Twitter has reported on Tuesday that there were 10 million @MTV #VMA-related tweets on Sunday, Aug. 28 during the East Coast airing of the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards. That's more tweets than any award show to date.
Separately, the social TV company SocialGuide, which offers daily, weekly and monthly rankings of the live programs with the most social media activity, reported the MTV VMAs were the most social program measured to date in terms of activity on Twitter and Facebook, beating out the season four premiere of Jersey Shore Aug. 4.
While social media has long been a part of the VMAs digital efforts, its social media efforts were significantly expanded this year, both for its online and mobile apps, reports Colin Helms, vice president of MTV.
MTV had been working with Twitter for the VMAs since 2007 and in 2009 launched its first iteration of the Twitter Tracker, explains Michael Scogin, VP of mobile for MTV.
This year MTV developed an enhanced Twitter Tracker tool with a number of new features for both online and its second screen MTV WatchWith app.
Besides the record tweets, the VMAs also set a number of other records, with 2 million visitors to MTV.com on Sunday, up 33% over 2010 and the highest VMA traffic ever.
It was also the biggest live-streamed event ever on MTV Digital, with about 2 million streams for online, table and mobile devices.
MTV Mobile also had its best two day traffic ever, with 2.7 million mobile views on Sunday and 4.8 million views on Monday, up 172% from 2010.
Social networks also played a major role in this traffic, with over 20% of traffic being driven by social networks. Referrals from social were nearly double what they were a year ago.
