VMA's Overload Twitter

I've been procrastinating this post because I hadn't sat down and figured out what I wanted to blog about. Well lucky for me, I came across this topic tonight, while watching the VMA's. MTV launched an app called the MTV VMA Twitter Tracker, it is a web-based, visual app that tracked trending topics live during the show. You were able to see how many tweets were posted per topic. Then, the topics are ranked according to how many tweets were posted, so the order was constantly changing.  Some of the top topics were #ladygaga, #justinbieber, #kanyewest, #taylorswift, and #vma. The top four topics were presented first with huge images of the artist and how many tweets per minute are coming through. Along the top of the app, you are able to view any of the 50 VMA topics and tweet live your opinions as well. Also, in the bottom left corner is a timeline to see how many tweets went through per minute and who at that exact time were the four top trending topics. Not only did this timeline build during the entire show, but it is still increasing even though the VMA's just started their first replay.

Throughout the show,  MTV kept TV audiences updated with how many tweets were coming through on Twitter. The hottest topic however, was in the very beginning of the show. Rihanna made a surprise appearance to sing "Love the Way you Lie" with Eminem as the VMA's opening performance. As soon as she stepped on stage, Twitter went over capacity due to more than 4,700 tweets per minute about #rihanna. As of right now there have been 2,059,418 tweets about the VMA's since they started at 7 p.m.,

I think this was a very smart move for MTV. Obviously, they appeal to a younger market, so incorporating what we know and use so well, really helped engage the audience. I was on Twitter during the show because I wanted to see everyone's opinion and catch up on what I missed in the beginning of the show. MTV's app is fascinating to me and definitely a breakthrough in the interweaving of online, mobile and television all into one social media event. It will be interesting to see if other networks follow suit and incorporate social media directly into their programming. It is a step in the right direction and a great solution to what the future of social media plus traditional media can create.

And 8 minutes later, there are now 2,097,783 tweets, with that number still rapidly increasing.