Social Media Tracking Week Four: Celebrities Get by with a Little Help from Their Friends

Demi Lovato

As per usual, Demi was very active on social media this week. She posted about a variety of subjects, spanning from a new haircut, social activism, and going to a club for the first time in years. After looking at the number of retweets and favorites on each of her tweets, I can conclude that the tweets that get the most attention are about Demi’s personally life. This is especially true if the tweets have a positive connotation or a life lesson. For example, Demi posted a tweet saying that no matter what, everyone is equal and deserves to be loved. In just under 2 hours, the tweet has over 21,000 retweets and over 25,000 favorites. Posts about social causes unfortunately get much less feedback. Demi posted a link to a video about Malala, the young woman who got shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating for education. This tweet only received over 12,000 retweets and 13,000 favorites, which is much less than her tweets about her personal life or thoughts. Interestingly, the same post about Malala got significantly more feedback on Facebook than it did retweets on Twitter, reaching about 34,000 likes. This is most likely because Facebook has significantly more users than Twitter. On Instagram, Demi’s most-liked picture by a wide margin was a picture debuting her new haircut. Before posting the Instagram picture, Demi teased and joked with her fans via Twitter about her hair change. The hair debut, which included Demi’s hair going back to brown, received about 596,000 likes. Finally, it seems that fans respond well to posts that include other celebrities. For example, Demi posted picture with popular YouTube stars on Twitter and the tweet got over 19,000 retweets and over 38,000 favorites. Aditionally, Demi responded to a tweet that popular singer Ed Sheeran mentioned her in, earning her about 16,000 retweets and 19,220 favorites.

Taylor Swift

Coincidentally, Taylor Swift also had a few posts involving Ed Sheeran this week. Her posts about Ed were even more popular than Demi’s posts with him. This is because Ed and Taylor are very good friends. They recently went on a world tour together and many people want them to date. Ed recently released a single and Taylor took it upon herself to promote her friend’s work via her social media accounts. She posted a link to the YouTube video with the message “‘If you love me, come on, get involved!’ BLASTING Ed Sheeran's insane new single in the car right meow. #SING #LOUDER.” Like some of Demi’s posts, this link got a lot more attention on Facebook than on Twitter, getting 71,000 likes and 15,000 retweets. This backs my theory that Facebook posts typically get more attention than Twitter. Both Taylor and Demi have more followers on Facebook than on Twitter, presumably because there are more Facebook users than there are Twitter users. Taylor also made a guest appearance on SNL this week to support Ed, who was the musical guest. She posted a “picstitch” of the two of them on stage together with the caption “PROUD FRIEND ALERT.” This post was extremely popular, receiving 514,000 likes on Instagram, 330,000 likes on Facebook, and almost 10,000 retweets and almost 14,000 favorites on Twitter. Taylor also posted pictures with another public figure this week. During the Olympics, Taylor tweeted about how much she enjoyed figure skater Gracie Gold compete. The two apparently became friends and enjoyed each other’s company recently, baking and making funny faces. People seem to like this cute friendship story because the picture for 561,000 likes on Instagram and 503,000 likes on Facebook. It seems that celebrity posts involving other celebrities are very popular with the public.

 

Taylor and Ed.

Cara Delevingne

In terms of Cara’s social media use, she tends to focus on her Instagram the most. This is where fans can find Cara’s personal photos. Cara seldom uses Twitter to post original content. Instead, virtually her whole Twitter feed consists of Instagram photos that she “pushed” to her Twitter. This makes her whole feed appear as links. This week, Cara went to popular music festival Coachella. She posted many pictures from the famous event, which she attended with her sister Poppy. Her most-liked picture on Instagram this week was a close up picture of Cara and her sister, with 306,000 likes. Coming in second was a very fun group picture of the people she went to the festival with. Many people commented saying how cute the picture was and that they wish they could go to Coachella with Cara and her friends. On Facebook, Cara hit 1 million likes. She posted a status thanking all of her fans, along with another picture from Coachella that was different than those she posted on Instagram. In addition, Cara once again saved her professional modeling pictures for Facebook, as opposed to posting these pictures to Twitter or Facebook.

The Mindy Project

The graphic inviting fans to tweet about the #MindyMixer.

The Mindy Project had a big guest star this week and they made sure to stress this on their social media accounts. Max Greenfield, who plays Schmidt on the popular show New Girl joined the cast for Tuesday’s episode. New Girl is virtually The Mindy Project’s sister show, as they air on the same network back to back and attract generally the same audience. Leading up to the episode, the show tweeted pictures of the two actors with the word “SCHMINDY” written across the bottom. This is a mix of the two character’s names, Schmidt and Mindy. The show also retweeted a few of Max Greenfield’s tweets about working with the cast and being on the show. This episode was special because show creator and star Mindy Kaling live tweeted the episode. The show’s Twitter account retweeted many of Kaling’s tweets as well. Because an actor from New Girl was joining The Mindy Project for the week, the show created #MindyMixer and used the hashtag both on Twitter and Facebook. They invited fans to live tweet along with the cast using the hashtag. The show posted an album of behind-the-scenes pictures of Max and Mindy on their Facebook page and posted one of the pictures to their Twitter account. Again, it seems that posts with other celebrities are very popular.

Pretty Little Liars

As I said last week, PLL is currently on hiatus until June. However, they are still very active on social media. Since they can no longer live tweet episodes or share previews and fan reactions to episodes, they need to be creative. The account has been retweeting fans that are expressing their excitement for the June premiere via Twitter. In addition, they retweet fans that tweet pictures of PLL related things, such as the infamous red coat and ubiquitous letter A. Aside from tweeting fans, the account has also been posting pictures of the actors. For example, two of the shows stars, Shay Mitchell and Ashley Benson, went to Coachella together and took lots of pictures. The Pretty Little Liars Twitter account shared some of their pictures together. On Facebook, the account posted a picture of star Troian Bellisario for their “Woman Crush Wednesday.” The Pretty Little Liars social media accounts shows that just because a show is not currently airing, it is possible to keep the conversation going and the show relevant via social media.

Scandal

The "visual party checklist." 

As Scandal is approaching its season 3 finale this week, the show’s social media runners are doing something interesting. The show has created a “visual party checklist” which is a graphic containing a picture of some of the main characters, a checklist of the things viewers will need for the finale, and the hashtag #SCANDALFINALE. The first five items on the checklist are things related to the show and what viewers will need to watch it. Items number 1 and 2 are popcorn and red wine, which are two snacks main character Olivia Pope is known for. The next three items on the checklist are a charged phone, phone on silent, and a defibrillator. The sixth item, which has its own section and is written in bigger font, is the most interesting. It reads, “Use #SCANDALFINALE, Break Twitter.” The show’s social media runners are already prepping viewers to tweet about the show by hyping up both the finale and the hashtag. This is a very useful PR tactic because it is guaranteed to create buzz and awareness about the show and its finale. The finale item on the checklist is interesting as well, because it is inviting viewers to watch Jimmy Kimmel Live after the show to view a segment on Scandal. Here, they are using this Scandal graphic to cross-promote another show on their network.

Social Media Tracking Week Three: Cross Posting and a Few Scandals

Demi Lovato

Demi’s social media use this week was extremely varied. She shared things ranging from videos of pranks pulled on the last night of her Neon Lights Tour, personal pictures, links to sponsored material, and personal thoughts and observations. On Demi’s Twitter and Instagram, she posts links to the websites of companies of which she is a spokesperson. For example, she is a spokesperson for Acuvue contacts and the Be Radiant line from Tampax. Therefore, she posts links to these websites, often relating the brands to her tour or her life. The sponsored content certainly gets less of a reaction from the public than her personal or career-related content does, but Demi knows the trick to getting the posts a decent amount of attention. To do so, she includes exclusive videos or contests in these posts, which draw people to check out the links, regardless of the sponsorship. This is much more effective than simply sharing links or material solely about the brands. Demi’s Twitter activity this week was especially interesting. There are alleged nude pictures of Demi circulating around the Internet. Though not explicitly stated as a response to these rumors, Demi posted a picture that many believe is related to the potential scandal. The picture is of her working out with boxing gloves. The caption is in Spanish, but is roughly translated to, “I am strong. I am a fighter. So do not underestimate me.”

The picture Demi shared that is a speculated response to her naked picture rumors.

Taylor Swift

Taylor's most-liked picture this week, taken in Las Vegas. 

Taylor Swift seems to live by the saying “less is more” when it comes to social media. Swift has not been known to excessively post content on her social media accounts. Instead, she posts the occasional photo or musing. This week, she mostly focused on Instagram pictures and cross-shared the pictures on her Facebook and Twitter. These pictures seem to get the most positive feedback on Facebook and Instagram. Less people retweet or favorite these pictures presumably because when shared to Twitter, Instagram pictures appear as links that users must click on to see. Once these links are clicked, the user is brought to a separate page to view the picture. The extra effort and steps may deter people from looking at these pictures. It may be better for Taylor to save the Instagram picture to her phone and then share it on Twitter as a Twitpic to make it more accessible to her followers. Taylor’s most-liked picture this week got over 655,000 likes on Facebook and over 708,000 likes on Instagram, compared to only about 8,500 retweets on Twitter.

Cara Delevingne

Cara's most popular Facebook picture this week.

Cara’s social media use is definitely centered around Instagram. This is most likely because Instagram is solely made for sharing pictures and videos, which makes it the ideal networking site for a model that wants to get their face out there and known to the public. Virtually every single one of Cara’s tweets this week was a link to an Instagram picture. These links on her Twitter seem to follow the pattern of Swift’s, meaning that Instagram pictures get much less attention on Twitter than on Facebook or Instagram itself. What sets Cara apart from Swift is that she does not post the same things on all of her social media accounts. In fact, her Instagram and Facebook pictures are almost entirely different. This is interesting because this means that people must follow her on both platforms to see everything there is to see. On Cara’s Instagram, she tends to post funny or artistic pictures, while saving the more professional pictures from photo-shoots and runways for Facebook. For example, Cara’s most-liked picture on Facebook this week was a page out of her spread in Vogue China. On the other hand, her most-like picture on Instagram was an artistic drawing of Cara as Snow White.  

Cara's most popular picture on Instagram this week.

The Mindy Project

The Mindy Project’s social media accounts were particularly active this week because the show returned from a two-month hiatus. Fans were left wondering what would happen between Mindy and her coworker after they finally kissed. The wait after this cliffhanger was extremely long and everyone, including the show’s social media runners, was excited for the show to return and to find out what happened after that long-awaited moment. In terms of sharing links to behind the scenes pictures, interviews with the cast, and articles about the show or its actors, the content on Facebook and Twitter is virtually the same. However, the most active account for the show is Twitter. This is because fans are invited to engage with the show’s account by mentioning them in tweets. The show’s account even prompts people to engage with them by asking followers to tweet their favorite moments or lines. They then retweet or respond to some of these tweets. In addition, the social media runners “live tweet” as the show airs, meaning they tweet about what is happening on the show as it happens. This does not occur on the show’s Facebook or Instagram pages. This means that fans that truly want access to the show should follow their Twitter account.

Pretty Little Liars

Exactly opposite of The Mindy Project’s situation is Pretty Little Liars. Instead of returning from hiatus, the show just ended its season and will not return until June. However, they did not let this deter their social media use, as they were very active this week. Because there are not yet promos or pictures released for the next season, the people behind the Pretty Little Liars Facebook and Twitter accounts have to rely on old material. To do so, they have been sharing pictures and videos of moments that have already happened in the show. In addition, they are sharing behind the scenes pictures. In addition, they often repost or share the cast’s personal pictures, interviews, and ad campaigns. It is challenging to run a show’s social media accounts when the show is not currently airing, but the Pretty Little Liars accounts are doing exceptionally well and are continuing to post content and engage followers.

Scandal
As Scandal is nearing its season finale, the show’s social media activity is more prominent than ever. As they usually do, the cast of Scandal live tweets the episode. The official Scandal account retweets the most prominent tweets from the cast. This is nice for people that watch the show live. However, it is a little annoying for people like myself, who often wait until the weekend to watch the episode. This is because these tweets often contain spoilers, meaning I, along with many others, have to avoid their social media accounts until I watch the episodes. On both their Facebook and Twitter accounts, Scandal has been posting screenshots from the episode, with a powerful quote from the show written on the picture. In addition, the show has been utilizing their pages to post trailers, sneak peeks, and promotional items for the cast. These items are the same on both of their social media pages. However, the cast retweets, live commentary, and fan engagement are limited to Twitter.

One of the screenshots posted to Twitter and Facebook.