“their dream wasn’t my dream”
26 year old Hoodie Allen seemingly had it all. The Ivy League educated rapper landed a job that most graduates salivate over. He was working for Google. Yeah…that Google! But it’s not what he really wanted to do with his life. His passion is music and despite what others may have done, he chose to follow his passion and jump full-time into honing his craft.
“I was worried that I’d be judged for doing something that I loved.”
Now fast forward a few years and Hoodie is a growing phenom. With the aid of social media, who needs a major record label? Allen has grown quite the following.
“strangers became friends…friends became family”
With 391,000 YouTube subscribers, 479,000 Twitter followers, 310,000 Facebook fans and an audience of 270,000 on Instagram, Allen has shown what kind of opportunity building an authentic relationship with fans can provide.
On October 14th, Allen is dropping his next album. “People Keep Talking“, the title of the new collection, has been extremely well received. His marketing has been amazing on social media. Check out this trailer for the new joint.
Hoodie’s newest song seemed to take some in the media by surprise. Even the folks at Twitter remarked about Allen’s new song and the fact that it debuted #1 on the Billboard Trending 140.
Hoodie Allen had the most popular debut of the week with “Dumb for You,” even beating out chart regulars @onedirection who debuted “Steal My Girl.”
Billboard talked about Allen’s feat of topping the trend charts as well:
.@HoodieAllen's "Dumb For You" debuts at No. 1 on the #Trending140: http://t.co/BiOhz103hG pic.twitter.com/k9VXrj7U8L
— billboard (@billboard) September 12, 2014
Hoodie Allen is a fresh talent that people are responding to in a big way. I’m not sure he has a secret sauce for his marketing success on social media. He’s following and implementing the basic tenets of social media that so many brands and agencies are not understanding. Obviously he’s putting out a product that people want. You can’t fake that. But he’s also keenly aware of being authentic.
“when you do something different it gets people talking and if you do enough crazy things you can change the entire conversation”
We’ve all been told at one time or another to “act our age” by our parents, friends, spouses…but what exactly does that mean anyway?
this is my conversation..this is the story of listening to myself before listening to others
Hoodie Allen is an artist who is certainly doing things his way and he’s giving his audience what it wants. He’s not being phony. And he’s not letting the suits dictate to him how he’s going to market his music.
Perhaps that’s why people keep talking about him.
header image courtesy of www.courtneymplatt.com
