While traditional promotional elements were typically passive, social media is an interactive form of communication. Social media have encouraged consumer interaction by converging different types of media, whether that is text, photographs, video, or otherwise (Cayari, 2011). As an easy means of quickly publishing messages, Twitter has now connected with Facebook, allowing Tweets to now also simultaneously post to Facebook as a status update. Social networking sites like Facebook and Google+ allow users to share a variety of multi-media through status updates or by posting to a friend’s wall. Similarly, YouTube and VEVO fans are able to share video media on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and other social media simply by clicking a Share button. This convergence of multi-media on social media platforms has made the distribution of promotional messages and media of artist images to be quick and effortless.
Messages intended for the promotion of an artist’s star image should be designed to interact with fans and stimulate conversations over a number of social media platforms. This interaction between artists and fans “contributes to a sense of community in which honest, open communications are encouraged and customer engagement is enhanced” (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). When fans re-Tweet or share something an artist publishes, they are essentially advertising that artist’s message to a new network of people to read (Foley, 2010). Therefore, these messages should contain information that fans may find interesting and would like to pass on to their own network of followers. Likewise, by composing tweets or status updates in the form of a question, you are directing your message at fans on a more personal level while encouraging responses. These responses, in the form of comments on Facebook and tweets on Twitter, will be re-published to the fan’s network of followers.
