Advanced Television

Beamly beats Twitter during EastEnders special

February 26, 2015

EastEnders’ ‘Who killed Lucy?’ 30th anniversary story created a social media frenzy last week, with one million tweets sent during the live show. But despite the online engagement generated on Twitter around one of TV’s most-anticipated events, consumer behaviour indicates a new trend for social TV. These are the findings of social discovery platform Beamly, which received the biggest share of the action as today’s fans look for deeper engagement around their favourite TV programmes.

Beamly is a social network for TV lovers where users join their favourite ‘rooms’, corresponding to the shows they watch. With over eight million users for the platform overall, this represents an opportunity for broadcasters and advertisers to tap into a highly engaged and relevant audience.

Beamly’s EastEnders ‘room’ saw over 1.1 million unique users, plus 2,237,723 votes for its “Who Killed Lucy?” interactive voting poll in the run up to and during the live show. And it hasn’t stopped since – Beamly’s online poll today “Who’s getting arrested for Lucy’s murder?” has already received half a million votes.

Simon Miller, Managing Director at Beamly said: “Beamly believes the EastEnders’ social media response shows a new trend in social TV, with fans looking for deeper engagement around their favourite shows. Social media is fuelling the growth of an avid social fan community. And at its heart is content. While Twitter was mobbed during the live show, fans quickly dropped off and few were actively engaged – they are now looking for deeper engagement which is not limited to the window of the show. Meanwhile traditional media have great content, but lack the community – they are very much in the ‘publisher’ model.

He concludes: “We feel that it’s the community that gets the social buzz going, and that this is why their EastEnders stories peaked at 30,000 shares, whilst Beamly’s top story achieved 60,000 shares, leading the buzz. Superfans coalesce around the shows they love and people who know them inside out. They want a passionate community, engaging content, interaction, excitement, and kudos from peers.”

Categories: Articles, Social Media