再看“第二屏幕”的广告价值

    对于那些热衷于社交网络、特别是爱上Twitter的人来说，他们可能会把社交网络的重要性看得很高，甚至超过它对社会的实际影响。如果你经常上Twitter，而且你熟悉的人也经常上Twitter，你可能会产生一种错觉，好像全世界的人们都活在Twitter上一样。但真实的世界并不是这样。大多数人上了一整天的班（或是上学）后回到家里，只想一头倒在沙发上看电视（或者读读书、织织毛衣，或是跟亲朋好友聊聊天、打打电话），最后想到的才是去微博上发发牢骚。

    不少微博爱好者的微博内容都与他们喜欢的电视节目有关。《华尔街日报》（Wall Street Journal ）在它的SocialGuide电视节目评分服务中引入了尼尔森公司（Nielsen）编制的“Twitter评分”。结果发现，在有些最热门的电视节目和所谓的“第二块屏幕收视率”（也就是发微博讨论所收看的电视节目的人数）之间存在着不小的差异。事实证明，Twitter上讨论最多的电视剧往往都不在热播剧之列。

    各大电视网络、广告商以及包括Twitter、Facebook在内的社交网络公司都想利用这种“第二块屏幕”现象赚钱，但事实上，即使他们真的这样做了，所产生的广告效应恐怕也差强人意。

    《华尔街日报》指出：这些数据表明，社交媒体用户群的构成与市场营销人员每年花几百亿美元广告费试图吸引的一般电视观众的构成存在很大区别。

    毕竟，Twitter在美国只有4,900万名用户，而且其中只有一小部分人经常发微博，讨论他们喜欢的电视节目。

    当然，这并不是说，我们没有必要去理解和接触这部分用户。不过有位市场营销人士对“第二块屏幕收视率”的看法可能是有些难以理解。Mullen广告公司的视频投资主管史蒂夫•卡布表示，如果人们发了与电视节目有关的微博，它就表明“节目里的广告应该也受到了关注”。不过难道这不是更有可能表明Twitter也获得了关注吗？

    Twitter如今已经做好了上市的准备。Twitter认为，如果在自己的平台上打广告，完全可以做到“两手抓”。Twitter已经明确表示，它正在寻找与电视有关的广告，包括通过它的Amplify项目。这个项目会在信息流中显示植入了广告的视频片断。

    Twitter当然有自信的实力：如果你的朋友在Twitter上发了与某个电视节目有关的微博，那么你自己也很有可能去找这个节目来看。不过在此之后，这个节目还得靠自己本身的魅力。

    据eMarketer上周发布的一份报告显示，体育类节目和《美国好声音》（The Voice ）、《美国偶像》（American Idol）等真人秀节目最容易成为社交网络讨论的热门节目，这也可能成为最大的商机所在。另外，Twitter倾向于向城市和年轻人群倾斜。因此在Twitter打广告，最完美的目标就应该是一个22岁左右、喜欢看很多真人秀节目的棒球迷。

    但是要想在Twitter上针对那些喜欢情景喜剧和电视剧的普通观众打广告的话，很大程度上可能会成为一种浪费。（财富中文网）

    译者：朴成奎  

    Social-media enthusiasts, especially those on Twitter, tend to think their hobby is more popular than it really is. If you're on Twitter a lot, and the people you know best are on Twitter a lot, it's easy to delude yourself into thinking that the whole world is there with you. But it's not. Most people work or go to school all day, and when they get home, many of them just want to flop down on the couch in front of the TV (or maybe read a book, or do some knitting, or chat face-to-face or on the phone with friends and family). The last thing on their minds is logging into Twitter to yammer.

    And that includes yammering about their favorite TV shows. The Wall Street Journal has compared the "Twitter ratings" compiled by Nielsen through its new SocialGuide service to TV ratings, and noted a big disconnect between some of TV's most popular shows and so-called second-screen viewing -- which in this case means people tweeting about the shows they're watching. The most-tweeted shows, it turns out, generally aren't among the most popular.

    Networks, advertisers, and social-media services including Twitter and Facebook (FB) are trying to capitalize on the "second screen" phenomen" it appears that, even if they are successful, the rewards will be marginal at best.

    The data, the Journal concludes, serve as "a reminder that the social-media service's user base has a very different makeup than the mass-market TV-viewing audience that marketers spend tens of billions of dollars each year to reach."

    Twitter, after all, has only about 49 million users in the U.S., and only a fraction of them tweet regularly about TV.

    Which is not to say it's pointless to try to understand and reach those users. But it's difficult to understand one marketer's conclusions about the value of second-screening: If people are tweeting about TV shows, that "means the ads are also being paid attention to," Steve Kalb, director of video investment at the ad firm Mullen, told the Journal. But doesn't it more likely mean that Twitter is being paid attention to?

    Twitter, which is getting ready to go public, thinks it can be both -- if the ads are on Twitter itself. It has explicitly stated that it's seeking TV-related ads, including through its Amplify program, which presents video clips with ads for shows embedded in the tweet stream.

    Twitter certainly has the power of buzz behind it: If your friends are tweeting about a show, you're more likely to check it out for yourself. After that, though, the show has to stand on its own.

    As noted in a report last week, from eMarketer, sports and other live-viewing events like The Voice and American Idol, naturally lend themselves to second-screen viewing. That's where most of the opportunities probably lie. Furthermore, Twitter skews young and urban, so the perfect target for these efforts might be a 22-year-old baseball fan who watches a lot of reality TV.

    Trying to reach the couch-floppers who prefer mass-market sitcoms and dramas, though, might be largely a wasted effort.