Social capital, social media, and TV ratings

Motivated by the increasing role of social media in relating to economic outcomes, this paper examines the relationship between social networking sites (SNS) and television ratings drawing from the social capital theoretical framework of bonding and bridging. Based on the context of US network television (TV) programs, we collected measures for Facebook likes and Facebook talk for 38 TV programs and their respective Nielsen ratings over a period of five weeks, resulting in a sample size of 165 weekly observations. In testing OLS regression models, we determined that key social media measures, proxy for social capital, are positively associated with performance ratings. In essence, TV programs with a higher number of Facebook likes (bridging) and Facebook talk (bonding) are likely to relate to higher performance ratings. In addition we conclude that weak ties (bridging) are important as a conduit to connect fans to TV shows but in the long run, strong ties (bonding) are needed to reinforce those relationships towards fan loyalty. Contributions to both research and practice are discussed.