Soulja Boy's Successful Utilization of Social Media

Who would have thought that social media would have been as influential on the entertainment industry as it has been? Well Soulja Boy learned how to utilize social media to his benefit when marketing his album “The DeAndre Way” that was released in mid-late November as well as promoting his single “Speakers Going Hammer”. Lee Hawkins of the Wall Street Journal sat down with Soulja Boy and discussed how he became a multiplatinum rapper solely based off of his social media presence and has been labeled the Music Industry’s “King of Social Media”.

Soulja Boy first starts off how he started rapping in 2005, he became familiar with the Internet, and then began to utilize MySpace & Youtube to get booked for shows. The stardom wasn’t immediately, he had to make fans aware of his music and did so via setting up a Soundclick account. Soundclick is known as “The Billboard charts for Underground Music” says Soulja Boy. Once he began reached the Top 10 on Soundclick his plays increased due to his popularity. He then linked his Soundclick account to his MySpace and Youtube pages. He also used his twitter and Facebook pages to be able to reach his fans. When he reached his 1st million on Youtube, he then placed a booking email up, which enabled those wanting him to perform to book him for shows. Once Soulja Boy reached 100K plays via Soundclick he was able to monetize that distributing his music via the website for $.99 a song. Soundclick entail splits the profit with the fan. Let me help you understand how this was beneficial for him financially, Soulja Boy was receiving at least 19K song downloads a day! That is approx. $9,400 a day just off of his social media marketing strategies. Keep in mind that he has not yet signed a deal w/a major label. He hen began to use a tool called Saynow.com, a website where you can get phone #'s and are able to talk to your fans. He acquired 4.9 subscribers. With Saynow.com he was able to leave a message and distribute it directly to his fans. In addition to these smart tactics he created multiple websites, approx. 20, to continue to create a buzz. His best tool would have had to been his Youtube channel. Where he could address his fans whether it be just putting out a new song or speaking to the youth about him being a positive role model to his fans. He used this outlet to connect with all of his fans. I would definitely have to say that he has learned how to capitalize off of the social media world. Based off of his different tactics Soulja Boy generated 12 MILLION DOLLARS off of his first single alone. No wonder they have crowned him “The King of Social Media” because he learned how to use it to benefit musical career.

Disography including "The DeAndre Way" is available via iTunes

Lee Hawkins of the Wall Street Journal's Soulja Boy interview Speaking With Soulja Boy, Rap's Social Media King

SPEAKERS GOING HAMMER has almost 13 million views

Source : Speaking With Soulja Boy, Rap's Social Media King

Entertainment Company CFOs capitalize on Digital Growth

Earnest and Young is one of the world's leading professional services organizations, helps companies across the globe to identify and capitalize on business opportunities. In 2008 they interviewed several media & entertainment CEOs and few very few of them had anticipated where the focus of the digital revolution was transforming. In 2010 they completed a study that focused on senior media and entertainment executives by asking the Chief Financial Officers of 75 leading global media and entertainment organizations for their insight into their approach for the future and the ever changing digital world.

The study touched on several key points however I am just going to share a few with you. First, Digital is now- they have noticed that new technology continues to have an extremely powerful influence on how individuals experience entertainment and information. There is a noticeable shift to digital and is challenging old entertainment business models and causing CFOs to make changes in their investment decisions. Secondly, CFOs are trying to juggle balancing between digital growths and declining traditional media revenue. The CFOs are beginning to see a significant growth in digital revenues, however with price deflation and product un-bundling, combined with the global economic downturn, CFOs are starting to recognize a the placement of increasing pressure on traditional media revenues. All that means is that the industry revenues and “per unit spend” on different media content is no longer increasing at a rapid speed. Lastly, Interactive media companies are best positioned to thrive in the next two to three years. The CFOs have stated that they will not lose sight of doing thing traditionally, but digital earnings are definitely on a rise. The earnings are rising at lower price points and have yet to become bigger than the traditional media revenue streams.

With the shifts in consumer demands, media multi-tasking has been taken to new levels. The consumer behavior has caused the consumption rates of pure-play Internet, video games, how consumers obtain their music and how they share to soar to new levels. Although radio, broadcast networks television, and print media are showing a decline, they are also seeing there consumption rates rise. The consumption is rising due to consumers using television as a multi-tasking medium. Consumers are tweeting and blogging while watching their favorite shows.

CFOs of major entertainment companies are noticing how digital landscaping is evolving and therefore determine where they need to make their investments accordingly in order to protect their market position and ensure that they remain prevalent in the entertainment business world.


Source:

Poised for digital growth: Preserving profitability in today’s digital world