Millward Brown’s Global Futures Group recently issued its
Top 12 Digital Predictions for 2012, with forecasts related to wide-ranging topics including gamification, mobile wallets and social e-commerce.
But the one that gave me pause for thought was Dave Barrowcliff’s “Virtual Togetherness.” What, I wondered, would make me want to interact with a TV show, or post about it on Facebook, and when would I do so?
Don’t get me wrong, I know shows like American Idol and X Factor attract a ton of interaction in the form of texts and tweets, but those shows lend themselves to mass interaction like voting. Recent research revealed that 51 percent of UK X Factor viewers used Facebook as they watched the show. Can you imagine people voting on whether the polar bear gets the seal in an episode of the BBC's Frozen Planet? Or being asked to choose between endings in Homeland (yes, Brody was turned by Al-Qaida: no, he is a good guy after all).
And Dave is absolutely right when he states:
TV has always been a sociable activity, whether it’s family and friends gathering to watch a program or colleagues gathering around the water cooler at work to discuss last night’s episode.
But, and maybe this is just me, I can’t help feeling that social media interaction lacks the immediacy and intimacy of throw away comments made by people watching something in the same room. (A horrible vision just occurred to me. Will we all sit in the same room and tweet each other rather than speaking? Speaking, that’s so 2011.)
So maybe it is the real-time element of social TV that I am concerned about. Heck, I know that people will share content after the event, but if a show is that gripping or enthralling, am I really going to chat with people about it online while trying to follow the plot? Maybe it is a question of segmentation. Am I the only one that wants to turn their brain off, sit back and relax in front of the TV?
I am not saying that Dave’s prediction is wrong, I just wonder how far and fast the phenomenon will travel. One thing is for sure, Dave is right when he says that TV producers and networks will use social TV data for ideas and inspiration, but they might want to think about what the data really means. Lots of idle chit chat during the show might actually indicate a lack of involvement with the content. A lesser volume of comments during the show, followed by a spike in commentary, could indicate the opposite. This means they will have to play close attention to the sentiment of the comments as much as the volume.
So what do you think? Are you already a social TV participant? Is social TV most applicable to sports and reality shows or does it play elsewhere? Is there a segmentation aspect to its adoption? Please share your thoughts.
This blog post was spotted on Straight Talk with Nigel Hollis