Final Project – How The Weeknd Figured Out How To Use Social Media to Promote Himself

By Keith Patel on June 28, 2024

By: Keith Patel

Jun 27, 2024

The Weeknd at one of his "After Hours Til Dawn Tour" (CREDIT: Samir Hussein/WireImage)

Brief Introduction

Abel Tesfaye (also known as The Weeknd) is a Canadian singer/artist who makes pop music and R&B music. Abel makes music through his music label "XO" and also sells merch under the "XO" brand. He is also trying to break through into the film business with his new project "Manic Phase", a film-production company. He also does lots of philanthropic work as he donates millions of dollars to many charities to help people around the world, such as the "World Food Programme." However, all this started somewhere and his story started with social media.

How he began

He was once homeless in the streets of Toronto and decided to try and pursue a music career as he felt he had nothing to lose. He first claimed to make demos for pop stars in hopes of getting some money but failed as the demos weren't good enough to be used. He explained his story on a subreddit for fans to ask the artist any questions. "Those [songs] were demos for pop stars before the fame so I could get some work in. I was 16-17. (Ironically the darkest times of my life). I failed miserably apparently it was[n't] pop enough so I said f**k it and started my own s**t." People were impressed by his talented singing skills and would record him as he was just a young homeless teenager singing on the streets.

Cracking the Social Media Marketing Secret

With the rise of YouTube and content blowing up online, he would try his luck and post songs on his YouTube channel under the username "xoxxxoooxo." He released the song titled "What You Need." The song started to catch some buzz as many users loved the music posted by Abel. Many users became curious as to who this was as the username was something strange and didn't have a name and there was no information or face surrounding The Weeknd. Alongside that, the only information fans had was that the song was made by "The Weeknd", which he stated on the same subreddit for fans asking questions, that he named himself as that was his story; leaving one weekend to pursue music. He couldn't name himself "The Weekend" as there is a band that copyrighted the name. He settled to name himself without the "e". People at first believed that "The Weeknd" was a band and not a solo artist. Two weeks after he released "What You Need", the song was featured on the website "Pitchfork", a website for reviewing indie music. The song was named "Best New Track". Fans continued to return to Abel's mysterious YouTube page to hear more songs due to how fans believed that his music was similar to a darker Michael Jackson due to his choice of lyricism, instrumental, and voice. Not only that, but the mysterious aspect continued to draw fans as many people wanted to know more about The Weeknd.

A month later, he released the "House of Balloons" mixtape, which later hooked fans to his unique style of music. The Weeknd would also catch the attention of another Canadian superstar, Drake. Drake would than upload The Weeknd's music for the millions of Drake fans on his "OVO Blog." Drake and The Weeknd later collaborated on a few projects. Drake gave The Weeknd a few features for his later projects and The Weeknd would give music and help write Drake's second studio album "Take Care." Drake also featured The Weeknd on the album with the song titled "Crew Love." The Weeknd earned writing credits in 3 songs "Crew Love", "Shot for Me", and "Cameras / Good Ones Go Interlude". Drake would later bring him to a few shows to perform some songs. Drake hoped to sign the talented artist to his record label "OVO Sound", but The Weeknd rejected the contract as he wanted to stay as an indie artist. Drake felt betrayed as he felt that he helped jumpstart The Weeknd's career to a whole different level. The Weeknd would create his label and sign under "Republic Records". From there on, The Weeknd would begin to promote and release music through his social media. He would also realize that what made him popular was the effect of fans wanting to know more about The Weeknd. The Weeknd realized this and started to keep a low profile of himself. Some fans even claimed that they have never heard him speak until after certain interviews years into his career. After every project, he gained significantly more popularity and fans by using the power of social media to feed fans content and promote his work.

Picture of The Weeknd and Drake at one of Drake's 2014 "Nothing Was the Same" tour date (CREDIT: Ollie Millington/WireImage)

Analysis and Evaluation

The social media platforms that The Weeknd uses to promote his music and brand are Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Soundcloud, and YouTube. However, The Weeknd also used to promote his music through Myspace, Tumblr, and Vine. However, the social media platforms have been abandoned and are no longer active, as fans and people aren't active on these platforms. You can still view his abandoned Myspace and see how the last album he posted on the platform was "Starboy" from 2016. He has since released 2 more studio albums and an EP since than.

The Weeknd uses Facebook and Instagram the same way. He posted images and videos relating to his world tour, for promotion in hopes for fans to buy tickets to come to the shows. He also promotes his merch from his "XO" brand often when merch used to be consistently sold. On Twitter, he would sometimes interact with fans about his music and post messages to promote his music or brand. However, he deleted or privated his tweets recently as fans believe that it is part of marketing his new upcoming music. He used to have Tumblr and MySpace to promote his old music as well as for personal uses, but his Tumblr hasn't been active since 2011 and his MySpace hasn't been active or seen uploads of music since 2016. He has since used Soundcloud to upload his music on a social media platform for fans to comment, like, follow, and interact with. He also used to post short clips on Vine to give fans a sneak peek into his life, but somewhat transitioned that on TikTok as he can be seen showcasing his dog. He uses YouTube to release music videos and songs. The Weeknd releases teasers to promote music videos and new music being released, something that he has been doing since the very beginning. The unique thing about The Weeknd that always stuck with him from the very beginning is that he uses social media to promote the rollout of his upcoming new music. Keeping fans curious during his first release of music is what made him popular and keeping fans curious is a method he still does to this day. Fans feel that he often disappears from the world and later comes back and begins slowly teasing cryptic messages/pictures that fans refer to as "A new era." The Weeknd understands how to use and market with social media to bring more attention to his music. Due to this, The celebrity has a good and big digital footprint, as many media outlets make articles relating to The Weeknd, along with content about him being added every day by media and fans. There aren't many controversies surrounding The Weeknd as he is careful with what he says and knows what to say. You can also find old clips of The Weeknd singing in the streets of Toronto and even on the subway with what appears to be his friends. There are multiple old videos uploaded on YouTube by early fan accounts of The Weeknd just being an average teenager with his friends, such as him rapping and dancing, along with singing and producing his early music at the studio and other places. Many fans enjoy this old content from his early digital footprint as it provides fans a look into how The Weeknd was as a teenager and of his humble beginnings. This helps his digital footprint as the old content doesn't contain anything out of the ordinary, such as controversial statements or posts that can hurt his reputation.

Screenshot of The Weeknd's instagram showing off a confusing post for fans (CREDIT: The Weeknd/Instagram)

Commendations

The Weeknd overall does a very good job using social media to promote his brand. He understands the psychological aspect of using social media to attract fan's attention by keeping them curious, something he has been doing since before he began music. Not only on social media, he also knows how to promote his music offline. He often changes his appearance to keep fans curious about his looks and also doesn't speak too much to the media to try and keep his mysterious persona alive to keep fans interested. He also deletes old posts when new music is about to be released. He also knows how to market himself to boost the popularity of his brands and music, by promoting them on his social media platforms that contain millions of followers. He also still occasionally interacts with his fans, something that a celebrity that big doesn't often do. I think what he can do differently is by posting a little more personal and fun content for fans to see about his personal life again like he did on Vine before. Fans do miss the old content posted on his social media of him showing off his personality and content to his fans, instead of the more commercial and promotional social media he has now. Overall, he perfectly uses social media to his advantage by not getting into controversies and intelligently promoting his music since before his stardom.