1989 Genius

On Aug. 18, Taylor Swift revealed that her new album, titled 1989, will debut in late October of 2014. While most people gawked over the new information they had been waiting for since her last album hit stands, I couldn't get over the social media genius behind Taylor's empire.

Here are four ways that Taylor Swift is beating everyone else at the social media marketing game:


1. The lead-up to the Worldwide Live Stream on Yahoo! album reveal.
Any of Taylor Swift's followers know that she posts to Twitter or Instagram seldomly--which is social media genius in itself, seeing as her rare tweets and photo updates are worth even more to fans--so when Taylor first started posting "hints" about the undisclosed Live Stream Yahoo! album reveal, fans flocked. By the hundreds of thousands.

You should have seen the comments of her followers desperately trying to figure out what was going to happen. It sparked debates and curiosity among most of the social media world. Genius.

2. The exclusive #1989ers.
With adoration that reaches across the globe, fans know that meeting Taylor is becoming more of a distant dream than a reality. Therefore, TaylorSwift.com has created a new club on the website where fans can enter to win 1 of 1,989 prizes, which include the greatest prize of all: meet and greets with Taylor. How do you enter, you ask?

Well, first you have to register with either your Facebook or Twitter account. Following that, members can earn one point for each social media platform they choose to post to or follow (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter). You can also gain one point for each friend who you refer to the 1989ers and by checking out Taylor Swift's new merchandise on the site. (I have 15 entries so far..)

Talk about a trending hashtag and worldwide awareness of the singer and her new album. Genius.

3. The Polaroids that will come with the CD.
During her album reveal on Yahoo!, Taylor mentioned that Polaroid pictures were an inspiration for this album--even the album cover is a Polaroid. So, her and her brilliant team decided to include one of five different sets of Polaroids in each CD. Genius. 

This will lead to super-fans around the world being inclined to buy more than one copy in hopes of getting a different set of photos of Taylor. Marketing and financial-gain GENIUS.

What will this do for social media? Well, perhaps each different set will come with a unique hashtag, enticing fans to post about which Polaroids they found in the case.