Study: Those Social Media Logos On TV Actually Work

There is hardly a program or ad on TV these days that doesn’t ask its viewers to like its Facebook page or tweet about it. According to a new survey by global consulting firm Accenture, there’s a simple reason for this: those social media symbols actually work. Accenture found that, in the U.S, about a third of TV viewers have liked a show’s or brand’s Facebook page or tweeted about what they saw on TV after seeing one of these logos.

The most common action for those who did interact with a show or ad while watching TV was liking its page on Facebook (20%). About 7% of viewers searched for a show’s hashtag on Twitter and 5% used Shazam while sitting on their couch.

Surprisingly, the survey also found that 11% of viewers scanned a QR code while watching TV. That’s a rather large number, given that QR codes are still far from mainstream.

Why do people interact with these shows and brands on social media? It’s not so much because they want to be social, but because they want to get coupons (32%) and enter sweepstakes (26%). Only a fifth of respondents also said that they interacted with the logos to “connect with others with similar interests” and to recommend a video or program to others.

For the most part, those who then received content via these social media symbols were quite happy with what they found. Only 10% of respondents said that their expectations were not met and 15% said that what they found exceeded their expectations.