THE SOCIAL MEDIA REVOLUTION 531Britney TV, since October 2005 and December 2006), a Twitter account and a Facebook profile (both since
August 2008).
In June 2012, Britney Spears had around 1.2 million subscribers on YouTube, 17.4 million followers on Twitter
and 19.5 million fans on Facebook. In addition to these primary activities, Britney Spears also maintains a profile
on MySpace (created in October 2003) and on Google+ (since its launch in September 2011) with 3.4 million
followers. Her iPhone application ‘It’s Britney’ provides official news and exclusive messages, and allows users to
assemble digital images of Britney and themselves. All these platforms allow Miss Spears and her team to be in
close contact with her fan base and interact with them on a daily basis. Important messages are communicated
via her social media tools instead of via press interviews. This approach generates a feeling of privilege and appreci-
ation with the fans. In responding to the questions of her fans, the Britney Spears team pay close attention to
ensuring that it is absolutely clear who is providing the responses. Posts made by Britney Spears are marked using
the ‘~Brit’ signature.
Two weeks prior to the launch of her new ‘Radiance’ fragrance, she posted on her webpage, Facebook and Twitter:
‘Happy Friday people! Am I part of your future?’ followed by a link to her Facebook presence, through which readers
could launch an application related to the Radiance advertising spot. The app used a fortune teller, and showed
users different pictures of themselves and their friends in the form of a crystal ball. These pictures, captured from
the respective user’s Facebook photo albums, were followed by a video of the Radiance spot itself. On Twitter, this
post received 1052 replies and 666 retweets from 1516 users and was read by about 500 000 people. In total,
43 000 people clicked on the link and used the ‘crystal ball’ application on Facebook.
Britney Spears and her team also collaborate with social media pages owned by third parties such as fan
blogs in order to make sure that the posts are consistent with the messages on the channels ‘owned’ by Spears’
team.The launch of ‘Hold It Against Me’
Prior to the official release of the single ‘Hold It Against Me’ a demo tape was ‘leaked’ on YouTube. That day Britney
Spears posted on Twitter: ‘Heard an early demo of my new single leaked. If u think that’s good, wait til you hear the
real one Tuesday. ~Brit’. This post, combined with the demo tape, resulted in substantial press coverage of the
single even before its release on 10 January 2011. A similar strategy was used to launch the video of the single.
Historically, music videos were released simultaneously with their respective single in order to increase sales. Yet,
in the case of ‘Hold It Against Me’, the video was not even produced by the single release. It was shot two weeks
later. During the shooting, Twitter followers could read about the progress of the video shoot.
Two weeks before the release date of the video, 14 teasers were shown on YouTube on a daily basis under the
motto ‘14 Days, 14 Teasers, 1 World Premiere’. Each clip generated between 1 and 5 million views. The grand pre-
miere of the entire video was accompanied by a live discussion on MTV.com. In parallel, Britney Spears commented
on Facebook and Twitter. In addition to its unique release strategy, the ‘Hold It Against Me’ video relied heavily on
product placement. The video included sequences during which four products and logos were displayed promi-
nently: the women’s fragrance Radiance produced by Britney Spears for Elizabeth Arden; an eye shadow from the
company Makeup Forever; the logo of Sony (owner of the music label of Britney Spears); and the online dating site
PlentyOfFish.com. The product placement received negative comments from many critics and journalists but was
perceived rather positively by fan groups.
Prior to the ‘Hold It Against Me’ video release, over 400 fan clips with potential choreography for the new song
were posted on YouTube. Some clips received more than 100 000 views. Britney Spears encouraged the develop-
ment of user-generated content by including links to some of these videos on BritneySpears.com.The results
During its first week, the single was downloaded 411 000 times from iTunes, which was the best sales week for a
digital song in the history of Britney Spears and the most successful debut of a single with a woman as lead artist.
Unsurprisingly, the song jumped to the top of the iTunes charts in 16 countries and the USA. On top of this the site
PlentyOfFish.com increased its traffic by 20% and product placements in the video generated $500 000 of profit
for Britney Spears.M15_PELS3221_05_SE_C15.indd 531M15_PELS3221_05_SE_C15.indd 531 6/6/13 8:55 AM6/6/13 8:55 AM