Social TV Metrics: Old World Meets New

So Nielsen has acquired Social TV metrics company Social Guide. This was bound to happen sooner or later, as the statistical sampling model Nielsen uses to measure audiences has been in need of a refresh for some time.

Ad rates are set based on this ratings model, despite the commonplace acknowledgment that the model is not only imperfect at measuring what it intends to measure (television sets on, tuned to a program), but may not even be measuring what’s important. For in this 500+ channel watching, DVR-hopping, multiviewing, second screening world that we live in, where 65% of advertising is ignored, is it really the gross numbers of television sets on that matters?

We’re smarter and more precise than we were a generation ago. We can measure audience engagement (if we couldn’t, there would not be at least THREE supremely qualified Social TV metrics companies operating – Social Guide, Trendrr and Bluefin Labs). And tools are coming online in the Second Screen industry to take that engagement further – measuring not only social media commentary but commerce, engagement with second screen content and advertising.

So what does it mean that Nielsen has acquired Social Guide? It depends on how Nielsen contextualizes the information, and whether Nielsen’s customers buy into the value of the data – and not just directionally. Engaged second screen audiences are loyal. They pay attention to ads. They buy things. And in the end, isn’t this what the original Nielsen statistical sampling model was trying to enlighten?