Survey: Facebook Grows As TV Watercooler

Facebook continues to be the social media venue for digital watercooler conversation about TV, even appearing to have gained on Twitter for that purpose.

That is according to the latest SocialTV Index Report being published and distributed next week at the NAB show by Brian Ring of Ring Digital, a digital services firm whose clients have included Univision and Brightcove. It is also available in digital form at www.RingDigital.tv/socialtv-index.

Ring, formerly with Erickson, says he used the Google Consumer Survey platform to conduct a poll last month that found that 75.6% of respondents had used Facebook at some point to weigh in on TV, up from 70.4% seven months ago. By contrast, only 25.4% said they had used Twitter, down from 34%.

Ring says Twitter will continue to help drive the conversations around TV sports and news as a "'mobile-first replacement" for RSS feeds. But he says the study "may be an indicator that Twitter will need to be more creative to fully realize the nature of that relationship."

A total of 291 people offered up their favorite TV show to comment about and The Walking Dead led the way, with Empire second.

The report is sponsored by German app provider Nanocosmos, but Ring says the company did not pay for the research, but agreed to sponsor the report after it was completed—it got a logo and one slide for its sponsorship.

Ring's survey drew 1,705 responses to the question about which social media platform they use to talk about TV. You can check out the details and questions asked here.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.