Social Media moment: Billie Eilish and her close friends

In early April 2024, Billie Eilish took the marketing world by storm by adding every single one of her 100 million+ followers to her close friends' on Instagram. 

But what has this got to do with marketing?! 

First and foremost, she was promoting a new album, so this is essentially creating buzz around that, "why am I in Billie's close friends?" "what's happening?!" and "Are we getting new music?" were just some of the screenshots captured surrounding the mystery. 

Especially with the first fans to notice they'd been added, posting on their stories that they were in her close friends, which then inspired more people to follow her account to also be added. 

The account jumped from 111 million followers to 120 million (as of 17th April 2024), approximately over 600k per day since the first people were added. 

This is a clever tactic that adds a personal touch for the audience, as the excitement of being added to a celebrity's close friends makes them feel valued as followers and fans - it's a great incentive to start following her. 

This isn't a new concept; we've been doing it for a while with some of the brands we manage. In fact, we find it to be a great tactic for nurturing the audience and community. But it's Billie, and it made a splash!

Since adding everyone to close friends, she announced that her new album is coming out, so people who were guessing new music felt vindicated in their choice to follow her. Now, she has millions of new followers on her account. 

Cryptic stories, teasers, and coming soon posts are ideal ways to get good engagement on stories and posts, and it all starts with a good hook.

"Something's coming." 
"You've been waiting for this one." 
"You asked, we answered." 
"Can you guess what's coming next?" 

These are all great hooks to start your posts, stories and emails, and they will incentivise people to stick around, especially if you're asking for opinions: 

"What do you think is going to happen?" 
"Can you guess what we're launching next?" 
"How would you feel about xxxxxx?" 

PLUS, asking questions starts a direct dialogue, especially from a post or story, as people can easily reply to you, and that is how we build a community! 

The best part is when your followers start interacting with each other in the comments - that's when you know your community is really engaged <3 

Back to Billie for a quick sec. After she announced her new album, she seemed to remove most people from the close friend's list. But people were still talking about it. "Not to brag, guys, but I'm still in her close friends." "bestie, why did you remove me from close friends?".

So the community was still reacting, commenting and sharing her content on Instagram. And look, we're still talking about it. So, what inspiration are you taking from this? Realistically, no one's going to make a splash with their close friends list like Billie did but for us, it proves how valuable this feature can actually be.