Patterns of engagement

One of the most interesting things that we do at SecondSync is to identify patterns of social media engagement during different TV shows. Different programme genres can engender polar opposite patterns of engagement. To illustrate, let’s compare the ITV1 talent show Britain’s Got Talent with the psychological thriller on Channel 4, Homeland.

During shows like BGT and The Voice viewers tweet all through the show and the spikes in activity match the times the various acts are performing (indeed the size of the spikes usually matches the way the public votes at the end of the show in the case of BGT). But for Homeland the opposite is true, there is a build up before the show and large peaks during the ad breaks and at the end of the show, but while the show is actually on air the audience is glued to their TV set and not their Twitter client.

In order to capitalise on the social TV phenomena broadcasters and brands need to understand these patterns. That’s where we come in…

by Andy Littledale