I’m stoked for you all to get to know Junae Brown.
Junae founded an agency, Browned 2 Perfection, where she helps brands borrow from music marketing to build brand fandoms.
She started her career at record labels, and she understands how musicians build fan bases.
But, that playbook’s not JUST for artists. Brands can have fans! Especially on social — just look at Fenty Beauty’s Instagram. Or Duolingo’s TikTok.
The 3 keys to success? Consistency, “good content” and authenticity.
More of Junae’s insights from The Marketing Millennials podcast on a brand fandom — brandom? — in her liiiiightly edited words.
1. Where social media managers should focus:
Pick 2 top social platforms. Give them all you got.
And then everywhere else, repurpose.
Don’t drive yourself and your team nuts, trying to manage 8 different platforms and give them all original, consistent content.
Learn how to change the tone and the language for the different platforms.
When you are really good on a social platform, people transfer over.
When they like you, they’re going to go find you on TikTok. They will go find you on Instagram. They will find your social security number if it’s not hidden.
I think a lot of people stretch themselves too thin and confuse the audience. You just need to build solid things.
2. How often to post on social:
I feel like it’s a double answer. First of all, how often is your audience online, and where are they? Where are they buying?
Where do they go to receive joy, to get controversy, to find news?
The second part is what results do you want?
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If you’re trying to build a platform and you don’t have a super engaged following yet, and you post once a week on Instagram — I don’t think that’s enough.
You want to be posting at least 3 times a day.
Based off of, not just the algorithm, but human nature and the fact that people need to see something several times before they buy in.
3. How Cardi B built for the long haul:
Cardi B built a very tight-knit fanbase of people who were watching her when she was just a funny girl on Instagram. A regular girl from the Bronx.
She didn’t have a record deal.
And then reality TV comes. So now she has a fanbase for that. And all this time she’s pushing to music, so then there are fans of her music.
Then boom. She has “Bodak Yellow.”
It seems like this girl came out nowhere. No, she was building the fan base brick by brick by brick.
Now, whether you are a core Cardi stan or someone who likes a couple of songs, you know what the brand is. The awareness is there.
I think that is how you establish longevity.
4. Why an engaged brand fandom helps with marketing strategy:
On social now, you’re getting feedback in real time.
Marketers used to rely on random surveys and those little like case study tester rooms and stuff!
Now you could tweet something out and have thousands of people respond. They’ll tell you whether or not you should release a blue shirt or a red shirt.
It doesn’t get better than that.
5. How McDonald’s shows up authentically:
Most Millennials, we’re supposed to be health conscious. Like, “I’m not eating McDonald’s.”
But if you surveyed 100 Millennials and asked them their fondest memories about McDonald’s, they’d all have a very concrete, specific answer.
We all remember the joy of having a Happy Meal.
We remember when they first got McFlurries.
We remember going after school in high school. Every day I ate at McDonald’s — disgusting, but with my beautiful metabolism back then, it was the hangout spot.
It goes back to authentically connecting.
McDonald’s is not giving you no fluff. “We make the best hamburger in the world. We make people happy.”
It may not be the healthiest thing, but you know what you’re gonna get. You’re going to leave satisfied.
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