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    New MTV VMAs Category Honors Viral Music Videos and Their Parodies

    By Brian Anthony Hernandez | Mashable – Tue, Aug 28, 2012

    Video parodies, lip-dubs, remixes and covers transformed catchy pop songs into the Internet's most-discussed viral sensations this year. To pay homage to this viral culture, MTV launched the Most-Share Worthy Video category Tuesday for the Sept. 6 Video Music Awards.

    From now until showtime, people can vote in the category using Twitter hashtags and see what's winning in real time. MTV first introduced the Twitter voting functionality in May for the Movie Awards with a Best Hero category, which netted more than 800,000 votes.

    [More from Mashable: 10 Terrific Twitter T-Shirts]

    Vying for the crown are Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe," Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know," Beyonce's "Countdown," Justin Bieber's "Boyfriend" and One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful."

    The new category is just one addition MTV has thrown into its digital arsenal for the VMAs.

    [More from Mashable: 20 TV Shows With the Most Social Media Buzz This Week]

    Anticipate a full-on social attack from MTV on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Foursquare, Pinterest, Instagram and Viddy. Here's how to enjoy the Video Music Awards madness before and during the televised broadcast.

    GIF Maker Within Video Players

    MTV is embedding a "GIF It" creator into every video it posts on VMAs day, making easier than ever to turn any moment into an animated GIF.

    "This is the vernacular of the audience, so we want to give them more tools to amplify this behavior," Colin Helms, MTV's SVP of digital media, tells Mashable. "We don't want to make it hard for them."

    GIFs in general have become a popular vehicle to showcase notable moments of 2012, particularly for awards shows. In January, a GIF of comedian Tina Fey photobombing Amy Poehler during the Golden Globes went viral. Popular Academy Awards GIFs in February captured the best moments, including Angelina Jolie's leg.

    Who knows? Maybe your masterpiece will end up prominently displayed on MTV's GIF-heavy Tumblr.

    Twitter Tracker

    Buzz Main Page Display Online and on Mobile

    The Twitter Tracker will display the artists whose names are in the most tweets about the VMAs.

    Click here to view this gallery.

    The VMAs Twitter Tracker is back to showcase which artists and moments are getting the most buzz in tweets. Its data, which will be more detailed this year, will be displayed on the web, mobile and on TV.

    "This show is a series of planned and unplanned moments, but it's the ones we don't even know about that tend to get the most reactions," Mike Scogin, MTV's VP of wireless and mobile, tells Mashable.

    For example, the onstage pregnancy reveal from Beyonce in 2011 shattered Twitter's tweets-per-second record with 8,868 TPS. However, that moment has since been edged out by five other events.

    SEE ALSO: 5 Captivating Moments From the 2011 Video Music Awards [VIDEOS]

    Facebook Timeline Tracker

    For the first time, a Facebook Timeline Tracker will be used for the VMAs. This tracker made its debut during the Movie Awards in June and will keep tabs on the number of Likes, comments and shares of VMAs content shared on MTV's Facebook page. It lives in a Facebook tab and on the VMA site.

    All-Access Live

    The VMAs ramped up its digital offerings last year with a second-screen experience on desktop, iOS and Android. This year is no different with the All-Access Live portal, which will provide live backstage footage through the lens of nine cameras.

    The streams are available on MTV.com, and through the MTV News app and social viewing app WatchWith.

    Instagram, Pinterest and Viddy

    More backstage and onstage goodies will be posted to MTV's Instagram, Pinterest and Viddy streams.

    Helms says each social network will have a life of its own and the network tries hard not to regurgitate the same content on every social network.

    And it appears viewers of every level of social media usage will get a taste of MTV's social tactics.

    "You can just sit back and see the social media content on TV or take a deeper dive to make sense of the streams," Scogin says. "Out of all of the award shows, we have the most digital native early adopters so we've got to continue to evolve -- they're expecting us to raise the bar every year."

    SEE ALSO: See All of the Nominees for the 2012 Video Music Awards Here

    This story originally published on Mashable here.

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