A recent study from Twitter shows that live-tweeting from an actor’s account can boost the volume of conversation on the social network. Series premieres with live-tweeting cast-members had 64 percent more tweets that day than TV shows that did not. The difference for live-tweeting from the show’s official handle was only a seven percent increase. Twitter says actors also generate a significant following when they live-tweet. Their lift in follow rate increases by 228 percent.

The study’s findings were published on Twitter’s blog last week. Twitter encourages television programs to grow and engage their audience by live-tweeting through cast members. “They’re your greatest asset,” data scientist Guy Hugot-Derville wrote in the post.

Overall, actors have a much bigger influence than the official Twitter account of a TV show. With the exception of reality TV shows, every genre had a higher lift in rate of follower growth. The biggest winner was comedy, with the lift in rate of follower growth increasing from 2.4x to 12x. That’s a 408 percent jump when a cast member was live-tweeting.

According to a Twitter survey, 64 percent of Twitter users say they like to see tweets from official show accounts. About 61 percent prefer to see tweets from the cast while 35 percent prefer the official show’s account.

No matter which accounts people are following, other Twitter studies have shown that Twitter users are active TV fans. Variety reports, “Twitter found that 85 percent of users active on Twitter during primetime TV hours are tweeting about TV.”

Nielsen found that tweets can influence ratings changes, particularly in competitive reality TV, comedies, and sports.