Lady Gaga made history on July 3rd 2010, when she became "the first living person to score 10 million fans on Facebook" surpassing US President Barrack Obama and pop singer Britney Spears. According to NME news, the only other artist who has that honor is not alive anymore - Michael Jackson.
According to Famecount, Lady Gaga also holds the informal title of the "most popular living musician online" thanks to her massive presence on social networking sites like Twitter and YouTube and now Facebook. She has been breaking records consistently since her debut in 2008 and also debuted on Forbes magazine's 2010 Celebrity 100 power list at # 4 position for the first time ever.
What makes Lady Gaga such a digital powerhouse?
1. Lady Gaga Makes Videos for YouTube
Lady Gaga's music video for Bad Romance holds the top spot for the most viewed video ever on YouTube at 180 million views and counting. What's more impressive is that it achieved this within just a few months. This is not a fluke, but rather part of a carefully crafted plan by Gaga and her manager, Troy Carter. Troy said that he and Gaga "create music videos for YouTube."
So why is Lady Gaga giving away access to her music for free? According to the Wall Street Journal, she is doing what is called in industry parlance, a 360 deal, "in which a label invests more money up front (for marketing, for example) in exchange for a piece of merchandise sales, touring revenue and other earnings that artists had long kept for themselves."
What this simply means is that Gaga is not afraid to embrace the digital revolution and is using online tactics for a net-savvy generation, even to the extent of foregoing immediate profit.
2. Lady Gaga Connects Directly with Fans on Twitter
Lady Gaga doesn't like any layers between herself and her nearly 5 milllion Twitter fans which is what makes Twitter such a great medium for her to use. It enables her to respond directly to her fans via a one-on-one interaction. Which other pop music star has given this kind of virtually unrestricted access to their fans? Lady Gaga knows that as an online personality and music celebrity, she will not have much privacy and rather than go against the tide, she has embraced the very public life of a star.
Lady Gaga calls her fans "monsters" in loving tribute to them and forms close relationships with them, going so far as to title her 2nd album "Fame Monsters" in tribute to her fans.
3. Lady Gaga is an International Phenomenon - Deliberately
Another deciding factor in Lady Gaga's social media popularity is that she doesn't just cater to a US or English-speaking audience. She knows the internet is global and that social media contains an international community; therefore she has deliberately written her songs to be simple to sing along to in any language. Her main producer, RedOne, is from Morocco and brings a non-American viewpoint to her music. These factors help keep her music simple yet layered.
Lady Gaga is an artist who has worked her way up from the bottom, been dropped by a record label when she was only 19, re-entered the fray with a new strategy at 23 riding the social media behemoth. Her songwriting abilities combined with an uncanny knack of digital media worship give her an edge over other contemporary musicians who've been around for much longer. Businesses looking to employ social media effectively can learn from her tactics to succeed with social media marketing.
Salma Jafri - Salma Jafri is an award-winning internet entrepreneur. Her passions in life include writing, building an online business, online ...
