When you have become so famous that there is no more famous to become, what do you do next? Found a social network devoted entirely to yourself, naturally.
That’s the word from Lady Gaga, the world’s most unsettling pop diva, who is preparing to launch littlemonsters.com, an online home for her millions of fans, in collaboration with Backplane, a social media start-up that counts Gaga as one of its investors with a 20% stake. The network is still being set up, but visitors to the Web address can register for an invitation by submitting their email addresses.
The social network is a key step for the pop superstar, allowing fans to find each other and fuse their energies into a great Gaga vortex, perhaps as a preamble to some kind of cosmic pop event (I’m thinking the star-baby from 2001). After all, successful pop stardom is all about the mystical rapport between the celebrity and her fans, but also between the fans themselves, as they join together in a cult-like, communal appreciation of the celebrity, egging each other on in a mutually reinforcing cycle of teenage tweakedness. This naturally also includes lots of extra-crazy fan-generated content.
It’s not clear how, or whether, Gaga intends the new site to integrate with her many other social media platforms, especially Twitter, which has until now enjoyed something of a symbiotic relationship with Gaga, growing along with her fame. However, if all of Gaga’s 18 million Twitter followers join her new social network and visit at least once a month, it would put littlemonsters.com ahead of sites including Pinterest (with 7.5 million unique visitors in December 2011, per comScore), Barnes & Noble (14 million), and the U.S. Postal Service (15.5 million).
COMMENTARY: I must confess that I used to follow Lady Gaga on Twitter, but she never followed me back, so I decided right there and then, to dump her. No pop Diva, no matter how many fans she has, is entitled to call me a her "little monster,". I looked it up, and Lady Gaga now 18.9 million followers on Twitter 47.6 million fans on Facebook.
Lady Gaga is without any doubt very talented and a great entertainer, but she is also one of the best self-promoters and marketers around. She is not just a celebrity, but a brand. The famous "Meat Dress" that she wore to the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards is legendary and is ranked as one of the top marketing coops of all time. Checkout any of Lady Gaga's YouTube videos, and there isn't a single one that has been viewed less than 10 million times. On May 20, 2011, she partnered with Starbucks to promote her album "Born This Way," and offered free downloads for her hit song "The Edge of Glory."
Lady Gaga is unique among entertainers. She is totally over-the-top and never willing to be upstaged. Below is her famous "Egg Capsule" she used to make her grand entrance at the 2011 Grammy Music Awards.
Lady Gaga appeared at the 2010 Brit Awards wearing a see-through costume and towering hairpiece designed by the late fashion designer Alexander McQueen.
Click Image To Enlarge
Make no mistake, LadyGaga is quite an entrepreneur, and having her own social network will be a seamless way to drive more traffic to her LadyGaga.com site where she spreads the latest news about her upcoming events and appearances, provides the lyrics to her songs, has a chat room for her fans and has an online shop where she sells her branded merchandise, from jewelry to outerwear, and in five different languages. Her Lady Gaga Helvetica Monster Sunglasses sell for $25.o0. You can also purchase music CD's of all her albums from $6.98 to $29.95.
Here just a few of her Twitter Tweets:
"Really wanna get a new tattoo. Can't decide where. Was thinking on inside of my forearm under the peace sign. Whatcha think."
"Screw it. I had too much wine."
"Can't believe I have 18,000,000 TwitterMonsters, really rad, was just a few years ago I had barely any."
"Merry X-mas Little Monsters! Listen Here to my UNRELEASED SONG "Stuck On Fuckin' You": bit.ly/t2MVBl
"@LadyGaga's hot-selling album Born This Way has moved over 8 million copies around the world, Billboard magazine reports."
It's difficult not to ignore Lady Gaga, but I do hope that you enjoy reading some of my other blog posts about her dated May 20, 2011, June 1, 2011, June 18, 2011, August 20, 2011, December 1, 2011,
Courtesy of an article dated February 7, 2012 appearing in MediaPost Publications The Social Graf
♥i love you so much lady gaga!♥
paws up
Posted by: rayshawn barbee | 04/17/2012 at 09:51 AM