BET Awards Dominate Twitter, Causes Racist Backlash

Say what you will about the content of the BET Awards.  I tuned in late but monitored activity on Twitter last night and to be quite honest was surprised and pleased to see not only Twitter’s integration into the show but also the show dominating trending topics on Twitter.  They even used the awards show twitter account well, @betawards, engaging with the audience from time to time (though I would have like to see more of that).  It was true mobile reporting.  You may remember our coverage of BET’s Social Media game last year for the BET Awards which was comprised mostly of advertisements disguised as widgets.  Taking a look at what was done this year it is a huge improvement.  I know most of you all hate BET for many reasons however I’ll ask you to think about the last time a Black or Urban related trending topics dominated Twitter that did not have to do with a musicians death?

Exactly.  You’ll be hard pressed to find a similar scenario.  The BET Awards takeover on Twitter not only reflects the massive shift of audience demographic since Twitter has reached its tipping point it also shows the possibility of media brands when they integrate social media correctly.

While there was no shortage of haters on the outcome of the trending topics last night, most were related to the performances, many didn’t like the fact there was so much representation on trending topics.  It seems like whenever African-American topics dominate media there are always some unhappy campers.  Social Media is no different.  Within hours it spawned a site on Tumblr, OMGBlackPeople.Tumblr.com.  Tumblr has taken down the site since last night but the Twitter account @omgblackpeople is still alive and kicking.  Apparently many people on Twitter wanted trending topics to go back to what they were use to seeing, here’s a smidgen of what was on the site:

Mind boggling that in a day when so many people make the argument that the Internet is not race specific especially when it comes to sites with the name Black in it or that attempt to focus on that audience, things like this still exist.  It is a two-way street, in order for the Internet to truly be race agnostic society has to be first.  I am personally looking forward to seeing niche media companies take over Twitter and other social media outlets, it wasn’t long ago that there weren’t many of us there at all.

While traces of the awards show still linger on Twitter, Google is catching up with highlights from the show trending this morning on Google Trends.

Updated: Tumblr suspended the account because they consider the content that was on it hate speech.

Images provide by: Fredric Mitchell of Bright Plum

Disclosure:  Black Web 2.0 is the Technology Content provider to BET.com