The word television is a combination of the Greek root tele, which means “far off” and the Latin visio, which means “sight.” The term was imported from France around 1907—years before the actual television set was invented. It wasn’t until 1948 that the abbreviated version “TV” came into being. I share this bit of tube trivia with you because if current trends continue, we may need to add another term to the TV lexicon: Tell-a-Vision. As in, tell your friends what you’re watching, right now—and ask them to join you. Or tell an advertiser you like their newest product. Or tell everyone following you on Twitter what you think of the latest episode of Glee.

In short, tell-a-vision, “socialvision” or Social TV is about transforming TV viewing from an isolated, passive experience into an interactive, ongoing conversation. At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter what you call it, as long as you understand it, because this is likely where the puck is going, and also, some believe, where the buck is going.

But not all social TV is created equal, and not all audiences are equally interested in engaging socially via the TV. A recent survey seems to indicate that younger audiences are extremely passionate about it, while older audiences have mixed feelings on the subject. In fact, the social TV category is still defining itself and so there are a lot of unknowns. Yet marketers are eager to jump in. Already advertisers and content programmers have used social media tools in a variety of creative ways. Many of these are “second screen” strategies that employ a device in addition to the TV to drive social engagement (mobile phones, laptops, etc.) And some social tactics aren’t delivered through a traditional broadcast or cable signal, but through internet video. The comedy site Funny or Die has built a big following through social media, and they recently took it a big step further by embedding a Twitter hashtag directly into a video, to drive more traffic.

At Xbox LIVE, we have a strong history in the social gaming space, which is typically experienced on the TV. Long before anyone put a name on this behavior, people were socializing through their TVs, on Xbox LIVE. What started with gamers, has recently exploded to include a much broader demographic of entertainment consumers. In recent years, our unique implementation of the Netflix experience has helped us understand the fascinating dynamics of social movie consumption. 

The social behaviors of the Xbox LIVE audience are technically enabled in two ways: through an Xbox LIVE identity (tied to a Windows Live ID) and an avatar. The so-called Live ID cleverly associates the users’ Xbox LIVE behaviors with regular web browsing behaviors, enabling all sorts of rich, multiscreen targeting scenarios which bridge the TV and the PC experiences. As much as I love data – yes, I’m a quant geek at heart – what I really love about Xbox LIVE as a social TV platform is the avatar. This social “persona” carries a lot of rich data while also giving the user a uniquely personal, visual identity – all of which leads to a more deeply engaging Social TV experience.

Think about it: Xbox LIVE is the only entertainment “TV network” in the world where the user signs into the viewing experience with their identity a personal, visual expression of themselves (their avatar). This makes Xbox LIVE the stickiest and most engaging marketing platform on TV. Let’s face it; you can’t put Prada sunglasses on a text-based user name. (Xbox LIVE trivia: women change the look of their avatars far more often than men).

And recently, we announced NUads, which also make the TV experience more social, by allowing viewers to interact with brands in more personal, natural ways. Looking ahead, social TV is evolving to enable audiences to participate and influence programming, plot lines, and more. Some people are calling this trend Participatory TV. Clearly, there is no shortage of terminology in the social TV landscape. For now, I’m content with “Tell-a-vision” – but I’d like to hear what you think.

Mark Kroese