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Taylor Swift recently broke several streaming and sales records with the release of Midnights. But how has she performed on social media?
Swift is a social media powerhouse, with over 336 million fans and followers across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok, and 48.8 million YouTube subscribers as of October 27, 20221. To put that into context, she has a bigger social audience than Rihanna, Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus, Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, and even Kim Kardashian1.
With Midnights, the singer dominated social conversations. There were over 61.6 million actions on content mentioning her or the album in just a week following its drop2. Out of all of this total, 28.1 million actions, nearly 46%, were on Swift's own content3. Of all posts on Instagram in the US on October 20th, Swift's post performed the best with 4.8 million actions4.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift)
A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift)
Many other public figures jumped in to comment on the album release, including fellow artists Meghan Trainor, Lewis Capaldi, HAIM, and more. Influencers & celebrities other than Taylor Swift herself saw over 11.4 million engagements on related content5.
@meghantrainor ILYYY @Taylor Swift @Carly Rae Jepsen #midnights #thelonliesttime #takinitback #madeyoulook ♬ The Loneliest Time - Carly Rae Jepsen & Rufus Wainwright
@lewiscapaldi me every two seconds after listening to midnights #taylorswift ♬ original sound - Lewis Capaldi
Several brands, publishers, and organizations jumped in on the Midnights conversation as well, totaling over 22 million actions6. Some of the top posts were from NASA, The Tonight Show, and Warner Bros. Television.
@fallontonight @Taylor Swift names as many cat breeds as she can in 30 seconds! #TaylorOnFallon ♬ original sound - FallonTonight
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Warnerbrostv (@warnerbrostv)
A post shared by Warnerbrostv (@warnerbrostv)
Interestingly, many sports organizations posted content related to the album, though sports fans and pop music listeners may usually be perceived as very different audiences7. In fact, Taylor Swift fans are 4x more likely than average to engage with sports content8.
@nhlbruins When Swift drops an album: ♬ original sound - Lily (Taylor's Version)
View this post on Instagram A post shared by scuderiaferrari (@scuderiaferrari)
A post shared by scuderiaferrari (@scuderiaferrari)
Speaking of sports, Taylor also collaborated with the NFL to post a preview of her new album before the official release during Thursday Night Football and teased it on TikTok9.
@nfl swifties, assemble #taylorswift #midnights #tnf ♬ original sound - NFL
Comparing the engagement on social with content about Swift's projects since 2019, Midnights is second only to Red (Taylor's Version) and is the top original release10.
Album Name
Release Date
Actions - Release Date
Actions - Release Date + 5 Days
Red (Taylor's Version)
November 12, 2021
34.4m
80.1m
Midnights
October 21, 2022
26.3m
45.6m
Folklore
July 24, 2020
13.7m
21.2m
Evermore
December 11, 2020
8.8m
15.5m
Lover
August 23, 2019
8.3m
20.3m
Fearless (Taylor's Version)
April 9, 2021
7.0m
9.7m
Even if you’re not a Swiftie, it’s hard to ignore Taylor's influence on her fans, pop culture, and especially on social media.
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