Red Hot Chili Peppers

Social Media Presence

About the Band

-Formed in L.A in 1983

-Anthon Kiedis and Michael Balzary are the remaining founding members of the band

-Chad Smith and Josh Klinghoffer make up the rest of the band.

The Chili Peppers are one of the best selling bands of all-time, with over 80 million records sold.

About the Band

-One of the original members of the band, Hillel Slovak , and Anthony Kiedis both developed serious drug addictions between 1985-1988

-The addictions culminated in the death of Slovak in 1988. Kiedis left Los Angeles following the death, and after his return the band had a meeting

-At the meeting, Jack Irons, the drummer at the time, said he could no longer be part of a band where his friends were killing themselves.

About the Band

“Californication” was the 7th album produced by Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the most successful financially of the Bands albums

-The album sold 15 million copies worldwide.

-In 2008-2009, the band took a hiatus, attributed mostly to Anthony Kiedis claiming to be worn out and wanting to nspend more time taking care of his son.

-The Band Returned from Hiatus late 2009 and has continued to produce consistently since.

Twitter

-@ChiliPeppers is the official Twitter account of the band and has recorded just 527 tweets in its “lifespan” despite its over 1.35 million followers.

-Interestingly, they “follow” only 4 people, two members of the band, an unknown name, and an individual named @dave_rat who is listed as an Engineer for the band

-By not “following” fans and other organizations, the Chili Peppers are limiting their ability to interact with their audience.

-Their tweet total of 527 is alarmingly low as well, and shows they aren’t fully understanding the value of the Twitter audience.

Twitter

-The Band uses Twitter to announce tour dates and upcoming shows, highlighted by these custom logos for the cities they visit…

Facebook

-The Chili Peppers facebook following is significantly larger than Twitter, but that is mostly attributed to the large difference in the user bases.

-The Band currently has 26,500,000 “likes” on their facebook page, that provides links to photos and videos and even shares fan art and submissions.

-The Page provides quite a few more updates than the Twitter page does, and updates fans on what the band is doing outside of the music world as well.

Instagram

-The Chili Peppers instagram account is aimed at sharing all the photos that captivate fans, mostly of the band members and their experiences on tour.

-In terms of exposing themselves to an audience off stage, this might be the account with the most “human insight” into their world, where the Twitter and Facebook pages give more of a sense of a broken feel, managed by another person.

-While the Instagram account Is likely managed as well for the band, the photos speak for themselves and really do offer greater insight into the band and what they are doing.

Instagram

-The Chili Peppers account on Instagram has 85,632 followers, once again only “follows” 2 other individuals, with 358 photos posted.

-Once again, it seems like the Chili Peppers use social media as a platform to speak to the world, but not as a platform to hear the world around them.

Other Social Media

Fan Forum: the fan forum for the band is directly on the bands website at forums.redhotchillipeppers.com and is likely maintained by the record label/manager.

MySpace: believe it or not, the Chili Peppers have a MySpace page with over 500,000 people “connected” to their page. It’s really just a worse version of their facebook page with less posts.

SoundCloud: The Band actually used SoundCloud to share a “parody” song that was branded with the #RHCP2014. The song was a joke, but many fans tweeted out as if it was real.

Find Your Audience

Given the band’s long running cult following, it’s safe to say they have found their audience. Their social media doesn’t shy away from this either, many of those posts are geared towards die hard fans with references to things that happened 20 years ago, recent events and the band members personal lives.

Whether or not the band should focus on catering to a less “fanatic” audience is a matter for debate, they are one of the most successful bands of all time that has clearly “found their sound” and whether people continue to enjoy their music or not doesn’t seem to be a factor in what they will do in the future.

That being said, there is tremendous potential to develop a new generation of fans that grow to love the band not simply for the music, but for the way they engage through social media, something the band does not seem to do very often through any of their platforms

Post Meaningful, Shareable Content

The band primarily post photos, articles, videos, among the various other marketing/sales pushes that are mixed in.

Many of the posts and tweets reference the bands past. Instagram seems to be the only account with an easily identifiable insight into the band right now. Twitter and Facebook are plastered with mentions of things like throwback Thursday. The platforms continue to show they are aimed at connecting with long time fans rather than new ones.

In terms of the ability to share it, outside of the music itself and the tour dates and schedules, there is little content that is going to be interesting or entertaining for someone not a fan of the band.

Engage Your Current Fans As stated earlier, the band uses social media as a platform to

reach their fans but not as a platform to listen to them as much. Some fan content is seen and shared by the bands accounts, but generally the posts refer to what the band is doing, where their shows are next, reviews, articles, etc.

There didn’t seem to be an overwhelming interest in creating a separate “community” through these platforms. There were no signs of prize giveaways for users following on that particular service, and absolutely no direct interaction with any fans.

The platforms treat the fan base for what it is, a cult following that does not need to be “sold” on the product, merely informed. They don’t need to feel loved back, or feel the need to have their loyalty bought.

Continue the Social Push

The band uses social media to promote upcoming events and tour dates very effectively. Their ability to promote those events and drive people to the venues they play in is very effective.

The design of individual logos for each tour stop, promoted online through social media and then sold on t-shirts at the event is the perfect example of a crossover between their digital promotion and the physical product the band produces when it plays.

Post Consistently

Depending on the platform, the bands consistency varys. Twitter has less than 600 tweets, which is alarmingly low for a platform that is supposed to represent “instant thoughts”.

The band consistently posts photos of concerts and public appearances, providing what is at the least consistent documentation of what the band is doing, which is interesting for fans.

There is no consistency to their interaction with fans, mostly because it’s limited to begin with. Their interaction with fans seems to be random and predicated on something interesting like fan created art that they like. Engaging fans to make them feel a greater connection to the band isn’t something that happens consistently.