The TV audience plays with Twitter | Key4Communications |

We've all heard of the second screen - how we interact with TV contents thanks to mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. This new habit offers many possibilities, such as displaying additional content and collect opinions, for example. Furthermore, it is not even necessary to develop platforms and apps, since one of the tools that people use more and that is apparently also more useful for brands is Twitter.

According to a research by Starcom Mediavest Group and Social TV Lab, a Twitter consulting company, this network provides four benefits to companies who use it to strengthen their TV communication.

1. Higher brand awareness. Firms that use Twitter in combination with their TV advertising increased brand awareness among the target audience by an average of 6.9%, compared with companies that only relied on TV advertising. An increase of 6% was also recorded in preference for these brands.

2. More sales. Sales of these products and services that combined advertising campaigns on TV and Twitter grew an average of 4% more compared to those using only conventional TV advertising.

3. Attention and multitasking. Only one quarter of tweeting occurs during the ad break, and it was highest during reality shows (27%). Despite the obvious drawbacks of multitasking, it seems that viewers who are actively engaging in social media while viewing TV are genuinely paying attention to both screens. In fact, ad recall was also 13% higher among Twitter users versus non-multitaskers.

4. A growing activity. Tweeting about events and shows is 20% higher than general browsing about a specific content (15%.) In addition, most tweeting happens when something is worthy of a tweet (70%). In the case of reality shows and sports, 40% of viewers using Twitter commented these contents.

Hashtags also help - tweets including hashtags are 42% more discussed than those that do not include them. Also, there is a 18% increase in tweets considered relevant (with more interactions) when a hashtag is used.

This study shows that we can not drop the phone even when we are watching TV, so it makes sense to complement audiovisual contents with mobile experiences. We no longer watch TV alone but in the company of hundreds, even thousands, of people with whom we have weak ties.

The good news is that these second screen actions can help to maintain and even increase the audience's attention, as they offer opportunities to interact and share.