Social Media Monitering Project: Part 2

            Part one of my social media monitoring project focused on Taylor Swift’s release of one of her most recent singles, “You Need to Calm Down”. In part two, I will be focusing on some of Taylor’s more neglected potential fan groups, as well as using data analytics tools to come up with recommendations for how she should interact with these demographics.

            After looking at the worldwide trends for Taylor Swift, there were a few interest areas that I found surprising.

            The first fact that I found unexpected was that the United States was only third on the list of popularity, with a 78% in popularity. Secondly, I was not expecting the Philippines to be number one on the list, as I do not think of the Philippines as having strong ties to U.S. culture. A quick Google search showed, however, that Quezon City, which is located in the Philippines, is actually the number one city streaming Taylor Swift’s music this year on Spotify.

            One of my suggestions for Taylor’s marketing is that she should interact more with her fans from the Philippines. I was surprised to see that, in spite of there being such a high concentration of her fans there, only two out of her five tours so far have included stops to the Philippines. Some of Taylor’s Filipino fans have actually made a change.org petition begging her to make a stop in the Philippines on her upcoming Lover tour. While I agree that Taylor should make Quezon city part of her next concert series, I also think that she should be doing more in general to engage with the groundswell online in this area. A search for “Taylor Swift Philippines” brings up mainly older search results, very few of which are from the last 5 years:

            Evidently, there could be much more happening between Swift and her Filipino fans, seeing their devotion to her. This market has been previously underestimated, and doing more to engage her fans in this region could help Taylor in the long run.

Social Mention:

After looking at the results for “Taylor Swift” on social mention, a number of things stood out to me about Taylor’s online presence. First off, it was clear that her overall sentiment on the internet is either neutral or positive, which is generally a good sign for PR and marketing. I was surprised, however, to see that her reach was not higher, given the fact that she is such a well-known public figure. In addition, I would have expected her reach to be much higher as a public celebrity; with a measly 15%, she is not being nearly discussed at the rate of her potential.

Competitors:

            In my last post, I mentioned how Taylor included Katy Perry in her “You Need to Calm Down” music video. Using analytics tools, this seemed to indicate a boost in both of their popularity. For this section, I decided to compare and contrast Taylor with Ariana Grande, who has a similar fan base of young women/ teenage girls. Within the last few days, it seems as though Taylor has had greater worldwide popularity:

            Looking at greater trends from the last year, however, Ariana has actually had greater worldwide popularity. Though each of their popularity spiked during the release of a new song, you can see below that Ariana’s overall average bar is slightly higher.

            In addition, their popularity based on geographic region shows that in the vast majority of countries, Ariana is more popular. There are less than 10 countries total in which Taylor Swift has been more popular over the last year. This demonstrates a need for more aggressive marketing internationally on Taylor’s end.

SWOT Analysis:

Strengths: Social Mention indicates that overall, people talking about Taylor Swift online are doing so with a more generally positive perspective rather than negative. In addition, she has been effectively using marketing techniques to sell her concert tickets in recent years, through a verified fan system on Ticketmaster that puts more of the money in her own pockets.

Weaknesses: There is more that Taylor could be doing at the moment in terms of her international fanbase. Her past two tours, “1989” and “Reputation” both stiffed many of her Asian fans, by each traveling only to a couple of Asian cities. There is more she could be doing in general to engage some of her most devoted fans in other regions of the world.

Opportunities: Taylor has the potential to engage more with the groundswell through her own social media pages. Many of her pages currently are focused mainly on images of herself and about her new album, when she could show more of herself and her fans engaging with one another, as well as the ways in which others interact with her music.

Threats: As seen through the world map, Ariana Grande has surpassed Taylor in most regions of the world in terms of popularity. They encroach on similar markets, making it likely that people are purchasing/listening to Ariana’s songs rather than Taylor’s in some cases.

Suggestions:

            Given her level of popularity in the Philippines, it would make sense for Taylor to make some kind of online community specifically for her Filipino supporters. One of Bernoff and Li’s suggestions for energizing customers in Groundswell is very similar to this, advising: “Create a community to energize your customers. This works best if your customers are truly passionate about your product and have an affinity for each other” (134). While their advice pertains mostly to businesses, it can also be applied to celebrity fanbases. Creating this would help Taylor’s fans who have felt historically ignored to feel a renewed sense of allegiance towards her, as well as creating a buzz within the groundswell whenever a new album or tour date was announced.

            In addition, her next tour, Loverfest, should have a more international scope than her two previous ones. This will re-energize the groundswell in these areas, through fans posting about attending her concerts, as well as her general presence in these countries. I also think that Taylor should strongly consider doing a duet with Ariana Grande. Unlike many industries, entertainment is one in which competitors can actually collaborate with one another to both of their own advantages, crossing over each of their fanbases.

Conclusion

After Taylor Swift’s extremely successful Reputation tour, it will be interesting to see how her next Loverfest concerts go. With twelve concert venues already planned, only two of which are in the U.S., it would seem that Taylor is already planning to make the scope of the tour more internationally focused. In addition, she should continue networking with other young female artists, as well as engaging with her fans, to maintain and improve her already strong presence within the groundswell.