Lady Gaga, a famous American singer and songwriter, was born Stefani Germonatta on March 28, 1986 in New York. Her strong musical inclination was observed even when she was very young. She started playing the piano at the age of four, and has strong fascination over the hits by Michael Jackson and Cyndi Lauper. She started out her career in music as a songwriter for other artists, while performing for rock and roll bands. It was when she was eighteen that she decided to quit school and pursue a fulltime career in music. With the stiff competition in the music industry, the young Stefani thought of using other means to get the audience attention and gain popularity. She deiced that her musical talents alone cannot make her famous and so she tried something different. Her performances are accompanied by her doing provocative exhibitions, complex acts, and wearing strange outfits. In addition to that, Stefani, who changed her stage name to Lady Gaga in 2006, embraced and used the different social media to reach out to her fans. Lady Gaga used the social media to interact with her fans and promote the upcoming releases of her albums.
Lady Gaga is more than just an entertainer and a pop icon. She is a genius business planner and marketer. She did not only rely on her talent to achieve success in her field, but took advantage of the use of social media in creating a loyal community. She promoted herself by consistently establishing contact with her fans through the use of Facebook, Twitter and You Tube. The number of her followers on these channels speaks how successful she is in promoting her business.
Lady Gaga on Twitter
Twitter is a social networking site that was created in 2006. This social media service allows its members to send and read short messages called tweets, and it immediately gained worldwide popularity after its initial launching on July 2006. Lady Gaga took advantage of the popularity of this site in communicating with her fans; most of them are young audiences. According to recent studies, Twitter is not just a vehicle to kill time and communicate but also a means to connect to people who are wanting for a real community and social connection. Psychological studies revealed that participating in Twitter “can trick the brain into thinking that it is having a meaningful social interaction” (Williams).
Lady Gaga started in March 2008 to use Twitter to promote and reach out to her fans. It is amazing how she instantly gained 43 million followers on this channel alone. The young woman’s success in promoting herself through Twitter can be attributed to the effective management and consistency in sending tweets to her fans. Lady Gaga recognized the fact that, psychologically, people needed a sense of belongingness, love and friendship. The queen of social media tap on this fact and capitalized on the perceived relationship of twitter to self-esteem and social recognition. By reaching out to her fans through this channel, Lady Gaga made her fans feel just like her, a celebrity. The young artist uses twitter to let her fans know how much she appreciates them. By twitting her followers, she is making them feel that she is talking directly and exclusively to them. Lady Gaga have done an exceptional job in connecting with her fans, while creating a community that follows her. She openly tells her fans, “I’m doing this for you,” and her fans believed and loved her for that.
Lady Gaga on Facebook
Facebook is another on line networking site that was launched on February 2004. It was initially designed in a way that it would be easy to connect and communicate with family and friends online. It has undertaken several changes in its applications since then. Facebook reported over one billion active Facebook users every month. Such enormous number can be advantageous to a celebrity who wishes to increase the base of her followers through social media.
Lady Gaga made use of the Facebook platform to create influence among the social networks’ members around the globe. She took advantage of the potential of marketing her brand in Facebook in year 2008. She continually uses her Facebook fan page to connect with her fans. She does it by sharing her exclusive photo’s, giving away prizes and updating her followers about upcoming concerts and releases. From gaining a close to 66 million likes on this site, there is no mistaking that she and her team were able to exploit this social media to their favor. According to one digital strategist, Gaga and her promoters are excellent marketers, as they understood the significance of the integration of social with conventional media.
One of the clever ways she promoted her songs in was her teams’ collaboration with Farmville, one of the most popular gaming applications on Facebook. In May 2011, Lady Gaga had her own real estate in in this simulated farming game, which she called “Gagaville”. Farmville is being played by over 45 million people on different age brackets. She capitalized on this site to capture the attention of people of all ages. According to Zynga director of entertainment, Raquel Disabatino “Lady Gaga is as passionate about her fans as we are about our players () this really was a great meeting of the minds to create an innovative and playful experience for those folks” (Associated Press Entertainment Staff) Her marketing strategy then was to let players complete a game in this application and be given the advantage of unlocking her songs that are yet to be released. In addition to that, the icons team offered Lady Gaga tokens such as concert tickets and signed albums to players who earn a certain points in the affiliate games. Although “Gagaville” ran only for a short period of time, it has proven that artists who have massive appeal are followed wherever they go. It turns out that majority of the people who followed Gaga on Farmville are likewise her fans on Facebook. This social media is indeed an important tool in promoting the brands of the young music icon.
Lady Gaga and You Tube
Many celebrities have tapped on YouTube to promote their brands, and there are also people who became celebrities because of YouTube. While Lady Gaga was already a celebrity when she started using YouTube channels, this form of social media has largely helped promote her career. She created the most unusual music videos, and the strangeness of her videos made them viral on YouTube. For example, her music video on her song “Bad Romance” became so popular on YouTube because she had it crafted in a way that her videos tell a story and atmosphere that are supplementary to her songs. Almost all of her music videos in YouTube gained millions of views. Her music video entitled “Born This Way” which has an air time of seven minutes long, has an over 60 million views. What she did was not only make good on her voice, but also she excelled in creating persuasive music videos stories that catch deep into the audience emotions. She have done her research as to go into the psychology of the human attention span and tailored her videos to such time frame. For example, she knows that the normal human attention span ranges up to seven and half minutes, and so limited the duration of her music videos into such length. The icon is not crazy as some of her detractors would said, in fact, she is intelligent and wise to the point that she devised a marketable way to package herself as a whole. She recognizes that the competition in her line of business I stiff, and she has to do something to differentiate her brand from other artists of her genre.
Lady Gaga on Instagram
With the apparent impact of using social media in boosting her career, it was a surprise that the young icon was a bit late in joining Instagram. She joined the photo sharing website only in 2012. However, it is not surprising that her initial Instagram posts received millions of followers within just a few weeks. She then constantly uses the channel to share more of her photos from recent activities to her fan base. Lady Gaga is passionate about her fans that she had always wanted to update and have then involved on her activities and other upcoming events that she plans. This is manifested on her constantly updating pictures in Instagram. Her words in one of her Instagram pictures-“Goodnight Babies, there will never be another fan base like you () thanks for making my life so beautiful, been posting as much as I can to share it with you.” (Lady Gaga) – speaks how she openly express her affection and gratitude towards her fans.
Lady Gaga Created Her Own Network
Little Monster Website was launched in July 2012, however Lady Gaga and her team has already conceived of the idea of having her website that is exclusively dedicated to her fan base in late 2010. As an initial marketing strategy to promote the website, a page was created that requested her fans to sign in through their Facebook account.
The music icon thought of the idea of having a website for her followers, and she capitalized on the not so good image of her childhood in capturing the sympathy of her fans. She has always said that she was bullied in school. Although she is an exceptionally intelligent student, she has experienced being out of placed because she is just so different from her classmates. In her website, the Little Monsters, she advocated that people should fight against bullying because it can hurt a person and the pain can last a life time. While telling this to her fans, she opened that her website is for the people who are like her. And anyone who thinks and values the same things as her should join the website and spread what is in their minds. In this website, Lady Gaga created a community that brings on friendship among her followers, all based on their mutual admiration for their idol. She gave her community of fans an identity by affectionately calling them her “little monsters”. It somehow gave her fans a reason to join and stick to the group. She would visit the site on a weekly basis, and would posts messages to her fans as well as “like” their comments. She would also join her fans’ discussions and such action would strengthen the bonds of within the community of her making.
Lady Gaga had use the power of almost all the social media in promoting her business. She was able to get millions views on her videos even after only a few hours of their release because her team has tapped on the power of cross promoting her on different social media channels. She has always made her fans excited and anticipative of what is new on her and her arts. She has interacted directly with her fans through the social media. She has offered exclusive deals and news about her upcoming concerts and activities. Such kind of intimate sharing with her fans endeared her to many. She has tailored her life story and songs in a way that her fans were able to equalized themselves to her. While she is not a perfect person, her imperfections are something that her fans had liked about her. She has always talked about it in various social media. Her dedication to her fan base is strong that one can see why she has so many followers and many people just loved her despite her being so different. She did not follow the traditional way of climbing the ladder of success, she flew it. Many people thought that she is outrageous and a little crazy, but her antics got many peoples’ attention. Her style is that, despite her having millions of fans, each of them can feel that she is a close friend and that what she is talking about is an intimate detail that is hared only between close people. Her fans would then feel that despite her being a celebrity, she has her feet firmly on the ground, and she genuinely like every one of her fans. She has also charity works that speaks of how she wasn’t to be of help to other people despite her status.
Lady Gaga and her team were able to use the different social media to their advantage. While some people disliked the young signer for her outrageous words and bizarre outfits, many people have to agree that has have made use of social marketing wisely and in a business wise manner. Many business should take an example from she did in promoting her songs. In todays’ business world, it is almost necessary to be a member and promote ones’ product in many social media channels. As what is exemplified by Lady Gaga, cross-promoting in diverse social media sites is one fast way to build a strong online following.
Lady Gaga and her team of business managers have done an excellent job in packaging her and her music. They were able to market their brand because they made an effort to create a relationship that empathize and understand other people. They identified the key principles that can generate a great number of followers:
a. An artist must identify her values- Lady Gaga was able to point out the values that she is willing to stick into. For example, she stands up for issues against issues on bullying and being marginalized, and so he fans who identifies with her values would feel an emotional connection because of her advocacies.
b. Focusing on the One Percent- Lady Gaga have millions of followers , but the truth is she most often focused on the small number of her die hard followers. For example, she would call on one of her fans to sing with her on stage, and such action would make other fans talk about how she can be so down to earth.
c. The Importance of Building a Community- Lady Gaga built her own community from the fan base she has created. The pop star makes it a point to show interest on her fans, reciprocating the attention she is getting from the crowed.
Lady Gaga and her team, especially her business managers were able to do a good job in promoting her career. They have such a brilliant idea that shows how a career should be managed these days. If the icon were to hire me as a social media consultant, I think I will do the same as what her mangers have done and more. I suggest that she continuously use charity to promote herself, as such will be viewed as being one among those who have less. Her concerts should be more accessible to her most avid fans by issuing regular free tickets to her concerts as well as signed cd giveaways. Bu constantly being involved with her fans, the music icon is assured of continuous patronage and following.
Reference
Associated Press Entertainment Staff. Lady Gaga and Farmville Team Up. Retrieved from http://www.cleveland.com
Lady Gaga’s Recent Instagram Pictures. Retrieved from http://www.celebuzz.com
Williams, R., Twitter Your Business: Understanding the Psychology of Twitter. Success.bz. Retrieved from http://www.success.bz
