2016 was a shaky and difficult year for Twitter. What used to be one of the leading social networking sites in the world has had its fair share of hiccups as an enterprise.
Before the year ended, however, the microblogging site again made news about their acquisition of startup app maker Yes Inc. Twitter is thus not dead.
In fact, a new study shows the value of Twitter in movie marketing. Twitter, through its users, can make or break a movie.
Word Of Mouth Marketing And Box Office Success
Researchers from the School of Communication at Emerson College found that Twitter could influence the success of movies through sentiments expressed by Twitter users on a movie.
Thus, the study confirmed a correlation between word of mouth marketing and a movie's success.
The researchers conducted the study using a sample of 12,000 tweets from 17 movies in the fall of 2016. Only movies that were scheduled for a wide release and were not holiday-themed were considered in the study, with its particular promotional hashtags used to define which tweet relates to the movie.
A random sample of 400 hashtags were analyzed per week, with a maximum of four weeks. The data were compared based on the sentiments of the tweet, with some low-performing movies having only a week's worth of data.
The study was conducted by the same group of researchers who previously studied the correlation between revenue and a movie's success.
"This study offers more evidence of the influence of word of mouth on movies. Specifically, it confirms our earlier research regarding the significant relationship between movie buzz and revenue," Owen Eagan, from the Department of Communication Studies, said.
How Does Twitter Make Box Office Movies?
Twitter users have the power to generate a buzz on a certain topic, in this case, a movie, with the use of hashtags and trending topics.
As a microblogging platform, Twitter allows its users to express themselves in 140 characters about whether the movie was worth it or not. Twitter's real-time conversations serve as real-time movie reviews even after the movie has finished its screening.
In a study conducted by Nielsen in 2014, on the other hand, 34 percent of moviegoers included in the study used Twitter for information on a particular movie.
"As movie studios plan their marketing budgets for next year's blockbuster movies, they should consider that most moviegoers are using social media to get their information," said Kathy Benjamin, SVP of Nielsen National Research Group (NRG).
