Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has more than 14 million Twitter followers and, as of today, nine tweets. She follows 10 people on Twitter, including Michelle Williams, Kelly Rowland and an account that claims to be the “ultimate Beyoncé fan source” but hasn’t tweeted since February.
After having sent zero tweets since 2013, Beyoncé (or whoever happens to run her account) tweeted a link to her newest visual album Lemonade when it dropped on April 23. Beyoncé isn’t the only artist whose Twitter or Instagram presence has played a role in the recent release or hype for an album. Drake has basically become a living meme while Chance the Rapper has taken an interesting social media marketing approach when promoting his upcoming Chance 3.
Maybe it’s because she’s pretty permanently cut off from the rest of the world, maybe it’s because she genuinely doesn’t care, but Beyoncé does not know how to use Instagram. Or she’s just a genius who is using it better than all of us, which is more likely the case. When promoting Lemonade, Beyoncé’s Instagram habits didn’t necessarily change. They followed the same format: groups of pictures, usually a bit similar, all posted at once, with limited or no captions. Maybe that’s what she meant when she sang “all on Instagram / Cake by the pound.”
Regardless, because she’s Beyoncé, everything she posts is loved and adored — including all of the videos and pictures surrounding Lemonade. For Bey, less is more. Her social media habits follow her album release habits — perfectly crafted media dropped without warning and with little to no explanation. The pictures can usually speak for themselves.
Drake has taken some notes out of Beyoncé’s social media textbook, but still made a much different impression when releasing his newest album Views. If there’s one thing Champagne Papi knows how to do, it’s cater to meme lovers. I’m not sure if Drizzy loves being a meme or if he’s just a fabulous businessman (probably both). Like Beyoncé, Drake also doesn’t tweet too often, and he doesn’t have to. After supplying the Internet with enough meme-able material to last an eternity, Drake just has to sit back and watch as frenzied 18-year-olds Photoshop at the speed of sound. His Instagram and Twitter accounts provide a base, but his fans are ready to do the rest.
In terms of utilizing an eager fan base, Chance the Rapper knows just how to play the game. Chance released posters for his upcoming album Chance 3 and sold the posters only in $20 packs of 10. No one needs 10 posters, so what do you do with the other nine? You give them to friends, or hang them everywhere. Soon, Lil Chano From 79th was retweeting all kinds of places his fans had hung posters in anticipation of the album release. Instead of promoting his album himself, Chance somehow convinced his fans to pay to promote his album for him.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It doesn’t feel like Chance is taking advantage of fans. He gives out all his music for free so it makes sense that fans are looking for some way to repay him.
If you told musicians 10 years ago that they would need a fire Instagram account in order to promote their album, they would probably have you institutionalized. But today, taking advantage of the wild world of meme culture is key in marketing any album. For Beyoncé, Chance and Drake, it’s just another step to a release.
