Social media is a very popular topic these days and serves as a great promotional tool of our generation.
Celebrities/Artistes are taking advantage of this tool at their disposal, and many of them choose different avenues to gain their fans’ attention. In this post, I explore how a Nigerian artiste is alive and well on the social web.
The Artiste
Multiple award-winning and Multiple Platinum selling urban R&B singer, musician, songwriter, music producer and entrepreneur Darey Art Alade.
Aside for my affinity for his genre of music, I have chosen to review his online prescence, because he is one of the two Nigerian artiste I follow on Facebook & Twitter (second artistes being Asa) and personally bought both their albums, I feel he is utilizing the power of the social web to gain invaluable connections with his audience and with an increased online visibility.
From my observations, it is easy to tell that he doesn’t hire someone to maintain his profile, which is great. Building community, making a personal connection, and actively engaging your audience is important, which he does well by showing interest and keeps it real with his teaming fans.
I remember vividly attending a telecom’s company launch in which he compered, I tweeted him and replied me promptly and was quite impressed and with such he continues to keep connected with his fans.
Here is a run down of the social media power of Darey Art Alade :
Website
This is the home of his online digital assets, a look at the website shows it is social media optimized and updated regularly as it provides social media plugins which makes it easy to like/follow him and helps the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) of the website thereby making it easy to be found online.
The sites strength is the fact that it has got a blog which he uses to showcase his Youtube videos and welcome comments. Also noticeable is the community on the site to allow fans to interact with each other.
Facebook Page
Currently ranked #6 in the Top Nigerian Celebrities/Artistes on Facebook with 254,841 likes, he uses this account to share photos, video, links and discuss topics of interest,
He also addresses fans directly & engages them philosophical and political discussions, likewise occasionally posting top-up (recharge) cards to his teeming fans. A post from him gets on an average over 100 comments and 80 “likes” which quite impressive.
He makes use of this social account, as it should be on record that he is the first Nigerian artiste to have a well-branded and customized Facebook page tab.
Twitter Account
@darey Twitter handle commands 30,761 followers which helps keep in touch with fans and ensures he is found online easily, quickly and in real time.
Youtube Account:
With 243,815 total upload views and a subscriber base of 423, the official music video channel which he joined 3 years ago has the music video “ The Way You Are” with 64,559 views as the highest and has continuously show that he has embraced the power of Youtube, which is vital for promoting his music on his website and other social media platforms.
Other social/web accounts includes reverbnation with 254,548 subscribers and 1905 visits, with also an itunes account for album sales which I believe most Nigerian Artist should embrace.
Despite admiring Darey’s social media activities, there is room for improvements.
1. Embracing of social media marketing (SMM)/Search Engine Marketing (SEM) to promote his music by going further to monetize his fan base.
2. The website is not mobile optimized as a mobile version might need to suffice due to presence of Youtube videos on the existing site or perhaps pioneer a mobile app which allows the applications to feature produced video content, an RSS reader for news alerts, links for purchasing items from his catalogs and social features which will allow for the ability to chat with other fans in addition to sharing content and commenting on and rating shows.
In addition, fans would jump at the chance to have an application themed around their favorite artist, the application may also feature mobile advertising and if the idea also brings a new revenue stream to his team, then that’s a bonus.
3. Lastly, keeping a Google Alert for his name as an artist so he you can keep track of when people mention his name on their blog, webpages, etc. When they do, posting a thank you to connect with them. They’ll really appreciate the personal effort.
In summary, his social media pulling power can be seen as highly successful.