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"Once Jennifer hit the stage, all traffic came to a
complete stop. People stopped talking and they listened," said
Beverly Jackson, director of marketing and social media for the
Recording Academy, at a Social Media Week panel Wednesday in New
York. Talk around the tribute, she added, while diverse, was mostly
positive, with 81% favorable sentiment. Social-marketing company
Mass Relevance helped tally the numbers.
Following Ms. Hudson's performance, engagement ramped back up
and capped at 3.9 million explicit #Grammy mentions. The broadcast
probably got a viewer boost because of Ms. Houston's untimely
death, but the night belonged to Adele, who dominated Grammy wins
(six) and the conversation with 2.5 million mentions -- 500% more
than any other artist, said Ms. Jackson. (Rihanna, Chris Brown,
Nicki Minaj and Ms. Houston round out the top five.)
A strong social-media presence leading up to the awards helped
the Recording Academy pull off a success. Working with Facebook,
Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr, Google and more, the Grammy team
implemented a strategy that targeted viewers' favorite online
destinations. "We wanted to be everywhere they were," said Ms.
Jackson. This was the first year the Grammys worked with both
Pandora and Shazam, which let viewers tag music from performances.
Pandora noted that there have been 4 million Adele stations created
since the singer's throat surgery last year to her return at the
Grammys.
Grammy Live, an extension of Grammy.com, gave viewers videos of
red-carpet and backstage footage and untelevised acceptance
speeches. The Grammy iPad app became the top arts and entertainment
app, proving viewers were more engaged with the show via their
tablet this year, according to Ms. Jackson.
The Grammys doesn't pay for Facebook ads or promotional tweets;
instead, several contests and promotional events help build
excitement. Referring to the Grammys' online presence, Ms. Jackson
likened it to "a brown egg in Whole Foods -- it's all organic."