Twitter says TV tweeters make better viewers

Twitter users recall TV advertisements at a far greater rate than non-users, according to an upcoming study from the social media platform.

Jean-Philippe Maheu, managing director, global brand strategy at Twitter said the new research shows that users of the social network who tweet while watching TV are much more likely than non-Twitter users to remember the advertisements running between the show they are watching.

“There’s a 37% increase in ad recall among people watching TV and tweeting,” he said, adding that users tweeting about TV shows are doing so through their airing not during commercial breaks.

Maheu revealed the research findings at the opening keynote of this year’s NATPE event in Miami.

In the session, entitled ‘TV x Twitter: How to Make the Social Soundtrack Integral to your Business’, executives from the social media platform told delegates how the worlds of Twitter and TV are increasingly intertwined.

Delegates were told that four out of five US viewers are regularly using another device while watching TV.

Twitter’s head of TV Fred Graver said that after last year’s Upfront presentations in the US, broadcasters and cable channels invited Twitter to work with the producers making their shows to help them better engage with audiences.

He cited CBS series The Good Wife (pictured) and NBC’s Law & Order: SVU as the two shows that had gone on to be the series that have most successfully used the platform to engage with audiences.

Graver went on to say that Twitter will increasingly become a tool for discovering TV content.

“I don’t think anyone will be watching ‘TV’ on Twitter,” he said. “It will point people to other devices. It will become a guru that helps you watch what you want to watch when you want to watch it. People have recreated the TV guide on TV.”