Taylor Swift: Building Relationships with Fans on Social Media
Rhetoric of Parasocial Relationships and Social Media
Parasocial relationships play a major role in the context of celebrity-fan dynamics, as celebrities rely on their fans to fund their work and keep them famous. While parasocial relationships have been around for a long time, creation of social media has narrowed the gap between celebrities and fans. Fans now have access to interact with their favorite celebrities directly, whether that be responding to comments on an Instagram post or even direct messaging with them. Taylor Swift has built her career around the relationship she fosters with her fans, and social media has played a large role in that. From her earlier days on Tumblr to her current likes on TikTok, she has always made a conscious effort to interact with the fans who support her. This calculated interaction cultivates a sense of closeness, making fans think they are truly friends with Swift, which contributes to a large part of her success.
What Are Parasocial Relationships?
Simply Neuroscience defines parasocial relationships as “a type of psychological relationship that is typically experienced by an audience when they encounter celebrities in the mass media”. These are one-sided relationships where members of the audience, or in this case, the fans of Taylor Swift, feel like they have built a personal relationship with their favorite celebrities. Typically these relationships are perfectly healthy, however, a parasocial relationship can become more intense and unhealthy, to the level where someone might try and stalk their favorite celebrity. Taylor Swift is very good at encouraging this type of relationship with her fans, by consistently interacting with them, whether that be through song lyrics, easter eggs, or social media comments, so they feel as if they know her personally, when in reality we know very little about her personal life.
Many Taylor Swift fans claim that a large part of the reason they love her so much is not only that her music is good, but they claim as if she “gets them” or feels like a friend. Swift has carefully crafted this close-feeling relationship with her fans over her 17-year career in music and it is part of her major success. Social media is just one of the methods she employs to connect with fans.
Social Media Impact
Since the beginning of her career, Swift has been active on social media. In her early days she was active on MySpace and Tumblr, but has since moved to primarily Instagram and TikTok. One of the main ways that Swift fosters a parasocial relationship with fans is through her use of language. In her earlier career, she was quite active on Tumblr, liking and commenting on fans’ posts. However, she often uses very casual language when interacting with fans. For example, in this post from 2014, in response to a fan wondering if Swift is going to post the lyrics to her new song, Swift replies with “Nah cause dat track list iz WRONG”. The use of casual language and punctuation here makes Swift seem like an ordinary person having fun on social media, rather than a far off celebrity with managers on their social media. Another example of her casual language use is in this 2019 Tumblr post, a fan posted some stars Swift drew that looked interesting, asking what they were, to which she replied “Stars do u like dem”. The constant use of casual language you would use among close friends makes Swift feel like just that, a close friend to her fans.
Another way that Swift has cultivated a parasocial relationship with her fans through social media is through direct messages (DM). During her reputation album era in 2017, she would respond to stories that fans posted and would even have short conversations with some of them. This personalized interaction further strengthens the parasocial bond, reinforcing the perception of Swift as a friend rather than a distant celebrity. Swift would also converse with fans who she had previously interacted with on Tumblr. On top of interacting with a favorite celebrity in a casual way, interacting with that celebrity multiple times only increases your parasocial relationship with them.
Swift also used to post frequently on her Instagram account, both in posts and stories. She would post primarily about her music, however, she would also post about her personal life as well. Allowing fans to see small glimpses into her everyday life allowed them to learn more about her and feel as if they know her as a person. Following her disappearance in 2016, she cleared her Instagram account in anticipation of her newest album at the time. She also turned off her Instagram comments, removing the option for fans to interact with her in that space. However, despite these changes, she still maintained her social media presence by sharing casual posts and stories.
As much as she used to interact directly with fans in her earlier career, Swift has shifted how she interacts with fans currently. During the 2020 pandemic, she started to post a lot less on her Instagram account and she no longer DMs fans and very rarely interacts on Tumblr. Her Instagram account has also shifted in the way she posts. Swift very rarely posts anything about her personal life anymore, with the majority of her posts only being promo for her newest album.
However, in 2021 Swift created a TikTok account where she has continued to interact with fans in a more casual way. Although, she interacts much less frequently than she used to, she still uses friendly language and lots of emojis when commenting on fans TikToks.
Due to her increasing level of fame, Swift must be more careful when interacting with fans, as parasocial relationships can reach an unhealthy level, and Swift has been stalked by “fans” before. Although she no longer interacts so personally through social media with her fans, she still interacts with them enough to keep that parasocial relationship that was formed alive, allowing her to continue to be successful.
In conclusion, Taylor Swift’s use of social media is a great example of how celebrities strategically use parasocial relationships to maintain a connection with their fans. Through her active use of platforms such as Tumblr and TikTok, she has fostered a sense of intimacy and closeness with her fans, blurring the lines between celebrity and friend, allowing fans to form a more intense parasocial relationship with her, contributing to her major success.
References
Tan, C., & Kapadia, V. (2022, December 3). Getting real with parasocial relationships. Simply Neuroscience. https://www.simplyneuroscience.org/post/getting-real-with-parasocial-relationships
Tweets: https://twitter.com/liasivygrows/status/1665025269248282624
Tumblr Posts: https://taylorswift.tumblr.com/post/184584000145/taylor-what-is-this-stars-do-u-like-dem
Taylor Swift News 🤍 on X: “Recent tumblr posts from Taylor! http://t.co/nl3LYRI1es" / X
Instagram DM’s: Taylor Swift News 🤍 on X: “Taylor talking to a fan via Instagram DM recently (IG: swiftie_strong) https://t.co/G5KzP57Orj" / X