Billie Eilish and her close friends

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

But what has this got to do with marketing?! 

First and foremost, she is promoting a new album, so this is essentially creating buzz around that, “why am I in Billie’s close friends?” “what’s happening?!” “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 saw a jump from 111 million followers to 120 million (as of 17th April), which is approximately over 600k per day since the first people were added. 

This is a clever tactic that adds a personal touch to 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. 

Since the adding of everyone to close friends, she has announced her new album is coming out, so people who were guessing new music felt vindicated in their choice to follow her, and 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 to reel ‘em in. 

“Something’s coming” 

“You’ve been waiting for this one” 

“You asked, we answered” 

“Can you guess what’s coming next?” 

These 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, now she’s announced her new album the ‘everyone in close friends’ era has come to an end BUT the comments haven’t stopped flowing “bestie, why did you remove me from close friends?” 

“Not to brag, guys, but I’m still in her close friends” 

So the community is still reacting, commenting and sharing her content on Instagram. This one will be talked about for a while! And who knows? We may all end up getting re-added to her close friends when we get closer to the album release. 

Need some help with hooks or jazzy content? We do it all and more.