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.