The year in social TV by Bluefin Labs [Infographic]

By Natan Edelsburg 

The VMAs, the X Factor and NBC all topped Bluefin Labs‘ most-social list for 2011 in a handy infographic that wraps up a big year for social TV. A glance at the word cloud makes it clear that the VMAs, Justin Bieber and the Jonas Brothers dominated conversations across the web. Here’s the infographic, and make sure you check out the additional insights they provided us following the graphic:

1. The list of Top 10 Series Programming is a perfect indication of the growth that Social TV has experienced in 2011. We are now seeing consistently significant numbers of social comments for reality, comedy and dramas (most notably). TV Networks have also recognized and fostered this growth through Twitter partnerships (e.g. The X Factor accepting votes via Twitter) and promotions on-screen (e.g. show hashtags displayed during show airing). Additionally, Twitter has done a lot of outreach to TV networks

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2. Social TV has grown by quite a bit from January to December. We can see this dynamic for shows like Glee, which had first-run airing from Feb to May (Season 2) and then from Sept until now (Season 3). The volume of Social TV activity is much higher toward the end of the year vs. the beginning.

3. Related to the above point, the American Music Awards had the benefit of airing later in the year (Nov). It beats out the Academy Awards (Feb), but come this February, I think we can expect to see a much bigger number from the Academy Awards… and all other shows / events for that matter. Social TV is growing… consumers are doing it more and more.

4. The Top 10 tell a story but the Top 200 is interesting too, when we look at the data by TV show genre. Among the Top 200, here are the genre breakouts:

Reality 24%

Sports 23%

Special Event 18%

Drama 17%

Comedy 11%

News Special 6%

Reality and Sports are huge. Of note are Dramas because that’s a new dynamic that’s emerged this TV season (Sept 2011 and on). “Serious shows” didn’t get as much Social TV activity last season, but the consumer activity of tweeting while watching TV becoming much more mainstream.

5. Lastly, the Republican Debates have seen incredible attention among social media commenters. We will likely see similar results as we move into the 2012 election year.

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