Social Media Analytics: The Next ‘Poster Boy’ of TV and Entertainment Industry

As a social media enthusiast, I am impressed by the number of TV shows that have active social pages on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube etc.

Yet, I believe that the entrainment industry still has a lot to learn from social, especially from social media analytics. That said, I can’t deny that I pleasantly surprised by RTL Nederland’s successful use of social analytics.

This Dutch multimedia and entertainment company has successfully and very, very effectively used Predictive and Sentiment Analytics for market research, program formatting and ideation, improving the quality of current shows and most of all, incorporating audience feedback into their shows and give them customized content.

For their two popular shows, So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD, Dutch version), a dance reality show and X Factor, a singing reality show, RTL collaborated with InSites Consulting^*, a market research agency to monitor and measure the two shows’ audiences’ comments on the social media.

Here’s what RTL Nederland achieved from social media analytics –

      a)    Improve decision making and market understanding:

Found out which topics (relating to the two shows) created the most buzz.

      b)    Analyze positive, negative or neutral sentiments:

Sentiment Analysis measured the viewers’ thoughts after the show and found that there always was an increase in the positive buzz – a clear indication that the show was hit.

      c)  Measure audience attitudes and quickly adapt the show accordingly:

When it was found that a certain contestant on SYTYCD generated no vibe at all, the show’s programmers went on to give the said contestant a complete style makeover. This new development instantly became the ‘talk of the social’ and generated much positive sentiments.

   

       d)   Understand customer needs and preferences:

 Learning that the songs and themes in X- Factor were much talked about, the show’s programmers increased their audience involvement during the finals week. They let their audiences to pick the songs that the finalists would sing in the finals.

So you see, social media analytics empowers broadcasting and entertainment businesses to effectively tap into their audiences’ psyche, and with razor sharp precision ascertain what they expect from new shows and how they want their existing favourite shows to progress.

 

As Emilie van dan Berge, RTL Nederland’s Senior Research and Intelligence Project Leader puts it, by listening to our viewers, we give the power to contribute to the creative process – helping us produce better, more compelling television for our audiences.

If you are a TV production house aiming to explore and exploit the power of social media analytics, then write to us at info@shoutanalytics.com.