Learn about Spotify’s marketing strategy and why they are one of the top social media marketing strategy examples.

Did you know that as of the second quarter of 2022, Spotify enjoys a premium subscriber count of a whopping 188 million worldwide? This is a staggering jump from their paid user base of 18 million in 2015. Of course, this number only continues to grow owing to the can’t-miss presence of Spotify on social media.

With 8.4 million followers on Instagram and 6.2 million on Twitter, Spotify is turning out to be one of the top streaming services that use social listening and social media analytics and insights to remain relevant. 

In this blog, we will take a deep dive into how Spotify uses social media and social listening, the practice of using social media listening tools to gather information on what people are saying about their brand, to remain ahead of the curve.

How Spotify uses social listening to stay on top of the game 

Social listening allows marketers to create and implement new strategies that can prove to be assets for their company. Let us look at how marketers at Spotify implement social media analytics and insights to attract new eyeballs:

1. They actively engage with their audience on social media platforms

Instead of using traditional marketing methods, Spotify uses out-of-the-box ideas to reach out and engage with its audience on various social media platforms. They do not adopt a serious and boring tone for the brand. Instead, they partake in social media conversations to build a bond with the younger crowd. 

So how does Spotify build such proactive engagement with its audience? They leverage social media listening. They track the conversations their core market participates in and responds to them. While creating an engagement strategy, they target those who appreciate the humor. 

Spotify runs multiple regional accounts on Instagram, which has more than 8.5 million followers. They regularly post images and top tracks from popular artists trending on the platform. This helps them share only the most relevant content for each country, targeting the right audience for their content and business.

Source: Spotify Instagram

Our favorite music streaming giant is also experimenting with carousels on Instagram and TikTok, which is one of the best ways to increase engagement and gain more likes. Be it responding or engaging with the audience – social listening is the way to go. 

Radarr’s advanced Sentiment API will help you accurately measure human emotions behind online conversations. With such data, you will never miss any opportunity to engage on social media and stay on top of the game. 

2. They keep up with the latest trends

Another excellent way Spotify engages with its audience is by sharing the latest releases and trending music. Spotify presents itself as a super fan of music and podcasts, much like its audience. They diligently tweet about new releases and ask relevant and engaging questions to their audience.  

Let us take 2016 for instance. Trump became the president of the USA, Leonardo de Caprio finally won an Oscar and so much more was happening at once. So the music streaming company took the chance and started capitalizing on it. Spotify uses data analytics, leveraged its playlist, and created some quirky campaigns to engage the audience. They named it “Thanks 2016, It’s been weird.” This took the netizens by storm and the music platform gained significant popularity through the campaign.

Memes are now social currency in this digital age. Spotify has also hopped on this trend as their new marketing strategy. The aim of the campaign is to show that on Spotify, users find music and playlist for every mood. 

Source: Spotify

Spotify is all about music consumption. So they quickly realized memes are the key to making adverts more consumption-worthy to the younger generation. Such a consumption-based campaign seems inviting to Gen Z, building sustained reliability for Spotify. Once a meme takes hold, social media uses it relentlessly. These are funny, well-timed, and relevant to current trends and music. That is how Spotify memed its way into 130 million subscribers. 

3. They run influencer campaigns and collaborate with various creators

Collaboration with influencers is one of the most popular and effective strategies of modern marketing to drive brand awareness and attract new users. It provides you access to a new market, allowing you to quickly extend your reach and make your brand more noticeable to your target audience. But long before the recent Instagram bandwagon, influencer marketing was Spotify’s first promotional plan.

When Spotify was launched in 2008, the founders reached out to music bloggers in Sweden and offered them to be the beta testers of the platform. The strategy proved highly effective, and the word about the new app spread quickly, bringing a lot of attention and an influx of subscribers.

Since then, Spotify has kept the tradition. They regularly collaborate with influencers to make content viral and increase their brand visibility. 

Source: Spotify Instagram

This worked so well that Spotify does not need to invest huge chunks for influencer collaboration anymore. Their “Wrapped Up” campaigns are a stellar example. 

Spotify does the Wrapped up campaigns every year. While the core idea is to allow users to showcase the summary of all the artists and music they have loved, it has also generated a significant number of organic reviews from artists and influencers as well. The campaign has also frequently inspired brands like Netflix to join in on the conversations as well.

4. They create game boards using social analytics 

Everybody loves a little competition, and our favorite music streaming platform leveraged that. The biggest game changer in Spotify’s marketing campaign was the game board elements in their Wrapped Up campaign. 

As the successor of the ‘Year in Music’ campaign, Wrapped Up was created to build FOMO (or fear of missing out) among the audience. 

Source: Spotify Instagram

In their campaign, Spotify introduced a cascading Flywheel effect by enticing new users to download and use their app for longer. The campaign induced competition amongst its users organically. And it worked – The Wrapped Up 2020 increased Spotify’s mobile app downloads by 21% in the first week of December. 

Since then, every year, Spotify users look forward to their Spotify Wrapped stories. In other words, it was a stroke of marketing genius. But how did they achieve this feat? By using social analytics and tracking their user’s preferences all year long.  

5. Spotify also offers timely customer support across channels

Spotify’s exceptional customer support is another contributor to its brand’s popularity. They use social listening on all of their channels. Whenever a user experiences an issue, a simple mention of it on Twitter or other platforms is all it takes to receive timely customer support. 

To make it easy for users to reach them, Spotify has created multiple Twitter handles like @spotifystatus, @spotifycares, @spotifysweden, etc. They realize that it takes seconds for a user to jump on the internet and start an online conversation about any issue they face. Thus, their team makes sure to address it quickly.

Source: Spotify Twitter

Letting people know you care is the fundamental key to exceptional customer experience – and Spotify is diligent in that aspect. And their engagement with customers does not end after the issue is resolved. They continue to delight the customer by subtly encouraging them to leave positive reviews. 

6. They leverage machine learning to personalize content

Spotify’s appeal lies in its personalisation, and the platform does an excellent job at it. The music streaming giant proudly expresses that there is no ‘one’ true Spotify. This essentially means that there are different versions of the product, one for every user in their 248 million user base. 

But how do they do it? Through machine learning. This is most evident in Spotify Home, where the music streaming platform personalized user experience and provides billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by the artists. 

Source: Spotify

The home screen on Spotify showcases music through a series of cards and shelves. Every card is a square image that represents a playlist, artist page, album, podcast episode, etc. 

Each user’s Spotify homepage is uniquely curated by their interests and music history that they have repeatedly listened to in the past. This is done through machine learning – where the cards are based on the content they previously enjoyed or might enjoy, and presented to millions of users. 

Each user has their own personalized music library similar to the video content library on Netflix. This level of personalisation is created by combining the power of machine learning with their listening history, musical choices, duration of play, and willingness to act on recommendations. 

Takeaway: You can stay ahead of the curve with social listening

Spotify is a great solution if you enjoy streaming music and podcasts. Not only do they have a huge selection of music and artists, but you can create your own playlists, save songs for offline listening, and follow your favorite artists. 

With an easy-to-use interface, great music, and an endless library, they are a top choice for most people. 

However, with more streaming platforms out there, the competition is becoming increasingly fierce. Companies are always looking for ways to keep users engaged, which is why players like Spotify have started to use social listening to increase engagement with their viewers. 

Social media analytics and insights tools allow you to gain deep insights into your customer’s and competitors’ performance. By monitoring competitors on social media and using a social listening tool, you can keep up with their latest strategies and get one step ahead of the competition. Further, you can better monitor your performance without having to create lengthy reports.

If used proactively, social media analytics and insights tools can save you time and money, allowing you to focus more on growing your business and less on data collection and analysis.

To get started, book a demo with Radarr today!