U.S. TV viewers are getting more used to combining TV with
social media, or at least with seeing the two linked.
A survey of 1,000 viewers/Internet users by Accenture found
that 64% recall seeing social media symbols like Facebook "likes" and
Twitter hashtags while watching TV. And even more important for the TV
programmers trying to promote social media, a third of viewers have gone online
to interact after seeing the symbol.
According to the company, "participants were shown
images of various social media symbols and asked a series of questions about
their familiarity and use of them while watching television." The March
2012 poll was an online survey, so it was already geared toward a net-friendly
audience.
The figure for those who interact jumps to 63% for ages
18-24 and 46% for 25-34. Interestingly, the 55-64 demo (24%) topped the 45-54
(19%), while the 65-plus trailed at 11%.
There were lots of reasons given for following up on the
social media TV cues. The top (43%) was to get more info about a show or
product. That was followed by getting coupons or promotional codes (32%),
entering contests (31%), watching a video (26%), socializing (21%),
recommending/sharing video with others (20%) and buying something (16%).
The vast majority of respondents said they got what they
expected out of their TV-prompted online visits, with 74% saying it met
expectations, with 10% saying it did not and 15% saying it exceeded those
expectations.
The biggest barrier to even more interaction with social
media was disinterest in the content or info they would find (60%), uncertainty
about how to interact (23%), inability to access it (15%) or that the symbol
was not displayed on TV long enough to access (11%).
The sample was of people 18-plus, weighted by age, gender,
geography, race and education.
