CARDI B: A SOCIAL MEDIA ICON
Cardi B is a music star and social media celebrity who has created an astonishing online brand and persona that has allowed her to quickly rise to fame. Cardi B shot to fame rapidly in both the music industry and social media world in part due to her smart online marketing tactics. Cardi B has utilized unique tactics on digital media platforms to craft a very personable narrative. Her social media accounts focus on providing entertainment to her followers and the majority of her posts focus on portraying herself as happy and appreciative of those around her. Social media has become a place where people only post their highlight reels and celebrities often post about their expensive materialistic items. However, Cardi B mainly posts photos and videos that show her authenticity and unique personality. Cardi B’s tactics have made her a social media star.
Cardi B’s Instagram
Cardi B’s Instagram account is the online platform where she has truly created her own personal brand and helped craft her celebrity status. With one of the fastest growing Instagram accounts on the platform since its launch, Cardi B has become a true online celebrity. Cardi B’s Instagram account, @iamcardib, has more than 21 million followers and she is one of the top one hundred most followed accounts in the world. As seen in the visual chart below, prior to December 2015 Cardi B had fewer than one million followers on her Instagram account. Starting in January 2016, her following began to quickly increase and by August 2017 the number of her global followers had grown to just over eight million followers. Since August 2017, the number of Cardi B’s followers has continued to grow exponentially. In a period of less than nine months she has gained more than thirteen million new followers to bring her total Instagram followers to more than twenty-one million. As evident in the graphs below, the spikes in total numer of followers correspond to her music releases and number of daily posts. Cardi B’s consistent posting schedule and well promoted music releases are key engines that help drive traffic to her page. It will be interesting to see if her following spikes even more throughout the rest of the month of April due to the release of her first commercial album, Invasion of Privacy, with Atlantic Records and her fantastic Coachella weekend one set. Cardi B also has a large following on Twitter with over 2.7 million followers and almost double that amount on her Facebook account with over 5 million followers. However, it is clear that her Instagram account has seen the most success due to her smart online marketing tactics. The data also indicates Cardi B also has a very significant number of daily Google searches. This trend, as seen in the chart below, shows that her search trends match similarly to her follower increase. This correlation shows that she is maintaining her relevance across all forms of digital media.
Brand Creation
Cardi B has created a strong personal brand that has led to her large following, amassed in a very short period of time. A brand is formed through both perception and experience. Cardi B sees herself as an authentic personality who loves to create genuine music that she herself would enjoy listening to. Cardi B has strategically ensured that her authenticity is evident across all her social media platforms. She portrays this authenticity by creating videos that highlight her personality and posting photos that reflect her character. This smart and targeted visual marketing guarantees that her followers and fans see her in this light. She maintains this authentic personality by posting content that often reflects a happy, authentic and unscripted lifestyle. Her social media accounts do not seem forced, are not purely for promotional purposes and show a true love for her fans. On her social media accounts Cardi B embraces her past, shares gratitude for her friends and lets her fans into a large portion of her life. She has no concern about expressing herself as she posts unfiltered and authentic moments on her social media platforms. Cardi B uses her Instagram account to make sure she promotes any music releases or public appearances she has coming up. She definitely follows the social media marketing tactic of “do things, tell people”. The skillful use of this tactic has enabled her followers and fans to be more knowledgeable and excited about her public appearances, music releases and overall brand she works tirelessly to portray.
Social Media Marketing
Cardi B has done an amazing job of building an online community that supports her brand and engages with her content. She posts multiples photos and videos on Instagram everyday. When asked in an interview in summer of 2017 about Cardi B’s “Instagram do’s and dont’s”, she suggested that people should post every two hours on the platform, as can be seen in the link above. Cardi B is able to consistently engage with her fans this often because 58% of smartphone users can’t go more than an hour without checking their phone. This statistic proves the potential of how beneficial it can be to post multiple times on social media each day. She also often reposts photos or videos that fans, fellow music artists or other celebrities initially post, in order to express her gratitude for the continued support from her strong online community. Cardi B also capitalizes on creating a variety of photos or videos because visual content yields a much higher engagement than other types of social media content. One of the main reasons why Cardi B’s Instagram is her most followed social media platform is because almost all of the content she posts on this app focuses on the visuals, not the words. Consistency is another one of Cardi B’s main operational tactics. Cardi B is very consistent with the amount of times she posts a day and she is equally consistent with maintaining her brand image. Cardi B ensures that all of her posts reflect her brand image of being an authentic and entertaining character. She is consistent with this brand and doesn’t switch up the vibe of her social media platform image. The social media tactics that Cardi B has used to create her strong following are her use of visual content, consistency in a frequent number of posts and staying true to her online brand image.
Social Media Influencer Power
Cardi B holds a lot of power as a social media influencer, as she is able to persuade many of her followers and fans to purchase or use certain products and services as a result of her strong social media presence. Cardi B’s social media strategies allow her to establish herself as a top influencer by having a strong value proposition of being both an entertaining and inspiring individual across all her social media platforms. She has built her community by consistently posting multiple times a day on Instagram, she creates reciprocity by showing gratitude to fans and celebrities by reposting some of their posts and she has ensured that there is always engagement with her posts and videos by creating an authentic self image on the platform.
Cardi B has the potential to remain a powerful social media influencer for a long time if she continues to apply the same online marketing tactics as she currently uses. Her level of connectivity with her followers initiates continual fan engagement with her posts. Cardi B manages to connect with her followers by posting often, staying true to her authentic personality and engaging with posts from fans and other celebrities. This strong level of connectivity has led to her powerful influencer status. Her photos show “the truth” and prove her authenticity because she embraces her true personality. Cardi B ensures that all photos and videos on her account portray her authentic self and she ensures none of her posts appear staged. She refrains from editing her photos and doesn’t simply post only her “highlight reel”. Cardi B’s ability to continue to make her platform informal, down to earth and authentic has led to her followers connecting with her on an interpersonal level.
Conclusion
Cardi B is a powerful figure in the social media community, especially on Instagram, due to her smart social media strategies. I believe that if she remains in the limelight and continues to use effective social media strategies, she will become one of the top twenty-five most followed Instagram accounts in the world. Social media connects the world together and I believe that if she continues to utilize her platforms effectively she will become more of a household name around the world. If Cardi B continues to strengthen her brand and promote her music on social media she has the potential to become one of the most memorable social media icons in history. Cardi B is a social media powerhouse.
Sources
Khan, Hamza. “Lectures 1, 8, 10 and 11.” RTA 902: Social Media. Ryerson University, Toronto. Winter Semester 2018.
