Twitter sells itself to investors and advertisers as the place for TV-related advertising. Just about every conversation about a TV show happens on Twitter. Twitter improves Nielsen ratings of shows. A TV show about lepers once brushed the hem of Twitter’s garment, and was rewarded with six seasons and a movie.
Twitter drives ratings. Fact. Except not according to an NBC executive:
“Why wouldn’t I want to say to you, ‘We have a potent new way in which we can drive ratings?’” But “it just isn’t true,” he added. “I am saying the emperor wears no clothes. It is what it is. These are the numbers.”
He was only talking about ratings for the Olympics, but still. If there are lots of tweets about a hashtag for a TV show, are people watching the show to keep up with the hashtag, or are people tweeting about a show they were already watching?
The only hashtag worth keeping up with is #sowhiteoutside, anyway; it’s only a matter of time until NBC airs a show based on that.