ABC’s “Scandal” and AMC’s “The Walking Dead” have the most loyal Twitter followings, according to a study released by Nielsen on Monday.
The researchers looked at Twitter users who tweeted about a show during three or more episodes over the course of a season, looking at all television shows on the air between September 2014 and May 2015.
“Scandal” topped the list with 24 percent of those tweeting about the hit Shondaland show during at least three episodes throughout the season. But the “The Walking Dead” was nipping at Olivia Pope’s heels with 23 percent. Fox’s new smash hit “Empire” also came in near the top with 22 percent.
See the full breakdown of most loyal Twitter followers by show below.
The study also determined that more loyal Twitter users exhibited different behaviors from other users of the social media site. They send an average of three times more tweets per episode of a show, have 50 percent more followers and are 70 percent more likely to tweet about brands, making them incredibly valuable targets for advertisers.
A similar study conducted by Canvs, a qualitative social TV platform, determined that emotional responses play a large part in driving Twitter loyalty for a show. For example, within tweets relating to drama programming, “crazy” and “love” were most strongly correlated with loyal tweeting.
A 10 percent increase in shares of “crazy” involving a particular show corresponds with a 5.3 percent increase in Twitter loyalty. The same held true for “love” which corresponded a 4.2 percent increase after a 10 percent increase in shares.