Taylor Swift – Everything the Social Media Phenomenon Taught Us about Brand Building

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Love her or hate her, there is just no denying the global dominance of pop icon Taylor Swift. In fact, she’s credited as one of the few artists to keep old school record sales afloat even in the digital age.

One of the many things that makes Taylor stand out from her rivals is her ingenious use of social media to her advantage. Apart from constantly reinventing herself, and smashing a couple hundred records along the way, she has a knack for getting her message across in the most unique ways possible.

In this blog, we’ll evaluate her strategies and see exactly what Ms. Swift has been doing right this whole time.

Here are 4 social media strategies we learned from the ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ singer.

1. Be Relatable

Taylor doesn’t shy away from showing her fans just how ‘normal’ she is. Whether it’s sharing pictures of her cats or cookie bake-offs she has with her friends, her social media shows that she’s like a normal person with normal friends, just like someone we’d know. Not a world famous celebrity.

What we learn

We can probably take a page out of her book and steer clear of all the carefully crafted tweets from brands that we’ve come to know all too well. We’re not recommending that you toss out your content calendars, but more that you should focus on how you can make your audience see that you understand them, and their problems.

By posting content that is relevant, you’ll win over the audience’s trust as a source of information, and also their business as a brand.

2. Reward Loyalty

We’re used to seeing celebrities visiting hospitals and working with the Make a Wish foundation, but Taylor takes this to the next level. From scouring the internet to find her most loyal fans and inviting them over to her house for “Secret Sessions” to sending them presents at Christmas and Hanukkah, she has built herself an army of loyal fans.

What we learn –

Although we know that it was a planned marketing tactic, it still doesn’t take away the feel good factor of the deed. Similarly, rewarding loyal customers goes a very long way. The people you select are already fans of your product so anything that you do to acknowledge that will be appreciated. In fact, by taking that extra step you’re actually gaining a customer for life. These people will go on to become your most loyal brand advocates.

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3. Keep Things Interesting

This August, Taylor did something that most brands would never have considered in a million years. She deleted ALL her social media; quite literally wiping the slate clean. She then went on to share a 3-part video of a snake – an emoji that flooded her social media pages after her squeaky clean image was tainted last year – and boom! She was back in business.

What we learn –

Once in a while, toss in a surprise to your audience. Something they won’t see coming. A teaser to a new product launch or a sneak peek into what’s in the pipeline for your company can do the trick. If you keep giving your audience “inside information” they will not only keep following you but they’ll constantly check back to see if they’ve missed out on anything.

4. Focus on your objectives

Social media marketing can be fairly distracting at best and destructive at its worst. Not everybody is going to be happy with you at all times. When she faced major backlash from her several feuds in the past year, she stayed true to what she does best – making great music. She recoiled to the studio, deleted all her social media, and lived to fight another day.

What we learn –

Never take our eye off what you’re trying to achieve. Yes, there’s that saying that the only bad publicity is no publicity. But this almost never applies to companies in the B2B sector.

If your social media strategy isn’t working the way you hoped it would, don’t be afraid to wipe the slate clean (figuratively speaking) and start over.

 

Image credits  – mulpix.com

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