Social TV Summit in San Francisco on April 3 hosted lively panel discussions and presentations by executives from many leading brands in the Social TV space. Here is a summary of the key themes that emerged from the presentations and discussions.

Social TV Industry
Social TV industry is still relatively new, yet polling at the event showed that the majority believes the space has already too many players, and it’s ripe for some consolidation. On the other hand, the majority also believed that there are still opportunities in the space for innovative companies. 

Social TV is not just something that happens. The industry needs to keep innovating to find out what are the best platforms for different ways of engagement. Technology is driving the innovation, and TV networks are among the key players in this new disruptive technology landscape with their ability to meet the scale demands. Social TV second-screen experiences in the meantime provide the audience engagement platform for the shows. 

Social TV Industry Segmentation
Some industry segmentation is apparent. Vendors like Shazam are building engaging apps with exclusive content that drives engagement. Then there are TV networks and companies like WWE, who are building second-screen Social TV experiences around their shows on their own sites and apps. There are also social brands, like Pepsi, who have partnered with TV networks. Andrea Harrington from Pepsi spoke about how Pepsi has been able to successfully leverage its brand marketing expertise and experience to provide highly engaging user experiences around “The X Factor”. 

Social TV Viewers
Social TV viewers are engaged, and demand quality content that is relevant. They are used to multi-tasking across multiple platforms on multiple devices. This is especially applicable with youth and the younger generations. This multitasking has extended to TV. Meanwhile, social media usage has exploded on mobile, having increased by 600% in the last two years, according to Deirdre Bannon from Nielsen. She added that almost 90% of those owning a tablet use them while watching TV.

Christy Tanner from TV Guide spoke about the underlying need people have to connect and interact with each other other. This is highly relevant for TV networks, because people also have the power through social media to influence what shows the networks decide to broadcast. TV shows drive emotion, and social media has provided the platform for viewers to engage and interact with each other, and with the TV shows and their casts. 

The casts and stars of the TV shows are naturally curious to know what viewers are saying about them on Facebook and Twitter, and they follow fans’ tweets and posts very closely. This fan feedback also gives them ideas for making their shows better. For example, "The X Factor" celebrity judge Simon Cowell has been known to modify the content of the shows based on fan feedback from social media.

Social TV Research and Analytics
Social TV research and analytics is emerging as an important part of the industry, helping, for example, brands gauge which TV shows generate the most buzz, what is the mood and sentiment of viewers, and what is driving viewers. The networks are very interested in this data, since increased social media buzz is directly related to TV show ratings. Data from Nielsen shows that 9% increase in buzz translates into 1% increase in ratings.

The shows with the most social audience are the shows that also generate the most buzz on social media networks. Jason Hoch from WWE spoke about this, and gave as an example  “Wrestlemania XXVIII”. The show generated more social media buzz than the NCAA Final Four.

Conclusion
The Social TV space is new, but dynamic, and evolving fast. Some key players have already emerged across different segments in the industry. Technological development continues to facilitate innovation across the board, while TV networks together with brands are working to develop new, better ways to engage the Social TV viewer.

The Social TV world will gather tomorrow at the annual Social TV Summit in San Francisco. This highly anticipated, sold out event is expected to feature exciting presentations and panel discussions by many leading brands, TV networks, and product companies in the Social TV and Social Media space. Arktan is a proud co-sponsor of the event.

Social TV Summit has set up a designated page on their website for the real-time social conversation taking place on the Social Web around the event. The page is called Social Chatter, and it’s powered by Arktan.

Social Chatter is a destination site for those unable to attend the event. It allows page visitors to interact with the real-time speaker presentations and attendee conversations, and all other conversation taking place on the Social Web around the event. The different page tabs allow visitors to choose the content to view, and engage in chat. Event participants can also use Social Chatter to share their experiences in real-time.

At the event location, Social TV Summit will have multiple big screens, powered by Arktan, that will display the real-time, curated conversation taking place around the event on the Social Web. The screens will give event participants a very unique experience of being at the event, while being simultaneously able to view the conversation taking place about the event on the Social Web.

We are very excited about tomorrow’s event, and will write much more about it in a future blog post, so stay tuned!

The Social TV landscape continues to evolve. The space is rapidly becoming a magnet for innovative companies and their products. Everyone is competing for the attention of TV viewers. In the not so distant past, viewing of the shows was possible only on TVs, and shows were broadcast at specific times dictated by TV networks. Now the choices for TV viewing have proliferated, ranging from TVs to mobile apps to web. The addition of social networks to this new Social TV landscape have completely changed the rules of engagement between TV networks and viewers.

According to a recent survey by TV Guide, TV viewing habits are greatly influenced by social media buzz. For example, positive commentary about TV shows on social networks have been shown to translate into increased viewing of TV shows, and there’s a significant correlation between positive social impressions about the shows, and whether people decide or continue to watch the shows.

A Nielsen study has documented this as well, noting a correlation between social media buzz and TV ratings across all age groups, most notably among 18-34 -year-olds. A ReadWriteWeb study in the meantime noted that a whopping 94% of U.S. adults e-mail, talk on the phone, send text messages, or chat on social networks while watching TV, while 38% of them on mobile devices search the mobile web for content related to the shows they’re watching.

How can TV networks integrate their programming with the social media landscape that is now part of the Social TV landscape as well? How can they engage their viewers with programs that capture the viewers’ attention not just for one show, or for one season, but for a long term? How can they build an interaction so engaging that it would turn viewers into loyal fans of the shows? The roadmap for monetization in the Social TV space starts becoming clear, when these questions are addressed.

These are among the questions that will be discussed by an expert Social TV panel during a webinar on Wednesday, March 30. The webinar is titled “Monetizing Social TV: Bolstering Returns in Real Time”. The presenters will be Arktan CEO Rahul Aggarwal, Jennifer Kavanagh, SVP, Digital, Oxygen Media, Jeff Weber, VP, Video Products, AT&T, and Gayle Weiswasser, VP, Social Media, Discovery Communications. We’re pleased to be part of this exciting Social TV panel discussion. Please join us! Here’s a link to register for the event.

The SXSW conference in Austin, TX, earlier this month was a success by any measure. According to data provided by eCairn, SXSW ranked as the No. 1 social media event in 2011, and the event may be able to hold onto the top spot again this year.

Here’s a graph courtesy of Kred that illustrates just how much SXSW has grown as a social media event from last year.

The graph shows the number of mentions at SXSW Interactive festival during the first four days of the event, indicating an average increase of over 600% from last year, and over 500,000 #SXSW tweets during the four days. Arktan, eCairn, and SBV Solutions co-hosted the “Social Media and Brands” cocktail party at SXSW, where many leading brand executives came to share their social media experiences, and to learn from the social media experiences of other brands.

The event had a good turnout, and provided a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of SXSW. Arktan CEO, Rahul Aggarwal, who was present at the event, said that the event had been a success. It had provided the brands a venue for exchanging ideas and tools for the social media space, and opportunities to learn from other brands’ social media experiences. The brands were also able to share their thoughts on the growing importance of finding and curating relevant content, reflecting a key theme at this year’s SXSW.

In our December 2011 blog post we wrote about social media predicting Social TV as one of the top trends to watch in 2012, and how Lost Remote claimed Social TV as “nothing short of a revolution in the TV industry.” It appears that the predictions are coming true.

While many leading TV networks have been building interactive user experiences around their TV shows for more than a year, now major TV events have become big social media events as well. Most notable among this year’s events so far have been the Super Bowl, the Grammys, and the Oscars.

Before the Super Bowl took place in early February, the NFL had set up its first-ever Social Media Command Center to capture all the social media buzz around the Super Bowl. Viewers could enjoy the game on TV via NBC, or online via NBCSports.com, while at the same time engaging with the conversation taking place on the social networks around the game. According to data from NBC, this year’s Super Bowl was the “most-watched single-game sports event online”, with 2.1 million online viewers, in addition to the 111.3 broadcast viewers. The total Social TV activity from 2011 increased almost six-fold, facilitated by an increasing number of Social TV and second-screen applications.

The Grammys also had a banner year in 2012 according to data. The show boasted close to a seven-fold increase in the number of Social TV and second-screen activities during this year’s show, becoming the biggest entertainment event in Social TV on record. The Oscars did very well, too, as the second biggest entertainment event in Social TV on record. According to Nielsen data, the ratings of this year’s Oscars were up 4% from 2011, while the social media commentary was up almost 300% from the previous year. 

These major social media events of 2012 provide additional validation for the Social TV space, and for the rising influence and importance of interactive Social TV and second-screen experiences. This trend can no longer be ignored, especially when more and more viewers are now expecting to have these experiences around their favorite TV shows. As a result, TV networks are increasingly providing them, knowing now how an engaged, loyal fan base can dramatically boost the ratings of their shows.