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Perhaps I'm showing my age a bit too much in this article, but do you remember the day of the VJ? It turns out MTV is harnessing a bit of that nostalgia in its newest position - the Twitter Jockey.

Earlier this week, the network launched a contest called 'Follow Me - The Search for the First MTV TJ.' The winner of the contest will get to sign a one-year employment contract with MTV, relocate to New York City and earn a salary of $100,000.

 

MTV have already selected 18 of the 20 finalists but are asking viewers to submit their picks for two more qualified candidates.

In the first round, the selected 20 candidates will compete in a series of Twitter-based challenges to see who has what it takes to Tweet the loudest. The challenges will be based around personal and social challenges -- the personal elements are designed to reveal the candidate's sense of individuality and character and the social elements are designed to reveal the candidate's social talents online as well as offline.

Only five will move on to round two, where they will compete for the grand prize on national television.

 

To help evaluate candidates as they compete, MTV will rely on Edelman's (News - Alert) TweetLevel, a tool which measures an individual's influence on Twitter. TweetLevel will rank each candidate's performance based on their influence, popularity, engagement, and trust. In case you were curious, Justin Bieber is currently the most influential person on Twitter.

 

This whole contest may be an ingenious marketing ploy, but it isn't the first time MTV is harnessing the power of Twitter to help boost its ratings.

 

One of its programs, The Alexa Chung Show, brings MTV's audience together via Twitter's instant feedback features. According to an MTV press release, 'The Alexa Chung Show has real-time elements, allowing viewers to interact with Alexa, celebrity talent, their own friends and the rest of the pop culture loving-world on the spot, and in the show. Whether Alexa's audience is at home, on the move or on the set, Twitter and MTV will capture their experiences and bring them right into the show. Additionally, the RockYou Live video sharing application will let users submit their favorite viral videos and videos they shoot themselves to the show. Fans of The Alexa Chung Show will be able to constantly communicate with the show even when it's not on air. Alexa's network of friends are always doing things that matter and now with Twitter and RockYou they'll be able to constantly keep in touch. Alexa is a brand new face to the U.S. audience - and a new voice for MTV.'

And her voice, as it turns out, is given strength by a Twitter following.