Stupid Rapper Or Social Media Kingpin?

Originally today’s blog post was supposed to be so controversial that it seriously could be either career ending or make thousands fall in love with me.

Before you think I’ve put my tail between my legs, I was actually advised by a lot of people to just double check that I have all my facts straight first.

Instead, today I wanted to talk to you guys about a guy who is KILLING it with social media. He has literally become a millionaire DIRECTLY from using social media. So all the “uru Guru booboo’s” who say Social Media is a waste of time, there’s no money in it, buyers aren’t on social media – The bubble has burst!

Who is this rapper/social media kingpin?

He’s only 18 years old (started at 14!!!), he’s sold over 11,000,000 units of his products, he has over 400,000,000 views to his Youtube videos, he has over 62,000,000 views to his Myspace page with over 900,000 friends, he created his own social network that has 184,000+ members, he’s Grammy nominated, and he had a #1 on the billboards for 7 weeks.

Impressive to say the least! It get’s better… He never had help from any large corporations, in fact he’s 100% self made.

In November 2005, he posted his songs on the website SoundClick (a music-based social community). Following positive reviews on the site, he then created profiles on YouTube and MySpace. In March 2007, he recorded “Crank That” and released his first independent album Unsigned & Still Major: Da Album Before da Album, followed by a low-budget video filmed demonstrating the “Soulja Boy” dance.

By the end of May 2007, “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” received its first airplay and Soulja Boy met with Mr. Collipark to sign a deal with Interscope Records.

Yes, we’re talking about Soulja Boy who is better known to most of us as that annoying song that kids are listening to these days. However, this guy is RULING the Internet in his niche and creating a huge tribe that talks like him, dresses like him, dances like him, and spreads his message.

You may not like his product but you have to respect his marketing.

How Did He Do It?

Here’s a little mindmap of the different things Soulja Boy’s got going on…

This guy has sooo much going on in social media that I’m a little intimidated to try and explain it all in just one blog post. I might have to turn this into a report to really expand on it the way it needs. However, i’ll give it my best shot and at least cover the things I see as most important.

Soulja Boy On Blogging

Instead of all text blog posts Soulja uses lots of everyday pictures of what he’s doing or where he is at and then a little blurb about that picture. He also does a lot of video blog posts and then posts them to youtube.

Some specific things I noticed him doing was giving out his email address and sometimes even his phone number in his blog posts. This is very smart as it lets his audience interact or feel like they are interacting with him.

In fact I called the number to see what happens and I totally fell for the joke. It goes straight to voicemail but the message is one of those tricks where you think the person actually picked up the phone! Yes, I actually thought I was talking to him until it finally sunk in. hahaha

Some other important notes were that every video is under or around 5-6 minutes long and it’s very raw. He doesn’t use any fancy effects, it’s just him talking about whats on his mind. If he’s in a down mood you hear it in his voice and same if he is excited.

Soulja Boy On Video Marketing

I already said that he keeps his videos short and to the point. He also makes sure to tell you what he wants you to do in every video. If he needed you to vote for something he asked you to do it, if he needed you to buy a new ringtone he asked you to do it, on and on for anything he needs from you.

In almost all of his videos he gives you a way to talk back to him which keeps it a 2 way communication instead of him just always talking at you.

Soulja Boy On Social Networking

Again it’s all about being a 2 way street of communication. His myspace has his phone number and so do all of his friends. The networks I saw him using were those that most serviced his target market. For example he got started on SoundClick.com which is a social network thats lets musicians share there music.

He’s using Twitter and Facebook just like almost everyone else. But then he also uses the more specific to his niche like Youtube, SoundClick, Bebo, and Myspace. Today there is a niche social network for just about any topic you can think of, and if not then Ning.com will let you create one.

Soulja is also using Ning.com and has over 184,000 members. Ning is a social network for people who want to build there own social networks and Ning lets you create your own social networks with all the most popular features.

His social network is called SODMG which stands for S.O.D. Mafia Gamers. It’s a place for gamers to hang out and challenge each other. For $25 you can register to their internal contest network and join gaming tournaments where you can win cash prizes.

184,000+ members x $25 = A LOT!!!

Soulja Boy On Building A Tribe

This guy is no dummy, he has very specific reasons for what he does. Like when he created a video teaching his audience how to do the unique dance he did in his music video.

How powerful is it to have a bunch of people not only singing your songs but doing your dance!

That’s not it though because he has his own clothing line where you can wear his brand on your body, I already told you about him having his own social network, and then he also has specific taglines or anthems that he gets his audience to sing.

You could do these things in your niche by having a specific quote that your audience knows you by like siteFLIIIING.com or “all it takes is action and action builds confidence.” (ok so we’re still trying to make the last one catch on!)

You can build your own social network where the members call themselves a part of your brand. This is exactly why I named our membership site “SiteFling Mafia.” My vision for the mafia is to build a “family” of Internet marketers that makes money together. A group of people taught by myself how to dominate their competitors.

Eventually I see myself bringing mafia members with me all around the world to seminars and workshops to show people our way of doing things. How can you do this in your niche? Here are some words you can use that will help you build your tribe.

Mafia
Fraternity
Society
Clan
Agents

Soulja Boy On Branding

In every picture, video, or anything Soulja makes sure to try and include his branding. For example he started a trend of wearing sunglasses with his name written on the lenses. Now his animated character in his new animated music video series has his name written on his sunglass lenses.

He’s almost always wearing a necklace with a superman symbol or his S.O.D. symbol.

He wears his hat a certain way, he shaves his eyebrows a certain way, everything about him is consistent so that you can always recognize him and his brand.

Soulja Boy On Sales

With over 11 million units sold I think it’s safe to say that this kid knows a thing or two about selling products.

Most important to mention is that every one of his products is what his target audience is ALREADY BUYING. People that listen to rap are already buying shirts with rappers names on them, they are already buying ringtones, they are already buying nice shoes.

What is your market already buying? Are you selling one of those yet?

For example if you were in the tomato growing niche don’t you think you could sell tomato seeds? If you were in the weight loss niche don’t you think you could sell your own recipe books, pills, or fitness equipment?

For me my audience is buying ebooks, videos, and coaching so that’s what I sell. Every niche has those things that people are already buying. I encourage you to go back through this blog post and see how you can add just one part of each section to your business.

I know there is a couple that I haven’t done yet and I’ll surely be adding them in as fast as possible.

As usual comments and compliments go down below. For complaints please press ALT + FX

Tagged as: blogging, branding, sales, social media, social media marketing, tribe, video marketing