Misc. Monday: Gaga’s Social Media Romance

Over the weekend, Lady Gaga made a trip to Valley for another round of her highly-successful Monster Ball Tour. With sold out shows and yet another #1 single in the US, Gaga has easily been the biggest name in music for the last two years. How has she kept momentum? Despite what her latest single suggests, she was not born that way. Gaga would not be where she is without the power of social media.

Last week, she toured the headquarters of Web sites that were instrumental in developing her fame: Google and Twitter. In an interview with Google, Gaga admitted: “The reason we’re here at Google today is because the original campaign for my music and my project began with online- and media-based advertising.”

Oh my Gaga, did she ever. Her years of using the Internet to promote herself have recently paid off. The pop powerhouse holds the record of the most followers on Twitter with over 9 million.  She was dubbed the queen of YouTube last October for being the first artist to receive one billion overall hits. To top it off, she has the second most-liked Facebook page with 31 million fans, just trailing Eminem.

How did she do it? Sure, she’s creative and talented. However, she also maintains close ties with her fans through social media. She frequently sends out messages to her “little monsters” with her latest outfit, song, video, etc. Once she has them eating out of her paws, awaiting her next move, she has control. Recently, her strong online presence has built momentum for her upcoming album and raised $250,000 for victims in Japan—all because her fans truly care what she has to say.

While some may write off the Lady as a media hound who attracts attention with outrageous outfit-based publicity stunts, we PR pros know better. It’s her strong business mind and tech savvy that placed her on the pop culture throne.

Gaga, ooh la la, indeed.

Follow Olson Communications Inc. intern Scott Huscher on Twitter @scotthuscher.