothing.Live-Tweeting lifts follower growth rate
Besides increasing the volume of Tweets about a show, live-Tweeting can contribute to building an audience on Twitter. When a program is on the air, there is a 6.5x lift in follow rate for the show’s official account when they don’t live-Tweet. When a show does live-Tweet, that increases 15%, to 7.5x. For a cast, their accounts go from a 3.7x lift in follow rate when they don’t live-Tweet to 12.2x — a 228% increase.We also took a look at this trend by genre, and found that a comedy series with a cast that live-Tweets had the biggest percentage increase. Across all genres, having a cast live-Tweet led to the biggest increase in follower growth (versus a show’s official handle). You can see the full results in the graphs below:
In addition to being a way to engage with and delight your audience, live-Tweeting is an incredibly powerful way to drive conversation about your show — and build a lasting audience on Twitter with whom you can connect with year round. And the most direct way to make an impact through live-Tweeting is through the cast members. They’re your greatest asset.
