3% increase in Facebook ‘Likes’ correlates with 1% rise in TV viewings

A new study carried out by CitizenNet finds that Facebook activity leads to an increase in TV viewership.

According to the research – which took a sample of 77 shows between 2011 and 2012 – a 3% increase in Facebook’s ‘Likes’ correlated to a 1% bump in TV ratings.

More than 20 metrics provided by Facebook’s insights tools were used in the study and compared likes and click-through rates with Nielsen viewership numbers using linear regression.

“It’s unfortunate that so many marketers are caught up in the myriad of measures and scores that come out of online advertising,” said a spokesperson for CitizenNet.

“As we have shown, many online metrics are correlated with each other, so not having a useful dependent variable makes some people come to the conclusion that social media metrics are a waste of time. By looking to see how online influences offline, we can see that successful marketers are just trying to appeal to people’s nature – regardless of the medium.”

CitizenNet added that marketers would benefit from not focusing purely on cost-efficiency and Facebook likes.

“As much as every industry needs to stretch their ad dollars, there’s no use in advertising to the wrong people. Our advice is to start building simple benchmarks of past performance, with an eye to overall CTR (not just paid, but organic, as well), as well as cost efficiency.”