If for one second you consider Lady Gaga (or Ashton Kutcher) a pop-icon rather than a business, then you're totally off base. You don't understand the power you can harness by mimicking what the top Hollywood celebrities and musicians do.
Lady Gaga is a brand and a business. After those, she's an individual, a famous one, at that. These people are a business first. They are a moneymaking, world-dominating, social media marketing powerhouses. Anyway, you look at the data, Lady Gaga ranks as high as any Fortune-500 company in the influence of her Tweets. (Just ignore the fact that someone on her staff is actually doing it for her. She's the brand, after all. Does your CEO Tweet? Didn't think so.)
Oh, does it help that she has more followers than anyone in the Twittersphere? She has more than Barack Obama. Now, that's some Twitter power.
If you think like Lady Gaga (or her team), then you'll have Lady Gaga's Twitter success.
Here are (in order) the ways Miss Mother Monster dominates Twitter.
1. Creates Relationships
Her (and your) focus is on cultivating and maintaining relationships. Sure, it's the music biz, and regardless of how superficial you may think it is, she's doing it right. Her main focus is on her fans and supporters, spending more time giving "shout-outs" to her friends rather than self-promoting.
2. Retweet
More often than not, you'll find Gaga ReTweeting fans' blogs, YouTube covers or follower photos. In some ways, she's a bigger fan of her fans than her fans of her. Consider this: she's all about thanking her fans for supporting her. Think about that in terms of your customers. Your customers are your fans. ReTweet a hilarious YouTube video of a customer using your product (trust me, they're out there!). Give props where props are due: you're nothing if not for your customers.
3. Tweet About Important Issues
Regardless of your personal thoughts, Gaga pushes the issues that are important to her (LGBT rights, poverty or politics). She single-handedly created a Twitter firestorm about state's considering validating gay marriage. The sheer power of a single Tweet caused a complete frenzy, action and engagement. Let's say there's a bit of legislation that's going to screw your company over and cost jobs, why not make a stink about it? You have to acknowledge the power of a collective voice. Rally your troops and watch as the world changes.
4. Drive Philanthropy
Mother Monster is a powerhouse when it comes to philanthropy. She regularly takes to heart what she believes in and what her fans believe in. If she takes the reins over an issue, you had better watch out. People stand up and give back. Not only does she personally give back, she raises awareness over issues that are important to her.
Perhaps your business sells shoes, and then drive your customers to give back to needy families. Consider doing a Twitter promotion that promises a portion of the proceeds of a product goes to a charity. Even better: consider polling your Twitter followers as to which organization they'd like you to see you support.
Never think about your bottom line with philanthropy. Ever.
5. Then She Sells
After all of that, Gaga promotes herself. Only after. Because of how she conducts herself – devoted to her fans and being vocal about issues – is the main and only reason why she's poised to take over the world.
And, so can you.
