If you’re a manager for a musician, athlete, or any other kind of celebrity with a large following on social media, there’s something you need to know: Neither you nor your client actually owns the content and user data on most of the major social media networks you’re using to reach out to your client’s fans with.
That’s right: although it’s your client’s writing, pictures, and video going out to your client’s fans on social media networks such as Facebook, your client doesn’t technically own any of the content you publish or the data about their fans that those networks collect from how said fans interact with your content.
Why does this matter?
Aside from the fact that you and the celebs you manage should always be considered the owner of your own hard work, the fact that the both of you aren’t considered the owner of your content and fan data on social media networks can impact your efforts to earn money. Here’s how:
1: It’s harder to monetize your “premium” content when Social Media networks own it
Let’s say you want to have your client create a special video or host a livestream event that is only open to fans who are on a premium subscription service. Unless your social media network has a specific service for that, it can be hard to gate off “premium” content on that platform.
This makes enticing fans to join these subscription services harder to pull off.
Also, if the social media network wants to, they can pull any piece of your content offline, or take down your entire account. Though this is rare for celebrities with larger followings, it has been known to happen to online heroes with hundreds of thousands or even millions of fans (although the channel deletion is often quickly reversed).
2: Without data, it’s harder to create the content that will attract/create more super fans
There are fans, and then there are super fans. A fan might like the posts you make for your client and buy a piece of merchandise that has your client’s brand on it, but a super fan is genuinely excited about almost everything your client does.
Super fans are a driving force for heroes, talking up their latest and greatest posts, videos, or exploits to their friends to create more fans. But, to create a super fan for your client, you first need to get their attention, which is hard to do if you don’t know the following information:
- What they like
- Where they live
- What kind of content they find most engaging
- When they’re logged onto the social media channels you manage
Collecting all of this data is crucial to identifying who your client’s super fans are and creating content that’s tailored to get their attention. Not only will any existing super fans love this content, you may also catch the attention of new super fans who may not have known much about your client before.
By growing your fan base, you can increase the effectiveness of nearly any monetization strategy you use.
Since the data about your fans who follow your social media accounts is all owned by the respective social media networks your accounts are on, you may not have access to all of the specific data you need in order to learn who your biggest and best fans are.
3: Without data, it’s tougher to target ads
Let’s say you want to do an ad for your client’s merchandise store, next big concert, or any other item that helps you earn money. Naturally, you’ll want to do the following:
- Release this ad to an audience that’s more likely to be engaged;
- Do so when the biggest segment of this audience is able to see it on that platform; and
- Target the ad to be as attention-grabbing as possible.
The better you can target your audience when you release the ad and what’s in it, the more effective your monetization efforts will be. However, without data about your client’s fans, targeting such an ad would be extremely difficult.
Own your data and your content with a White Label mobile app!
Instead of relying solely on social media networks, consider guiding your client’s fans to a specially-branded mobile app just for that client!
With a client-branded app, you’ll own all of the data you collect as well as all of the content you put in the app. You get total control. If you want to add a subscription service for your client’s super fans to get exclusive content such as behind-the-scenes livestreams, you can!
Plus, you’ll be able to collect and view as much data as the app can collect on who your client’s fans are and what they like. This lets you tailor what you post and when so that you can deepen the sense of connection between your client and all of their fans—not just an arbitrary subset of said fans.
FanHero has built apps for over 100 celebrities, sports teams, and companies—Including NBA Star Leandro Barbosa, country music singer Hunter Hayes, and Warner Music Group. The social reach of celebrities using FanHero apps is currently over 100 million people, and is expected to grow to 370 million by the end of 2017!
These apps can be customized with features such as:
- Seamless Integration with Social Media. Make fans feel at home with seamless integration for many of the major social media networks right in the app. Social sharing lets fans share their favorite content right to their own social media channels–increasing the celebrity’s reach.
- Online Shop Integration. Put merchandise right at your fans’ fingertips with an integrated, in-app shop!
- Subscription Support. Gate content for access by only your biggest fans with a special subscription service. Reward your super fans with exclusive interviews, Q&As, and livestreams.
- Pay-Per-View and Premium Advertising. Monetize fans like never before with both pay-per-view and premium advertising options on a dedicated white label app.
Just to name a few. Each app also comes with the support of a dedicated growth team to help celebrities get the most out of their app. This team helps with PR, marketing, content advice, business intel, and user acquisition/retention strategies.
Want to know more about the benefits of getting a personally-branded app for your music or entertainment celebrity client? Contact the experts at FanHero today!
