SAMA19 – the premier South African annual music awards event – and the country’s biggest performing arts awards event – got off to a slow tweeting start in its 19 edition this past Friday. The event ended on a high of over 16K tweet mentions last night.
The event trended even in the US, as proof of its increasing global appeal.
Top celebrities had a lot to do with trending of SAMA19, as the top 5 tweets, based on virality, show.
As can be seen from the top 5 SAMA19 tweets image above, @DJFreshSA had the most engagement of them all.
Here are the top 5 pictures shared on Twitter:
Arguably, the highlight of the event was a picture of a performer with what looks like wet pants. The virality of this picture – at 609 – clearly shows that it got tongues wagging.
Doctor Malinga’s performance also got its fairs share of mentions that got it to number 2 spot. His pose on the picture says it all.
Toya Delazy, one of the most successful South African cross-over music artists, a SAMA19 winneri, added to the creative juices of someone who photoshopped and posted a photo of her grand father – Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi – congratulating her. This pic made it to 3rd spot.
The usual suspect in the tweeting stakes, @KhayaDlanga, posted the 5th most viral SAMA19 pic.
There were also video tweets that added to the SAMA19 Twitter virality.
Deservedly, Black Coffee’s video made it to the top of most mentioned SAMA19 videos.
Based on a sample of 694 tweet mentions, mobile is increasingly ruling Mzansi’s social engagements. Blackberry continues to be the preferred social device, contributing over 60% of the mentions. The second highest contributor was iPhone at a distant 8%. Most Twitterers seem to have been engaging directly on the Twitter platform – now that Tweetdeck mobile apps were shut down on May 7th, just days before the event. The second most used platform was Ubersocial.
Having posted on SAMA18, it is worth mentioning that this year’s event achieved only 60% of last year’s Twitter mentions.
Also read:Â SA Music Awards 2012 yielded positive sentiment on social networks
In my observation, there was very limited media hype about SAMA19, compared to SAMA18. A desperate attempt was made in 2012 to use SAMA18 to redeem this prestigious event from the ghosts of the disastrous SAMA17. Thus, a lot of effort went into planning, supported by a healthy pre-event media budget. A cherry on SAMA18’s top was the appointment of a well-known South African Idols judge – Randall Abrahams – to run that edition, a job he did with great aplomb and phenomenal success.
Would the SAMA19 organisers and the sponsor – MTN – be happy that this year’s event did not reach the same social amplification levels as compared to SAMA18? I wonder what their social engagement objectives were, assuming there were any.
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