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With more than half of the world now using social media and 424 million new users in the past year, it is clear that social media continues to take the world by storm. The ever-growing popularity of social media, along with the creation of new social media apps, means that people are spending more time than ever on their phones.
With social media forming a considerable part of the average persons daily life, it was only a matter of time before social media made its way onto other devices. Now, phones are not the only devices you can use to visit your favourite social media platforms, as smart TVs have now integrated social media into their systems. Thus, we’re looking into how you can use social media on your cheap smart TV and how each app works.
Which Social Media Platforms Can I Get on My Smart TV?
From the most popular social media apps such as Facebook and Twitter to instant messaging platforms including Google Talk, an extensive range of social media is available for use with your smart TV. For example, if you want to share a video from your Facebook feed onto the big screen, you can simply cast your phone’s content to the TV. This method creates a mirrored screen effect, so whatever you have displayed on your phone is directly shown on your TV screen.
Alternatively, smart TVs such as a cheap OLED TV have an app store where you can download social media apps. Within the app store, you’ll find your favourite social media apps, including the following:
- TikTok
- YouTube
- Web Browsers such as Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox
As it stands, Instagram is yet to release a smart TV app, and so to use this social media platform on your TV, you must use the casting method.
What are the Advantages of Using Social Media on your TV?
Integrating social media into TVs has various benefits, from increasing engagement with TV shows to keeping users occupied during the adverts; let’s take a look.
Bringing Viewers Together
With some social media apps, such as Facebook and Twitter, the news feed can be brought up on the right-hand side of the screen whilst simultaneously watching live TV. This means that viewers can interact with others online to discuss live shows and fan theories as the show takes place live.
Get Involved
The integrated Twitter app on a smart TV allows the audience to get involved and share their opinions about the show online with others. To do so, many shows now use unique hashtags that viewers can use to tweet about the show at any time. Using a hashtag increases user engagement and highlights the benefits of using social media on TV.
Keeping Viewers Occupied During Adverts
Adverts can be the most tedious part of watching TV. Most viewers tend to take to their phones when the adverts hit. There is no need to pull phones out with social media apps available on smart TVs, including 8K TVs. Viewers can simply scroll through their news feed on the big screen, ready for the show to continue after the ads.
Facebook on a Smart TV
You can now download the Facebook app from your smart TV app store. The Facebook TV app works similarly to desktop and mobile apps in function and design. The real difference is you no longer have to squint at a tiny phone screen to discover the latest news and updates from friends. Instead, using Facebook on TV enhances the experience, allowing viewers to access their newsfeed on a larger screen.
Smart TVs have also incorporated a sub-platform named Facebook Watch, allowing users to enjoy favourite videos from their newsfeed. Facebook Watch displays videos from pages followed and uses an algorithm to find related videos that users can watch based on previous viewing patterns.
Reddit on a Smart TV
Similar to Facebook Watch, Reddit is ideal for discovering entertaining videos. To stream videos from Reddit on the big screen, all viewers have to do is simply download the app and enjoy. The smart TV Reddit app showcases a variety of content with a feature to add favourites clips to subreddits. The Reddit feed can be personalised to the individual’s taste and used by the whole family. The perks of Reddit on TV are that rather than passing around a phone to share videos, everyone can watch simultaneously on the TV screen.
Twitter on a Smart TV
As mentioned, many TV shows have used hashtags as part of their branding to get viewers talking about their show. The hashtag tends to be displayed at the start of the show and can be used on Twitter to discuss the show’s events and fan theories in real-time. With the Twitter app on a smart TV, viewers can watch content alongside the live Twitter feed to keep up with any updates. This is particularly helpful when watching live conferences, news or sports events as it allows viewers to see any tweets regarding the event.
TikTok on a Smart TV
As one of the latest social media apps to hit the market, TikTok has undoubtedly made a worldwide impression. With over 1 billion users and predicted to grow over the coming years, TikTok has become one of the most popular social media apps. As they venture into smart TV territory, the main aim of TikTok through TV is to bring what it calls “little bursts of joy” into a communal viewing environment, allowing families and friends to watch their favourite TikTok videos together.
Getting Social Media on Your Smart TV At Electronic World, we offer a range of smart TVs, including cheap 4K TVs and QLED TVs, that you can watch your favourite content on as well as using social media. Contact our team for more information on how to purchase your smart TV and get scrolling through your top social media sites today.
