Are you enjoying keeping up with Clay Aiken’s tweets?  It is fun to see him throw out a little information every once in a while.  I hope Clay is having fun too.  In the last few days, Clay’s twitter account has grown by almost 1,000 members.

Clay’s decision to jump into the twitter world is not surprising.  I am sure that Clay and his PR team have discussed this decision more than once.  Perhaps one of the reasons Clay joined the twitter world was the latest research from Nielsen.

Nielsen is the current authority on television ratings.  They recently published a study linking TV ratings with social media chatter.

In the past, television has been a passive medium.  Most viewers sat on their couches and just watched their TV screens.  However, recently, social networks have seen an increase in the amount of social chatter happening during prime-time television.

Because of the widespread use of phones and tablets, television viewers are no longer just watching TV…they are connecting to other viewers.  They are chatting and discussing their favorite shows and characters.

Most of the major TV networks have started to see this increase and are realizing that it is important to encourage more of it.  This “word of mouth” chatter encourages people to tune in.

The bottom line question the network executives are asking is does the buzz actually help the overall ratings of shows like Celebrity Apprentice and The Good Wife?

Recently, the Bravo Channel saw a positive impact on their shows.  Calling twitter the “new digital water cooler”, they claimed there was a 10% rise in the ratings due to an increase in social media chatter.

Last July, GetGlue also ran a study about social networking and TV ratings.  They discovered that the impact of social buzz on dramas is smaller than the impact on reality shows.  People tend to chat more during the fast-paced show with a bit of controversy.

Another study by Bluefin Labs found that the popular NBC show, The Voice generated the highest level of social media engagement for any show that aired last spring.  It even beat Glee and Dancing With The Stars.

Trendrr.tv shared some data about the MTV Video Music Awards. At 10:35 pm, when Beyonce revealed that she was pregnant, Twitter experienced nearly 9,000 tweets per second in relation to the news.

According to Alex Iskold at Online Media Daily:

Every major television network, large and small, cable and broadcast, is participating in social TV. ABC, CBS, CW, Fox, NBC, USA, TNT, Bravo, Discovery, HBO, Showtime and others are tapping into social media, encouraging and rewarding fans for informing friends about what they are watching and sharing their thoughts on the individual shows.

Since ratings correspond to dollars and it looks like social buzz affects ratings, TV shows will be working with their advertisers to agree how to value the social buzz.  Many people feel that very soon there will be a rating system that scores the measure of the buzz.

The bottom line is this: Lots of social media chatter from the right audiences equates to better ratings. Of course, this means we can expect even more networks to encourage viewers to tweet, Facebook, G+ and gab about shows all over the web.

So…did Clay decide on his own to start tweeting or did Donald Trump and the Trump team encourage him? I am sure “The Donald” watches the TV ratings carefully and stays on top of all the things that affect his show.

Whatever reason that made Clay start tweeting, I am enjoying it.  We all just need to make sure we keep up the tweets while Celebrity Apprentice is active.  NBC…Clay and his fans mean great ratings!!