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January 30th, 2014: That’s the day the celestial Katy Perry gained her 50-millionth follower to become the most popular Twitter user. She knows the best ways to use Twitter.
With more followers than the population of South Africa, the capricious Cleopatra left her closest Twitter rival, the Bieber-oid, in the dust.
There are two types of Twitter users: celebrities…and everybody else. The separation is stark: a sheer 95% of Twitter users have under 500 followers, and only a tiny 0.06% have more than 20,000.
Katy Perry is the indisputable leader of this exclusive crowd we call influencers. Contrary to what you believe, this group is wildly diverse. It comprises musicians, visual artists, actors, corporate tycoons, politicians, or just ridiculously funny people…you name it.
What brings these personalities together is their insane ability to build buzz and sway crowds. Let’s say that when it comes to social media, these influencers have the magic touch, and Katy Perry is the wizard master.
In this article, I’ll help you make sense of her magic by pointing out the strategies she leverages to boost her popularity. Use these tools at your own risk.
1. Know Your Audience
Katy Perry knows her audience like the back of her hand. Every one of her tweets is crafted with extreme precision to excite the millions of young female fans that retweet her every post.
Her two favorite topics are her life as a touring superstar and just general girly stuff.
Things like spas…
or indulging in a Snickers bar after a good work out.
Lesson Learned: The only proven way to build a Twitter following is to post tweets that people like. To tweet things people like, you have to know who they are. Study your fans and craft tweets for them.
2. Tweet Often
Twitter is noisy: every day, more than 500 million new tweets are launched into the cloud. To become famous on Twitter, you need to stand out from the crowd. Posting interesting content is not enough. You need to be posting interesting content often, and at the right times.
On average, Katy tweets four times a day. She tends to tweet around the late morning or in the late afternoon (Eastern Time). For most American accounts, these times have the highest activity on Twitter.
Main Takeaway: Identify the times when your followers are most engaged and tweet at those times relentlessly. Don’t hesitate to retweet yourself if you think your post didn’t get the engagement it deserves. Also, use a platform like NeoReach to effortlessly find more shareable content.
3. Engage, Engage, Engage
People aren’t on Twitter to get talked to. They’re on Twitter to talk with. Past are the days when superstars waved to their fans from ivory towers. Nowadays, celebrities leverage social media to spark conversations and build relationships with their fans.
Katy Perry engages one of her followers almost every day, usually through a response or a retweet. This way, she shows her audience that she cares about them and that if they pay attention to her, she will handsomely reward them by bringing them into the spotlight.
Katy strategically leverages her fanbase to blast the Twittersphere. On April 24th, she offered to retweet the users that tweeted their favorite moments of her new music video “Birthday.”
The results? More than 5,000 people tweet screenshots of her video that same day. She also coined a now hugely popular hashtag: #MakeItLikeYourBirthdayEveryday.
Lesson learned: Build relationships, not followers, and, when the time is right, strategically leverage your network to make a huge splash.
3. Associate With Greatness
To be a social media celebrity, you have to act like one. There’s no better to do so than by associating yourself with other social media celebrities.
Katy Perry knows this better than anybody. Not only does she chat with other superstars on Twitter, she makes it crystal clear that they are her best friends.
For instance, here are the kind words Katy tweeted at Rihanna on the latter’s B-day:
The benefits of this strategy are phenomenal: not only do Katy’s fans think she is cooler than cool, but also, some of Rihanna’s fans will now follow Katy, since they know that the divas are BFFs.
How to apply this: Identify the most influential people in your social network and your niche. Give them a reason to engage with you by retweeting them, posting great content, and asking interesting questions.
4. Promote Yourself Across Social Media Channels
Social media is a wonderfully social place (duh!). To grow fast, don’t limit yourself to one channel: pick several of your favorite networks and use them relentlessly.
Katy Perry avidly uses Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Not only does she use these networks to build her presence, she also leverages each of her channels to promote her other ones. For example, she regularly tweets her Instagram pictures, growing her following on Instagram.
Lesson Learned: As you build your audience on your different accounts, cross-promote your posts and incentivize your fans to follow your other accounts.
5. Stay Positive & Be Consistent
You know something’s dreadfully wrong when Katy’s not flashing her pearly whites or breaking hearts with her heavenly gaze. People love her because she brightens up their day.
Most importantly, she keeps her tone consistent. Rarely does she stray away from her bubbly hipster self. People like consistency: it builds familiarity and trust.
How To Apply This: Find your voice and stick to it. Being negative is generally easier to pull off since there’s a very fine line between being a funny a**hole and a serious one. But whether you choose to be bubbly like Katy Perry or sassy like Kim Kardashian, stay consistent. People crave consistency and stability: give it to them.
About NeoReach
NeoReach helps you find brands, products, and content you can get paid for sharing on social media. We work with the top internet celebrities, bloggers, and active social media users. Do you have an engaged following and want to start earning money from your social shares? Try it today: it’s easy, lucrative, and free.
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