Tweet It Maybe: A Social Media Case Study of Carly Rae Jepsen

In 2009, it was "I Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas. In 2010, it was "California Gurls" by Katy Perry. Then, in 2011, it was Pitbull with "Give Me Everything." What do these songs have in common? They were all the #1 hit of the summer in American pop culture. This year's #1 hit, however, was not from an artist we all knew. In fact, at the end of last summer, this artist was still a complete unknown. By now, you know I'm talking about Carly Rae Jepsen and her summer smash: "Call Me Maybe."

For decades, the #1 song of the summer has come from a major artist being promoted by a major record label. So, what propelled Jepsen's catchy track from a minor hit in Canada to a world-wide sensation? It was none other than our good friends at Youtube and Twitter. These days, two out of every three teenagers listens to music on Youtube; and, as a result, social media sites are becoming vital tools to launch marketing campaigns for new songs.

To give you an idea of how Youtube has changed the music scene, take a look at the #1 summer hit from ten years ago: Nelly's 2002 hit, "Hot In Herre." Between the official Youtube video and three other versions of Nelly's track (also on Youtube), the song currently has about twenty million hits. That does seem like a lot, right? Well, it isn't. Since the official video was uploaded to Youtube five months ago, "Call Me Maybe" has been viewed more than 215 million times!!! It's not even close.

On June 4th, a video was uploaded to Youtube that features a mash-up of President Obama speeches to the tune of "Call Me Maybe." This video alone received twenty-four million views (four million more than Nelly's #1 hit!!!). During an interview with New Mexico's hit radio station, KOB-FM, Obama stated, "I have to admit, I’ve never actually heard the original version of the song. I saw this version where they spliced up me from a whole bunch of different speeches that I made. They kind of mashed together an Obama version of it."

So, what could prompt a song like Jepsen's to go viral the way it did. Could it have been another social media platform? Yes is could! Justin Bieber currently has more than twenty-six million twitter followers (second most to Lady Gaga who has twenty-eight) so when he tweets something, it reaches a massive audience. So, when Bieber tweeted that “Call Me Maybe” was “possibly the catchiest song I’ve ever heard lol," it hit a large number of fans.

Soon after, Bieber and his group signed Jepsen, and Bieber even recorded his own Youtube video of him and his friends singing the catchy hit. The video took off on Youtube, and propelled Jepsen's video into the ranks of Youtube's most successful hits ever. Once it was big on Youtube, fans began requesting the song on the, still prevalent, radio and the song continued to grow. The song has finally been topped after nine weeks at #1, but it will not soon be forgotten as internet memes of the video continue to show up on all social media platforms.

This is just another case of how social media can turn an unknown into one of biggest stars on the planet. For Social Media Help for your business, call Xynergy® today.