You’d be forgiven for thinking that today’s holy marketing grail is to be talked about (a lot) in social media. Unfortunately, social buzz doesn’t necessarily translate into either attention or sales.

That discontinuity has now been clearly illustrated thanks to a just-released U.S. report from Networked Insights Inc called “SocialSenseTV”, which correlates the buzz on popular US television shows with their actual Nielsen ratings.

The report covers the period from the 1st of February 2010 to the 25th of April 2010. Unsurprisingly given that timeframe, the Number 1 most-discussed show across the social networks was “Lost”, counting down to last week’s final episode. However, despite its Number 1 social status, the ever-mysterious saga could only average 10th place in the Nielsen TV ratings (amongst those 18-64) across the period.

American Idol, second most talked-about TV series, was actually the top-rating TV show in the US for that time period according to Nielsen; Glee, third most buzzed, sang and danced its way into fourth in the ratings.

Further down the list, however, the disparity between the two metrics becomes far more evident. The Simpsons, still buzzworthy after all these years, ranks Number 4 on the social-o-meter but rates 44th most-watched series according to Nielsen; the Number 5 social show, Heroes, only manages an asterisk in the report (which means in this instance that the show is ranked lower Nielsen’s 50 most-watched shows).

Other socially-superior shows that fell into the Nielsen realm of the asterisk included Saturday Night Live (9th most social), Cold Case (11th), So You Think You Can Dance (16th), Chuck (17th) and How I Met Your Mother (20th).

What implications can we take from all this?

Firstly, that just because a topic hits water-cooler status doesn’t mean that talk will translate into action. In fact, it may well be that in many cases social newsgatherers can get enough out of the virtual buzz to avoid bothering to engage with the product at all. The next best thing to being there may well be listening hard enough to be able to bluff your way through in future conversations.

Secondly, those who stalk the corridors of the social networks, numerous though they may be, are not yet representative of the population at large — they’re younger (and tend to spend less time engaging with traditional media and more time interacting with each other). And when it comes to disposable income their share of purse still tends to be lower, except for core categories of importance to their demographic.

Thirdly, buzz about any particular event or TV show AFTER the event is just too darned late. Yes, TV operators might gather a few viewers to their Replay TV service, but for most other applications, it’s already over. The time to drive buzz is beforehand.

And finally, especially when it comes to TV shows that have been around a while, many of us carry a symbolic understanding of at least the most popular shows in our heads. Episodic television being what it is, where things don’t change much from week to week, all we need is a few fragments of current information to update our cerebral files and we don’t need to see the show to have the experience.

In summary:  it’s nice when they’re talking about you (especially beforehand) but it’s no substitute for the ka-ching of the cash register.

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Tags: most talked about, Nielsen ratings, popularity, social media, SocialSenseTV, television