80% of Facebook’s TV “chatter” comes through mobile devices.

Facebook competes with Twitter in the budding social media analytics market with their trove of user data. In a report produced in conjunction with SecondSync, a social media television analytics firm, Facebook breaks down anonymized user data surrounding television shows by a variety of measures such as types of interaction, demographics, device and genre.

 

 

The release provides an initial look at information that previously was used almost exclusively by Facebook itself to provide targeted advertisements and “Sponsored Stories.”

“This has valuable marketing implications, demonstrating trends by demographic and how mobile has become the key method of engagement,” said Fred Leach, head of measurement R&D and partnerships at Facebook, in a press release.

Facebook first began to make data privately available to broadcasters in 2013. The release is the first public step from Facebook into the social media analytics market, which has thus far been dominated by Twitter.

Early recognition of the value of Twitter’s data led the company to partner with a variety of corporations that were eager to gain a greater understanding of the impact of advertisements on consumers. Twitter now produces a specialized social media television rating in conjunction with Nielsen.

Facebook has an interface that allows for partners to access data from the site’s public profiles. The anonymized data from the report marks a significant step toward providing access to the entire network.

“The size of the Facebook network as well as the richness of the content will make it an incredibly powerful and valuable incremental stream on top of what Twitter already offers today,” said Kristin Muhlner, CEO of newBrandAnalytics.

She added that although Facebook data had previously not been as useful or informative as Twitter’s fire hose, the report indicated Facebook was well on its way to addressing these issues and providing a flow of information that includes the type of cutting edge text analysis that will be highly marketable when combined with Facebook’s in-depth profiles.

“All of that is very, very useful as we step into a world of much more aggressive access to some of this data,” she said.

Entitled “Watching with Friends,” the report highlights a series of insights Facebook gleaned from its data including the fact that 80% of its TV “chatter” comes through mobile devices.

The data also highlights the peaks and valleys of interactions depending on the type of show. Dramas generate more interaction toward the end, while popular reality competitions see a spike during performances.

The data is also correlated against ratings to determine what percentage of viewers had engaged on Facebook for a given show. Just under a quarter of the audience for the finale of Breaking Bad participated on Facebook in some way during the show, according to the data.

“The findings indicate opportunities available for brands and marketers to deliver relevant content, informed by real-time insight around peoples’ behaviour on Facebook,” said Andy Littledale, managing director of SecondSync, in the release.

SecondSync also works with Twitter on its TV data. When asked of the differences between the data from the two social media companies, Littledale said each had particular merits.

“Both social networks are established and users engage with them very differently,” he said in an email. “There are huge volumes of conversations around TV output on Twitter and Facebook and in order to get the complete picture it is important to understand both.”

Photo credit: Businesses Grow

Via Mashable