Case Study Don’t Mess with the Queen of Social Media
In the 21st century, record sales are depressed. Yet her albums sell by the millions. She has 60 million followers on Twitter and another 100 million friends and subscribers among Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.
She is pop singer Taylor Swift, and in the second decade of the 21st century, she is the undisputed queen of social media.
How she has mastered the social medium should serve as a primer for any individual or organization eager to understand and penetrate the world’s most potent communications force. Here’s how she’s done it.
Building Relationships
Public relations begins with building relationships, and here Taylor Swift is a master. The singer may be a millionaire many times over, but she never loses sight of her “Swifties.”
Answering the appeals of the Swift fan base appears to be the singer’s number one interest. She builds a relationship with her audience by responding to random appeals on Twitter and Instagram. For example:
· A girl named Hannah wrote to the singer that she was being bullied, so Swift decided to send a heartfelt message encouraging her to “keep walking in the sunlight.” The Instagram comment Swift posted on the girl’s fan account went viral.
· Another fan told the singer of her heartbreak over a lost boy friend, and Swift told her to, “Hang in there.” Again, the Instagram went viral.
· Swift used Instagram to wish another fan a happy 16th birthday, congratulated another on her engagement, and another on earning her driver’s license. She even commended the “sense of humor” of another teenage follower.
Such interactions occasionally open Swift to attack from the some of the more cynical denizens of the Internet, but the more Swift embraces the hate, the more popular she gets. With strategic social media messages like these to individual fans, Swift has developed a reputation for caring that transcends that of any other superstar. Indeed, one Swiftie even devotes a Tumblr account to follow Swift’s likes and comments on Instagram.
Keeping It Real
In the 21st century, everyone from corporate CEOs to entertainers to the President of the United States to the Queen of England communicate via social media. But how many of them have ghost writers, i.e. public relations assistants who draft the missives for them? Answer: Nearly all of them. Except for . . . Taylor Swift!
While most celebrities, like Britney Spears whose manager tweets from her client’s account to the 39 million Britney followers, have social media experts writing for them round-the-clock, Swift, by all accounts, engages with fans in a raw and natural way, personalizing her social media communications.
When a Swift fan tweeted her how she went “bonkers” over a particular song at a concert, the singer retweeted that the girl had “made her day!!!!” When another fan tweeted about a local dance party with all Swift songs, the singer tweeted back, “Wish I was there!!!!”
The Swift social media “touch,” inclu.
Case Study Don’t Mess with the Queen of Social MediaIn the 21s.docx
1. Case Study Don’t Mess with the Queen of Social Media
In the 21st century, record sales are depressed. Yet her albums
sell by the millions. She has 60 million followers on Twitter
and another 100 million friends and subscribers among
Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.
She is pop singer Taylor Swift, and in the second decade of the
21st century, she is the undisputed queen of social media.
How she has mastered the social medium should serve as a
primer for any individual or organization eager to understand
and penetrate the world’s most potent communications force.
Here’s how she’s done it.
Building Relationships
Public relations begins with building relationships, and here
Taylor Swift is a master. The singer may be a millionaire many
times over, but she never loses sight of her “Swifties.”
Answering the appeals of the Swift fan base appears to be the
singer’s number one interest. She builds a relationship with her
audience by responding to random appeals on Twitter and
Instagram. For example:
· A girl named Hannah wrote to the singer that she was being
bullied, so Swift decided to send a heartfelt message
encouraging her to “keep walking in the sunlight.” The
Instagram comment Swift posted on the girl’s fan account went
viral.
· Another fan told the singer of her heartbreak over a lost boy
friend, and Swift told her to, “Hang in there.” Again, the
Instagram went viral.
· Swift used Instagram to wish another fan a happy 16th
birthday, congratulated another on her engagement, and another
on earning her driver’s license. She even commended the “sense
of humor” of another teenage follower.
Such interactions occasionally open Swift to attack from the
some of the more cynical denizens of the Internet, but the more
Swift embraces the hate, the more popular she gets. With
2. strategic social media messages like these to individual fans,
Swift has developed a reputation for caring that transcends that
of any other superstar. Indeed, one Swiftie even devotes a
Tumblr account to follow Swift’s likes and comments on
Instagram.
Keeping It Real
In the 21st century, everyone from corporate CEOs to
entertainers to the President of the United States to the Queen
of England communicate via social media. But how many of
them have ghost writers, i.e. public relations assistants who
draft the missives for them? Answer: Nearly all of them. Except
for . . . Taylor Swift!
While most celebrities, like Britney Spears whose manager
tweets from her client’s account to the 39 million Britney
followers, have social media experts writing for them round-
the-clock, Swift, by all accounts, engages with fans in a raw and
natural way, personalizing her social media communications.
When a Swift fan tweeted her how she went “bonkers” over a
particular song at a concert, the singer retweeted that the girl
had “made her day!!!!” When another fan tweeted about a local
dance party with all Swift songs, the singer tweeted back,
“Wish I was there!!!!”
The Swift social media “touch,” including the multiple!!!!
exclamation marks, adds to the singer’s authenticity as a social
media presence and, by extension, as a “real” person. Indeed, in
her interviews and personal appearances—including the time
she threw a private concert for a six-year-old Leukemia patient
and her two-hour lunch with a 17-year-old girl battling cancer—
Swift comes across as confident, enthusiastic, and the “real
deal.”
Promoting Creatively
The fact that everybody uses social media means that just like
any other medium, to really score with the new technology, one
must use it creatively. Here again, Taylor Swift excels.
In 2014, when the singer was about ready to drop her new
album, “1989,” she enticed a larger audience by dropping clues
3. on Instagram. In the video, an unseen person presses the 18th
floor button of an elevator, followed by a screen shot of her
phone, showing the time, 5 p.m. Another screen shot
mysteriously showed Yahoo!’s search engine.
This creative gamification strategy gave her audience an
additional reason to care about what the singer was leading up
to. The outgrowth: Swift would debut the album with a live
stream on Yahoo at 5 p.m. on August 18.
Not only did the singer leave the social media clues to entice
interest in the new album, but she also proceeded to comment,
favor, and retweet individual fan posts about the campaign.
And beyond the social media games, Taylor Swift also is canny
enough to avail herself of social media’s most fetching
commodity—the cat. So when the singer walks her cats or goes
shopping with them, she makes a point of posting the photo for
her adoring fans. Predictably, those fans have awarded Swift’s
cats, Meredith and Olivia, with numerous social profiles
(Figure10-8).
Such are the initiatives that separate celebrities who merely
understand and use social media from those who are true social
media prodigies.
Standing for Something
Taylor Swift also distinguishes herself from other social media
users by demonstrating, through social media postings, that she
stands for something.
This gutsiness was amply demonstrated in the summer of 2015
when Apple announced that it didn’t plan to pay artists royalties
during a free, three-month trial of its new streaming music
service.
Immediately after the Apple announcement, Swift posted an
online announcement of her own, saying she would withhold her
latest album from the service because Apple wasn’t planning to
pay artists and labels directly for the use of their music. In part,
the singer posted on her Tumblr page:
To Apple, Love Taylor
“We don’t ask you for free iPhones. Please don’t ask us to
4. provide you with our music for no compensation.”
She closed by expressing hope that the company might change
its policy and “change the minds of those in the music industry
who will be deeply and gravely affected by this.”
And within hours, that’s exactly what the most powerful tech
company in the world decided to do. Said Apple’s senior vice
president, “When I woke up this morning and I saw Taylor’s
note that she had written, it really solidified that we needed to
make a change.” And so Apple did, gently brought to its knees
by the Queen of Social Media (Figure10-8)*.
Questions
1. What distinguishes Taylor Swift’s social media strategy from
that of other celebrities?
2. How does Taylor Swift benefit from her social media
strategy?
3. What other public relations options did Taylor Swift have
with respect to the Apple streaming music decision?
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5. Individual Assignment: Role and Impact of Social Media in
PRPurpose of Assignment
The Purpose of the first assignment is to understand the
important role social media plays in public relations today.
Social media can make or break reputations. Many celebrities,
including people campaigning for office have mastered social
media in terms of promoting their brands. This assignment will
examine how social media has become so influential for many
celebrities.Resources Required
The Practice of Public Relations, Ch. 10.Grading Guide
Content
Met
Partially Met
Not Met
Comments:
The student answers the three questions at the end of the case
study by incorporating them into the paper.
The student describes what PR recommendations they would
have for Taylor Swift if they were her Public Relations
Consultant.
6. The student incorporates principles of public relations to
support recommendations made.
The paper is 700 to 1,050 words in length.
The student uses two outside references.
Total Available
Total Earned
7
#/7
Writing Guidelines
Met
Partially Met
Not Met
Comments:
The paper—including tables and graphs, headings, title page,
and reference page—is consistent with APA formatting
guidelines and meets course-level requirements.
7. Intellectual property is recognized with in-text citations and a
reference page.
Paragraph and sentence transitions are present, logical, and
maintain the flow throughout the paper.
Sentences are complete, clear, and concise.
Rules of grammar and usage are followed including spelling and
punctuation.
Total Available
Total Earned
3
#/3
Assignment Total
