How SocialGuide Helps Drives Social TV This new website to watch aggregates social media comments about TV shows as they air and links them to program listings in real time.
By Margaret Littman •
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What It Is
SocialGuide aggregates the more than 100 million comments on Twitter and Facebook made about roughly 24,000 unique TV shows as they air and links them to its TV listings. Unlike the listings from your satellite or cable TV provider, SocialGuide displays program listings alongside viewers' comments in real time and sorts them according to their buzz factor. Registered users can look at streams of comments from their friends, all of cyberspace, those in their ZIP code or other areas, and add to the conversation about programs as they air.
How It Started
Founder Sean Casey had a background developing web applications for media companies and as a former staffer for sites including iVillage.com, where he worked with Erika Faust, SocialGuide's senior vice president of business development and marketing. Casey came up with the idea for SocialGuide based on his friends' TV-related Facebook and Twitter comments. He inked an R&D deal with Tribune Media Services to see if there was something to the idea of "social TV," a tool that linked TV listings with social media in real time. Casey self-financed the company for the first year and a half. In February 2011, SocialGuide received $1.5 million in first-round funding.
