How Lady Gaga’s social network is exceptional



Contributing Writer
Illustration: Red Entity Credit: PLRANG Images for design


Littlemonsters.com, the social network devoted to all things Lady Gaga opened to the public today (it had been in private beta since the beginning of the year).  A lot of the press as well as Backplane (the company responsible for the site) are discussing how the success of her social site may lead to other brands being able to spin off their audience to a dedicated network.  I have a very hard time making that leap and here’s why:

Lady Gaga is the perfect storm for a stand-alone social network.

  • She advocates causes that speak to identity, so much so that  becoming a Lady Gaga follower (“monster”) has become an identity unto itself.    Among her causes: anti-bullying, gay rights, homelessness (particularly focused on youth), AIDS awareness and others.  Her advocacy enables people to discuss themselves within the context of Lady Gaga, and that’s a key differentiator from a network organized around one homogeneous topic (or brand).
  • She has created an over-the-top character that makes her exceptionally unique and endearing to her fans.

Lady Gaga has a huge audience of youthful, socially-savvy and devoted fans who are drawn to her unique persona in an oftentimes very personal way.  There isn’t a brand on the earth that can come anywhere close to replicating that.   The most popular brands according to Bloomberg in 2011 were Bud Light, Coca-Cola, Gatorade, the Nissan Leaf, M&Ms, XBox, Oreos.  Are there any of these brands that you can imagine compelling you to log-in and talk about them everyday for a couple of minutes?  Not one.  When people write about Lady Gaga’s social network as a competitor to Facebook, it appears they aren’t considering how much effort it takes for a user to participate and keep up on any network they belong to.  Users have to be advocates, and there has to be something useful for them to consume everytime they’re on the network.  Lady Gaga can make a value proposition to her fans that no other brand can offer.

The success of Lady Gaga’s social network should probably be interpreted as affirming her brilliant marketing and resonance with her fans.  It will likely be interpreted as an opportunity for brands to develop stand-alone social networks.  If this happens many brands will learn the painful and expensive lesson that their fans don’t love them as much as Lady Gaga’s fans love her.

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Jim Dougherty

Jim Dougherty

Writer and chief of miscellany at leaderswest.com

I aspire to give people something to think about rather than tell them what to do. My favorite Google Alert is “social media research,” I am increasingly compelled by Gen Z, and I appreciate good writers agnostic of where they write. At one time I was Kred’s 12th most influential social media blogger and Klout’s most influential person on the topic of David Hasselhoff. Transplant from Seattle living in Cincinnati. Haven’t entirely adopted the local sports teams yet.

Jim Dougherty

@jimdougherty

Writer about social media and tech at Leaders West, I also tweet as @leaderswest.

[The Glad Scientist] A fun idea… http://t.co/I4ZggKOt4v via @notsalmon – 17 hours ago

Jim Dougherty

Jim Dougherty

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  • Darolo

    Shame she doesn’t use her ‘influence’ over her fans to control their appalling abuse of other fan groups on social sites. Since she is supposedly opposed to bullying shouldn’t she be informingthe high number of her fans who actively engage in bullying and abuse, of her distaste at such behaviour? A large group of her fans set up a web site with links to articles on Madonna, and was instructing ‘monsters’ to leave negative comments on Madonna and give abusive replies to her fans. A similar thing happened with Katy Perry. So in effect Mother Monster has created real monsters who, rather than following an anti-bullying campaign, are actively engaged in bullying. Yes it’s a really successful outcome. Since LG ignores all pleas to curb her fans behaviour, her insincerity is obvious. She is a sham! Hundreds, if not 1000′s of her fans openly admit they have multiple social networking
    identities. The whole LG issue is transparent. She is as false as many of her fan base and
    her reluctance to take issue with their bullying when advocating anti-bullying says volumes to me of this ‘fake’!!!

  • http://leaderswest.com Jim Dougherty

    Thanks for reading and commenting Darolo. You bring up some really important issues that I can’t speak to, except that if what you assert is true about fan behavior, I don’t perceive it as insincere on Lady Gaga’s part. From what I’ve seen and read, I believe that she is vested in the causes she champions. It certainly doesn’t excuse anything else her fans do, though. Cheers!

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