From Inside the Box: TV News and Buzz Follow Zap2it:  Twitter TV
ratings explained: What they measure, what they don't and what
it means  twitter-tv-ratings-explained.jpgThe release of the
first-ever Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings on Oct. 7 caused both
excitement and confusion among TV fans in the Twitterverse. Will
social-media users finally have their voices heard with regard
to their favorite shows? Will the new ratings affect a show's
status? Do Twitter ratings count toward the show's on-air
numbers?  Yes, maybe and no. Here's what the Twitter ratings do
and don't do.  What they measure: "Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings
include both activity and reach metrics for TV-related
conversation on Twitter," Deirdre Bannon, VP of product for
SocialGuide (which teamed up with Nielsen to collect the Twitter
ratings data), tells Zap2it. In other words, they measure bpth
the volume of tweets about a given show and the number of
Twitter users who see those tweets. Measurement happens three
hours before, during and three hours a