Keep It Real — And Consistent
Ballerini wants her fans to see the same person
on Instagram that they would if they spied her out
to dinner with her husband or on Good Morning
America. Instagramming a recent trip to New
York, she juxtaposed a shot of herself in an Yves-
Saint Laurent top and Alexander Wang skirt with
one of herself messily eating a hot dog on a city
street corner. “I’ll make sure that I’m not over-
posting just looking like I have my life together,”
she says, adding that she follows advice she once
received from Swift: “In a nutshell: ‘Don’t stress.
Just be yourself.’ ” Kaminsky calls her approach
“intentional, but also very natural to her.”Get Personal
Ballerini finds the most value in direct-messaging
fans, whether it’s to clue in loyalists on a new
release or cheer up someone having a bad day,
and she tries to do so a couple of times a week.
“That’s not about anyone else,” she says. “I don’t
need people to see me doing that” — though she
did recently use an Instagram post to offer an
encouraging response to a fan’s handwritten
letter. She’s also known to sign on to Twitter for
spontaneous Q&As. (Her filter-free answers have
won her the name “Spillerini” from fans.)Know Your Platform...
Though Ballerini has a say in all of her social
media activity, she’s most confident navigating
Instagram — and is, in fact, the only person who
knows her password, guaranteeing that she’s the
sole poster. She’s also honest about where she’s
less comfortable. “I have help with Twitter and
Facebook because I’m so bad at saying, ‘I have a
new merch bundle,’ ” she says. “Even though I’mexcited about it, it’s just not what I want to post.”
Content that Ballerini doesn’t share herself gets a
“Team KB” signoff....And Make It Work
For You
Ballerini often shares clips of herself covering
her favorite artists’ songs on Instagram and
Twitter, but not YouTube, which she uses purely
for official music videos and tour clips. “I want
people to know I’m a music artist, and the best
way for me to do that isn’t always posting a
photo from a tour,” she says. Posting covers “is
my way of reminding people that’s what I do in
a way that I feel they can absorb without feeling
like self-promotion.”Do Your Homework
Ballerini has been vocal about the gender
disparity on country music radio for the majority
of her career, most recently in a January
Instagram post: “It’s my job to say it out loud
and post about it,” she wrote, “because of the
girls moving to Nashville (or wherever) that
are ready to outrun and outwork and outplay
everyone.” But to bolster her own confidence,
she’ll always do research before making aserious statement — in the above case, getting
perspective from CMT vp music strategy Leslie
Fram, other artists and country radio executives.
“That helps me be like, ‘Here’s my role, and here’s
what I can do.’ ”‘ To Think Big, You Have
To Think Small’
For her most recent album launch, Ballerini invited
to a Nashville party 50 of her biggest fans —
some of whom she knows on a first-name basis.
They didn’t know she would be there to unveil the
news herself, and she snapped a picture with the
fans alongside the album’s artwork to effectively
serve as the project’s announcement. “Telling 50
people in a room was the thing that I wanted to
be blown up,” says Ballerini. “We were able to
collect [footage from] that and then make that the
announcement that we hoped more people would
see and people would talk about more. To think
big, you have to think small.”Remind Fans That You’re
One Of Them
Ballerini isn’t afraid to gush over other artists
on social media. She has shared an old meet-
and-greet photo with Swift, completely lost her
cool upon spotting Blake Lively during New York
Fashion Week (“SHE’S REAL GUYS,” she tweeted)
and paired a pic with the Jonas Brothers with a
video of her teenage self trying to meet them in- Though Ballerini can’t help calling the latter
“cringey,” both she and Kaminsky know the value
of being relatable. “That’s the kind of thing that
can’t be contrived,” says Kaminsky. “She knows
when something is gold.”
How To Own YourSocial Status
FEBRUARY 29, 2020 • WWW.BILLBOARD.COM 51