How 'BTS' rode the social media K-wave to success

Let me start by defining 'The Korean Wave' or 'Hallyu' which literally means 'flow of Korea,' it describes the rise in South Korean culture's global popularity since the 1990s. Today this K-wave has seeped deep into the Western social networks, majorly due to the efforts of Korean marketing teams on social networking sites. At the same time, 91.8 per cent of the Korean population is using the internet, which has helped them in proactively building a social media presence.

You must be familiar with this K-wave in one form or another, such as K-drama, K-pop, and much more. Personally, in my core-tie networks (people with whom I have a close relationship), I have a friend or two who enjoy K-drama. However, my real exposure to the K-wave was via weak-tie networks (superficial relationships) on my online social accounts. Whether I am looking at the Insta story of some friend at a K-pop concert, or simply following a Reddit thread about K-pop that my work colleague shared online, I slowly realized the outreach and potential of K-wave on online social networks. However, still considering myself as a rookie, in my opinion, the one K-pop band that stands-out due to its online presence, fanbase and visibility, is BangTan Sonyeondan or popularly known as 'BTS.'

So exactly how did BTS build its massive online presence, and how do they maintain it? To answer this question, I will explain some of the strategies that BTS uses on their social media networks to interact with their audience.

1. Regularly updating content to maintain high visibility

The marketers working for BTS make sure that the constant stream of content keeps flowing (with pre-recorded shows, live reactions, and much more), even when the group itself is touring around the world. You would be surprised to know that by doing this simple task every day, the brand was ranked first by the Korean research Institute, for community awareness and participation.

2. Interactive content with a personal touch

We know that social networking sites are valuable to marketers because of the presence of weak-ties on these websites. However, in the peculiar case of BTS, they make sure to regularly update content on their members-only Twitter account, with interactive content such as everyday life selfies, photos, and even birthday blessings to other members. The brand also operates an exclusive fan website called Weverse, where member can read and respond to fan posts. This presence of personal touch in the content, allows the brand to form strong emotional bonds with their audience.

3. Knowing your fanbase

One of the most essential part of marketing is to know your fanbase or audience. When it comes to boy bands like BTS, marketers usually target teenagers, especially girls. However, in the case of BTS, the brand has a broader scope, as they write songs about personal issues such as how to love yourself and more. As you can guess, this approach has helped BTS in securing a fanbase from around the world (different genders, ethnicities, countries) known as 'A.R.M.Y.' The brand also has outstanding outreach via their philanthropic movements such as their UNICEF campaign, in which they sing about self-love. More recently, you can find acts of kindness on Facebook performed by BTS fan groups, such as raising more than $8000 for Assam floods in India.

It amazes me that BTS has maintained its massive social media presence over the years by simply performing these three steps, besides it sets a standard for marketers to efficiently utilize interactions on social networking sites to the maximum. Now that you know their secret get ready to succeed at online social networking yourself!

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Additional sources

• All the gifs and videos are embedded from the official online accounts of BTS.

• The Display cover image is 'labeled for reuse.'