This stat makes sense when you think about it, but it is still worth noting: 50% of Twitter users discuss a show they are watching, one-third more than the 35% of Facebook users who do the same. This comes from a US tvguide.com study (via Marketing Charts).
Breaking these figures down, Twitter users are significantly more likely to start online chatter about a TV programme than Facebook users before it airs (62% vs 47%). While the programme itself is on, just under of Twitter users will be tweeting about it (47%) compared to a quarter of Facebook users (24%) who will post status updates.
However, after the show, the online discussion rates are broadly similar, with 69% of Facebook and 68% of Twitter users talking about it.
So what do these results show? Twitter co-founder Evan Williams famously pronounced that Twitter’s goal was to be the ‘pulse of the planet‘ and these results show how immediacy and short bursts of information shared with a wide group of people are core to Twitter’s set up.
By comparison, Facebook is the place where you might have a more involved discussion with your friends once you’ve had a chance to digest the programme. By extension it is also where you might seek out fan pages while away from the TV set.
In fact, tvguide.com found that Twitter users are most likely to retweet celebrities (70%….seriously?), @ celebs (68%) or RT actual TV show Twitter handles (64%). By comparison, Facebook users are more likely to comment on TV fan pages (60%) as opposed to celebrity fan pages (45%).