What Do We Tweet About? TV, Mostly

Everybody's eager to talk about the social media "revolution." But you know what the social media conversation mostly focuses on? Old media, particularly TV. Just ask Simon Dumenco, who analyzes Twitter data every week for Advertising Age. “Old media still rules our lives,” he writes. “Pay attention to what's really being talked about en masse on Twitter and chances are pretty good it relates to what's on TV.”

We all talk about the seismic shift to web-based video, but just 2% of TV viewing happens online. TV consumption is actually up, and almost all of it happens live. Even DVR users watch 85% of their TV while it airs. Why? Because in a sense, TV is the ultimate social media. “People want to watch TV together—not only with their friends and families, but with the culture at large.” (More Simon Dumenco stories.)