The Beyoncé School of Social Media
If you are similar to me, you worship
Beyoncé. If you are a human on this planet, you know who Beyoncé is. Beyoncé
turned to social media instead of traditional marketing methods to promote her
surprise ‘Beyonce’ album. What she really did, however, was showcase the
true power of social media.
Beyonce Katy Perry
Jessica Smith
Who is Beyoncé?
For anyone who has been living under a rock for the
past two decades, Beyoncé is an American singer. In the 1990’s, she was in all
girl R&B group – Destiny’s Child. Later, she established a solo career and
become one of music’s top-selling artists with sold-out tours.
How is Beyonce relevant to promoting yourself on
Social Media?
Beyonce is a very talented singer, like most
artists! However, unlike most artists, Beyoncé didn’t use traditional marketing
strategies of spending millions on promoting through ads on billboards, buses,
bus stops and even pop-up’s to promote her surprise album – Beyoncé.
She used her own blog – Beyoncé.com, Instagram,
Facebook and Twitter and without warning, dropped her album over night and
allowed social media to market it for free.
Now, you might be thinking that’s all fine
and dandy but I’m not a celebrity with thousands of fans, how will using Social
Media benefit me? Well in comparison to other celebrities Beyonce doesn’t
actually have many followers. Let’s take Katy Perry as an example.
Beyonce Katy Perry
60 million Facebook followers 72 million Facebook followers
13 million Twitter followers 69 million Twitter followers
11 million Instagram followers 19 million Instagram followers
When Katy Perry dropped her last album Prism, she
had been promoting her upcoming album via traditional marketing methods and
through social media to 160 million followers and in the first week sold
286,000 albums. Katy Perry followed the conventional marketing method of
generating buzz over time and then capitalizing when anticipation peaks,
Beyoncé did not.
Beyoncé posted one short Instagram video with the
caption “Surprise” that led to 1.2 million tweets in just 24 hours. So many
people were trying to download her new visual album it crashed iTunes! All
this, despite having 76 million less followers than Katy Perry, she sold an
epic amount of 800,000+ in the first 3 days. What’s more, Beyoncé saved a ton of
money on promotion.
bing.com
She took the smart approach and went directly to
her fans through social media and you can too. Let’s break down which Social
Media platforms Beyoncé used.
Her Blog – On Beyoncé’s blog,
she has information about her albums, music videos, tours, campaigns,
fragrances, photos and videos of her personal life and a shop with all her
merchandise available for purchase.
This blog is updated daily, providing fans with the
feeling of direct contact with her. It also provides press with lots of content
to keep writing about - probably why you keep seeing articles about her
everywhere.
Instagram – Unlike Facebook
and Twitter, Instagram is simply a photo or short video. One of the things
Beyoncé does best is keeping it real with her fan base. By providing photos of
personalised gifts sent from her fans, and photos with her fans, allows her
fans to feel connected to her. Hardcore fans aka ‘Beehive’ will find clues in
photos, and then spread the word. These busy bees work hard to promote ‘Queen
B”.
Facebook – Beyonce uses
Facebook to inform her followers on upcoming events, events she attended, to
wish other celebrities happy birthday, promote campaigns she supports or to
share videos of her fans dancing to her music.
Twitter – Surprising, Beyonce
doesn’t use Twitter much. But when she does it usually begins a trend of
tweets. #Beygood is usually the hashtag she uses. This hashtag plays a major
role in her reputation as a good Christian woman and also provides the
campaigns she supports with a lot of attention.
You’ll notice each social media platform has a
different use. If you put out the same content on all these platforms, your
followers will get bored. Each platform has its strengths and weaknesses, you
need to recognise their differences and your target audience and then select
the appropriate way of delivering your content.
Let’s summarize how to use social media’s main
platforms correctly.
1. Build a
website or blog. Provide
information daily on what you are trying to promote. Keep your information
current to maintain and grow viewers. Post photos, videos and topics relevant
to your product. Allowing viewers insight to your world can make them feel a
connection with your brand. Make it easy for your followers to purchase your
products from your blog.
2. Set up an
Instagram account. Take photos
of your brand in the environment that supports your target audience’s
lifestyle. Promote your brand with clear, attractive photos of your products. Use
fillers to make your picture pop out. Use free Iconosquare or Websta to
find the most relevant hashtags for your updates. Take photos of customers with
your brand and post them onto Instagram. Use incentives like discounts or
prizes and suggest to followers to tag photos with your products. Attach links
to your blog, Twitter and Facebook.
3. Create a Facebook Page – Ultimately, Facebook has the most information about people, which is
creepy but is ideal for your business. Adverts are generated to each individual
based on their age, location, interests and then shared. Also Facebook provides
you with feedback and for a small fee will promote your page further. Create a
banner for your Facebook page and appropriate profile picture. Create events
for customers to attend and consistently post photos and updates about your
brand. Ask questions to keep your followers engaged and circulating interest.
4. Tweet on Twitter – Learning to write in less than 140 characters may challenge you but
usually you will receive more attention if it’s short and sweet. Use catchy
hashtags to help draw attention and create your reputation. Support brands that
support yours on Twitter by retweeting them and if they are good business
partners they will retweet you. Interaction with other twitter followers will
help your social interacting climb and help your brand grow.
Jessica Smith
Australian girl, Jessica is loving England but is missing the sunshine! She loves writing, dogs and plays hockey! Follow her @JessicaAtSMF
Contact us on Twitter, on Facebook, or leave your comments below. To find out about social media training or management why not take a look at our website for more info http://socialmediacambridge.co.uk/.
The Beyoncé School of Social Media
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Monday, May 18, 2015
Rating: