Are Miley Cyrus and her team real geniuses at Social Media promotion or is she just a product of her times. At 21 and having spent a large part of her life in the spotlight, to me it seems a healthy response to use that spotlight to her advantage rather than become a victim of it. Miley is definitely not the first Pop artist to use negative publicity or unusual behaviour as a meaning of garnering attention.
And the result is there, she did achieve a string of #1s this week, as seen in her tweet Sep 18th.
#1 on Billboard. #1 on iTunes. #1 on Spotify. #1 on Streaming. #1 on Digital songs. #1 most added to pop radio. #1 on VEVO. #WreckingBall ❤
— Miley Ray Cyrus (@MileyCyrus) September 18, 2013
Looking at her history of tweets they are mild and very promotional. Charting and encouraging the path to number 1 of her latest album and single. There is very little of an actual personal nature. And nothing overly negative.
The real hoop-la has been over some of her recent public and media actions. The over-the-top suggestive performance at the MTV VMAs awards with Robin Thicke, the provocative performance in the Wrecking Ball video, and the public reaction to the unfollow of Liam Hemsworth on twitter as a means of announcing the break in their engagement.
Miley isn’t all that much different from other child stars or children of celebrities who have sought ways to transition their public image from sweet young thing to accepted adult – and been trashed in the process. And she’s definitely not the first Pop artist to use controversy to raise their public profile.
Though I don’t advocate using negative publicity as a means to an end, and wouldn’t want to use it myself, it does seem that some of this recent publicity has contributed to the success of the launch of the album and single. And because of the timing of it all, you can’t help but suspect that maybe it was planned.
I believe she is using three key things I discussed before that is crucial to being heard in the crowd of social – an established platform to launch from (her following and the MTV VMA crowd), stickiness of the message (pardon the suggestive contextual reference) and timing.
As to Wrecking Ball, maybe it deserves its time in the spotlight. I like the song. Though it may sound strange … or maybe I’m just showing my age… Miley’s voice at times reminds me of a young Dolly Parton. And the song doesn’t sound outlandish. But then Dolly is her god-mother, and maybe underneath all the hype Miley is actually showing her pedigree.
