By Steve Safran, Sr. Vice President, Media 2.0 at AR&D

It won't change things, but it's great to see people on Twitter and Facebook airing their opinions on the Jay Leno - Conan O'Brien dustup. The affiliates and the numbers dictated the change, and I'm not about to get into the argument over whether the move was right. Instead, I turn to Tweets and Facebook pages for some instant feedback. Why? Our audience is talking, and even if we're sticking to our guns, we should listen.

On Facebook, the page for O'Brien's supporters, "Team Conan" has nearly half a million supporters. Leno has no such support. His page pulls only 17,000 fans of his show. (Note: There is a "Leno group" that people supporting Conan have claimed to take over. I have no proof this is true, but the group does have 48,000 fans. I suspect this is a Conan-supporter hoax.)

There are 140 posts on the Team Conan Facebook group. One of the most popular suggests a boycott of NBC. The Leno group is, as you may imagine, more pro-Jay. Posts here discuss their support for the move. What's interesting is how few posts there were on the discussion board until early January, when the rumors of Leno's move began.

There is far more activity on Twitter. Again, Conan fans lead the way with their "I'm With Coco" movement. (Hashtag: #imwithcoco.) Leno simply doesn't have the same support. There's some irony here - Conan had a segment on The Tonight Show that mocked Twitter users. NBC even devotes a microsite to the bit, called twitter-tracker.com.

Conan fans have started a website at TeamConan.com. The page has been Tweeted 142 times and retreated 400 times as of this writing. There is an absolutely bizarre animation on the page that explains the various moves. It's brought to us from NMA, the same people in China who animated the Tiger Woods drama. It's compellingly weird.

It's not surprising that Conan would win the battle of the social mediascape. His audience is, after all, younger than the Leno audience. They're more likely to be online and using social media, especially for a protest. What we can learn is the importance of feedback. I hope the folks at NBC are following closely what's being said on Twitter and Facebook. NBC isn't likely to change its mind, but it will hear from its viewers and, hopefully, will respond.