MTV aired the 28th annual Video Music Awards (VMA) Sunday night. MTV integrated social media into the experience, encouraging viewers to use social media and their various devices — tablets, smartphones, and their computers — in addition to tuning in via cable TV, to weigh in on the show.

We used Social Radar to analyze conversations online.

VMA mentions

VMA mentions more than doubled in 2011 compared to last year’s show.

VMA sentiment

Conversations around the 2011 VMAs were an average of 74% positive. Lady Gaga was the biggest topic of conversation, appearing in nearly 13% of all VMA mentions. Lady Gaga kicked off the night dressed as her male alter ego, Jo Calderone, and stayed in character the entire show. Beyonce, who announced she was pregnant, was the next most mentioned artist, followed by Britney Spears, Nicki Minaj, Justin Bieber, Jay Z and Miley Cyrus.

Content breakdown

Approximately 96% of VMA chatter came via Twitter, 46% of chatter was in English, and 60% of mentions were made by males.

Artist buzz

In addition to VMA mentions being up this year, buzz around Bieber, Gaga and Beyonce are also at their highest points of the year. Looks like MTV can still generate buzz about music at least once per year.

For further analysis, visit www.infegy.com/socialradar.

Britney Spears is making a comeback. She released her new album Femme Fatale on March 25, and today released a remix of Rihanna’s hit single S&M, which instantly jumped to the top of the iTunes music charts. She also recently announced plans for a summer tour.

Buzz around Britney seems to at its highest point since her pre-Federline days. And she seems to be in more headlines than other currently popular female singers. We decided to use Social Radar to find out.

Britney Spears vs. Lady Gaga vs. Rihanna chatter (past year)

Chatter around Britney Spears is clearly at its highest point in the last year. She is currently generating more chatter than Rihanna and is nearing buzz powerhouse Lady Gaga.

Britney Spears vs. Lady Gaga vs. Rihanna chatter (2007-present)

Interestingly, neither Gaga nor Rihanna in their heydays were even close to 2007-2008 Britney chatter following her first attempted comeback.

Television host/Emmy Award winner/philanthropist/billionaire Oprah Winfrey @oprah has decided to send her first tweet during live TV today.

Ashton Kutcher @aplusk will be be Oprah’s guest, discussing today’s win in the race to a million followers over CNN @cnnbrk and Britney Spears @britneyspears.

What does it mean for the future of social media? TechCrunch wonders if soccer moms will take over the service.

Check out the trend chart below. Even someone with a reputation as established as Oprah’s — one of the most powerful people in the world — is trending up in chatter the last few days thanks to Twitter. Her buzz should continue to rise today after the show airs. The topic cloud below represents topics of conversation on the web related to Oprah over the last two days.

Social media is evolving. Kutcher gets it. “For one person to actually have the ability to broadcast to as many people as a major media network, sort of signifies the turning of the tide from tradition news outlets to social news outlets,” Kutcher said in a YouTube video.

It’s exciting news. As Brian Solis said in his blog, we participate in social media to express ourselves. We become media. We become influencers. Solis goes on to discuss the potential of social media to empower individuals moving forward.

What’s next? Googlezon may be here before 2014.