Twitter posts can reveal popularity of TV shows

Micro-blogging site Twitter can predict the popularity of a TV show, finds a study by global market research firm Nielsen, adding that advertisers can scan Twitter activity to identify television shows with highly-engaged audiences.

Twitter posts about a show or an episode can be a great reflection of how involved and engaged viewers are, it added.

The study identified three specific neurometrics associated with Twitter TV activity -- emotion, memory and attention.

Researchers observed participants watching episodes of eight prime-time television shows as they were attached to brain monitors.

The measurements from the device were compared with Twitter activity during the time of broadcast.

They found that the more engaged users are in an episode, the more they tweet.

"As the audiences are getting more engaged with the segment, the Twitter activity is getting more intense," Avgusta Shestyuk, director of neuroscience at Nielsen Neuro, told The New York Times.

The team found that changes in Twitter TV activity are strongly correlated (79.5 percent) with neurological engagement.

The findings suggest that advertising in highly social programmes could be an opportunity to drive both ad memorability and sales outcomes.