• by Daisy Whitney , Op-Ed Contributor, March 19, 2012

February was a big month for social TV chatter, driven by events like the Oscars, the Super Bowl and the Grammys. In addition, the amount of conversations and check-ins around TV shows has grown 91% year over year, said social TV tracking service Trendrr.tv in a recently released white paper.

The last year has seen a slew of programmers from Discovery to Showtime release new and additional social TV apps to promote synchronous viewing, some of which include online video. Plus, there’s been ample attention by media agencies to startups that can track and quantify social buzz around shows and commercials. Such insight can help marketers better understand the true level of engagement and passions fans have in a particular show.

Interestingly, audiences for different shows “buzz” about them in various ways, Trendrr.tv found. While Twitter is often the focal point for social chatter, many animated shows find the most activity on Facebook, such as Fox’s comedy “American Dad,” according to Trendrr.tv. “Knowing this helps advertisers and programmers better focus their production efforts or marketing and advertising dollars to the appropriate platform,” Trendrr.tv said.

Trendrr.tv’s analysis of social engagement includes tweets and posts as well as shared links for video clips.

Sunday is the most popular day for social chatter and that’s because so many tentpole events air on Sundays. Other findings revealed that CNN’s political coverage made it the most social news network in February, and that marketers benefited most from special events when they tied them into live tweets and digital call outs.