Enlivening the #CMAawards with Twitter

At the 2013 Country Music Association Awards, it seemed that the only thing more ubiquitous than cowboy boots was Twitter.

According to SocialGuide, Wednesday’s CMA Awards show was the most social program of the night. Singers and musicians engaged with fans and one another by live-tweeting while PEOPLE Magazine (@peoplemag) was on hand taking pictures of the stars from a backstage Twitter mirror.

The SocialGuide numbers show there were 1.67 million Tweets sent about the CMA Awards seen by 130.7 million people. That total number went up 17% from last year’s ceremony. 

The CMA Awards was also the top program of the night in viewership with 16.6 million people watching, up double digits over last year.

Promotion and hashtags
In the hours and days leading up to the ceremony, the Country Music Association (@CountryMusic) and show performers tweeted using #CMAawards.

The use of a single hashtag paid off. By the time the show rolled around, people knew which hashtag was central: 292,415 Tweets that night included #CMAawards. Also crucial to the night’s success was heavy promotion on Twitter. @CountryMusic and country stars were busy posting messages and pictures teasing the ceremony.

@CountryMusic also announced the performance lineup and even offered last-minute tickets.

Live-tweeting the show
Dozens of stars live-tweeted during the ceremony, from backstage photos to congratulating winners. Since Twitter enables artists to give fans minute-by-minute accounts, performers tweeted to alert fans as they were about to go on stage.

Some acts even tweeted from their seats, offering a view we wouldn’t otherwise have seen.

Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) was the most retweeted star of the night, and her most retweeted Tweet mentioned #CMAawards, a video and three other high-profile accounts.

The tweeting reached a peak at 10:59 p.m. ET, when George Strait (@GeorgeStrait) won the top award, Entertainer of the Year. That news bumped the CMA conversation to 3,856 Tweets per minute.

With its multitude of pictures, updates and Retweets throughout the show and the days leading up to it, @CountryMusic saw a huge boost in followers: it gained 11,092 on Wednesday, 15x its daily average.

The CMA account wasn’t the only one to gain more followers that night. This graph illustrates new followers gained by celebrity. @taylorswift13 topped the list by adding nearly 51,000 new followers, and @KaceyMusgraves showed the greatest increase: she gained nearly 8,000 for a 7% jump.

Do you know of other innovative uses of Twitter? Write to [email protected].