Learn from the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards

The official website of the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards (the VMA's), held in New York and televised on DStv's MTV last month, serves as an excellent case study on how social media components can be included in an event's ePR and online communication content strategy.

Twitter formed the centrepiece of the VMA website this year. For the event, MTV developed the VMA Tweet Tracker. This listening platform reflected real-time tweet statistics through a visualization interface. It allowed website visitors to scroll over an artist's thumbnail to reveal tweet content and stats - the larger the thumbnail bubble, the more tweets about that artist on Twitter.

Four minutes before the actual event, the field presenter announced that around 115 000 fans tweeted about the event. I think it was great that the pre-show VMA presenter could refer to stats from the Tweet Tracker - it added a new dimension to live reporting and real-time facts.

Impressive

The live-blogging was impressive. I observed that MTV VMA journalists posted content updates every 2 to 10 minutes from the red carpet and backstage. This brought web visitors closer to the action - the big arrivals, the awesome fashion and unpredictable moments.

The VMA photo library set new standards in news picture immediacy. Shots of guests and celebrities on the red carpet were uploaded in real-time and at a lightning fast speed. The step and repeat fashion library was complete with around 55 image uploads before the VMA ceremony commenced. Content was neatly arranged and packaged into categories for media and viewers. Photo libraries included red carpet fashion but also VMA performance rehearsal publicity shots as well as commercial and promotional photographs of presenters and performers. In addition, a very creative section was included depicting artists photographed against certain New York City landmarks with captioned comparisons.

A genius strategy

The video library provided additional content ranging from rehearsal interviews to music videos of nominees to official VMA promo videos. The site also provided a live streaming function from the event. As an added bonus, visitors to the site were treated to an exclusive viewing of the music video premiere for "Fame" - an upcoming movie.

A genius strategy was devised by the VMA ePR folk to capture website visitors and herd them into, well, the MTV database. To be part of the VMA 2009 online community, registration was required. Visitors could only comment on blogs or photos of the VMA website if they were members of a social networking group or if they registered on MTV's website.

And the award for best online communication and social media this year goes to MTV.

Lessons learnt from the VMA website:

• Don't be shy to use social media and social networking applications - the Tweet Tracker is actually a social monitoring tool, but was converted to a social media application for visitors;
  
• When blogging from a live event, blog a lot! The VMA taught us how important fresh content or updates are; keep your visitors constantly in the know;
  
• Know your online audience. MTV catered for viewers of the VMA, media that would report on the event and even promoter - this was reflected in the anatomy of the photo and video galleries. MTV also packaged and repackaged content into different categories to accommodate each target audience;
  
• Reward website visitors - VMA visitors received an exclusive look at content for the first time, namely music video from "Fame";
  
• Try capture website visitors - registration on a website and enrolment in a social networking interest group MTV created have ensured expansion of their database and for other direct marketing purposes.