Social Media’s Reaction to the VMAs
As everyone and their mother knows or heard about (if not, what rock are you living under??), the MTV Video Music Awards, or the VMAs, was held over the weekend.
Now as we all know social media and television go hand in hand. If there is a major show being aired, social media users will be tuned in with their hashtags, tweets, posts and memes at hand. This year’s VMAs definitely had social media roaring and ready to click send.
It was reported that this year’s VMAs dominated social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. However, people were more focused about tweeting about the VMAs, than actually tuning in to watch the show. This year’s ratings dropped 5% below the number of viewers who watched the show in 2014- which had also dropped by 18% from the previous year.
Nicki Minaj and Miley Cyrus’ slight head butting also added ammunition to the tweets, with people posting videos and screenshots of Miley’s face after Nicki Minaj’s confrontation. Whether it was staged or not, it managed to get all the viewers excited and engaging even more with the show in anticipation for more “staged” incidents.
Justin Bieber also caught a lot of viral attention after literally flying, and them breaking down into tears after his performance. The showcase of his emotions brought some viewers to tweet their love and acceptance for him, whereas others were not as affectionate.
Miley Cyrus’ surprise performance at the end of the show also had the Facebook posts buzzing. Miley’s performance definitely lived up to her personality. She brought dozens of drag queens along with her on stage to perform her latest song, and also ended the performance with an announcement of a new album on her website. The best part about the announcement was that the album would be free. Best way to promote a new release, with millions watching on TV and even more posting on social media platforms all over the world. Great marketing strategy Miley!
Tori Kelly was also an interest in the Facebook world, with loads of posts about her performance and also who she was. If no one knew about her before, the VMAs definitely gave her a platform to market herself and her music.
VMAs brought a number of hashtags and tweets to Twitter helping it to reach its record. They also brought a number of conversations to Facebook, and great pictures to Instagram. Although they may not have had the same numbers as the previous years for the television views, the award show definitely made an impact on social media, and made the brand even larger than its current status.
I think it is safe to say that the 2015 VMAs broke the internet.
Twitter’s Reaction
Twitter possibly stole all of the viewers lost from 2014, as the 2015 VMA tweets alone broke a Twitter record. 21.4 million tweets were made about the VMAs, making it the most tweeted about non-sports event or show EVER! These tweets even managed to beat the super bowl tweets. All of these tweets came from 2.2 million people and were seen by 11.8 million people 676 million times. There were a number of celebrity gaffes that occurred to help Twitter achieve these numbers, but the most tweeted about event that night was during Kanye West’s acceptance speech, with 247,525 tweets being made. Kayne West, the king of speeches, or rather lectures, made a huge and rather shocking announcement (after about 2 hours of talking), that he would be running for president in 2020. At the speed of light, tweets spread the news, memes were made and viewers tried to predict who he would be running against. The announcement set off the hashtag #Kanye2020, and an uproar of tweets.
Nicki Minaj and Miley Cyrus’ slight head butting also added ammunition to the tweets, with people posting videos and screenshots of Miley’s face after Nicki Minaj’s confrontation. Whether it was staged or not, it managed to get all the viewers excited and engaging even more with the show in anticipation for more “staged” incidents.
Justin Bieber also caught a lot of viral attention after literally flying, and them breaking down into tears after his performance. The showcase of his emotions brought some viewers to tweet their love and acceptance for him, whereas others were not as affectionate.
Facebook’s reaction
Kanye’s speech was also the most talked about conversation on Facebook. After Taylor Swift presented Mr West with his award, with her own remix to his interruption to her award acceptance in 2009, he introduced his speech my mentioning he had a little something to get the edge off.
Miley Cyrus’ surprise performance at the end of the show also had the Facebook posts buzzing. Miley’s performance definitely lived up to her personality. She brought dozens of drag queens along with her on stage to perform her latest song, and also ended the performance with an announcement of a new album on her website. The best part about the announcement was that the album would be free. Best way to promote a new release, with millions watching on TV and even more posting on social media platforms all over the world. Great marketing strategy Miley!
Tori Kelly was also an interest in the Facebook world, with loads of posts about her performance and also who she was. If no one knew about her before, the VMAs definitely gave her a platform to market herself and her music.
Instagram’s Reaction
The VMAs also stole the show on Instagram with a total of 64 million social interactions. Selena Gomez’s Instagram post with Taylor Swift managed to dominate the top VMAs Instagram photo of the night, with 1.5 million likes. Her post managed to rake up more likes than Kim Kardashian, who was recently crowned as the most popular person on Instagram. There were a number of other Instagram post from the VMAs that topped the ratings on Instagram, such as Miley’s opening segment, her selfie with the audience and the mention of #Blacklivesmatter. A number of other celebs also took to Instagram to share their experience at the award show, and once again scooped in all the likes.
VMAs brought a number of hashtags and tweets to Twitter helping it to reach its record. They also brought a number of conversations to Facebook, and great pictures to Instagram. Although they may not have had the same numbers as the previous years for the television views, the award show definitely made an impact on social media, and made the brand even larger than its current status.
I think it is safe to say that the 2015 VMAs broke the internet.
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Published by
Alexis Pratsides