Nielsen to Use Facebook in Ratings, May Cripple Some Shows

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.
Nielsen to Use Facebook in Ratings, May Cripple Some Shows

© Thinkstock

Nielsen has caught up to the rest of the world. Its old model of counting television viewers has not taken into account related activity on social media. Playing catch up, that has changed. Whether it will help its TV clients is another matter.

Traditional television companies are used to Nielsen data gathered from televisions viewers directly. The environment around these viewers has not been measured. Advertisers that use television may be disappointed by the opinions social media users express about programming.

As a change in its model, the ratings company announced:

Nielsen today announced that it is expanding Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings to include Facebook conversation for the first time. With measurement of program-related conversation across these two social networking services at launch, and plans to integrate Instagram at a later date, Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings will become Nielsen’s “Social Content Ratings.”

Nielsen’s Social Content Ratings will be the first solution to measure aggregate-level program-related conversation on Facebook and Twitter, including posts shared with friends and family, with followers, and publicly. The expanded ratings are slated for commercial availability in the first half of 2016 and will be made available in all markets where Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings are currently available (Australia, Italy, Mexico and U.S.).

[ims_survey]
How it works:

Nielsen’s Social Content Ratings will deliver standardized third-party measurement of program-related conversation for each social networking service tracked and gross totals across social networks. Measurement will include social media authorship (e.g., posts, Tweets), engagement (e.g., comments, likes, replies, Retweets, shares), reach (audience and impressions) and demographics (age and gender) as available.

The new rating system may show that people watch shows of which they have low opinions. In theory, that means viewers may not remain loyal, a sign to advertisers that sticking with these shows will bring little valuable return.

Along these lines:

By measuring program-related conversation across social networking services, TV networks and streaming content providers can assess the effectiveness of social audience engagement strategies and better understand the relationship between social activity and tune-in. Additionally, comprehensive social measurement for programming will support agencies and advertisers in making data-driven media planning and buying decisions as they seek to maximize social buzz generated through ad placements, sponsorships, and integrations.

“Social buzz” measurements are as likely to kill a show as help it. Not all social media activity is positive.

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

Featured Reads

Our top personal finance-related articles today. Your wallet will thank you later.

Continue Reading

Top Gaining Stocks

CBOE Vol: 1,568,143
PSKY Vol: 12,285,993
STX Vol: 7,378,346
ORCL Vol: 26,317,675
DDOG Vol: 6,247,779

Top Losing Stocks

LKQ
LKQ Vol: 4,367,433
CLX Vol: 13,260,523
SYK Vol: 4,519,455
MHK Vol: 1,859,865
AMGN Vol: 3,818,618