I'm a Swiftie.
Well, the hardcore Swifties may not let me in - I'm not deeply embedded in the fan communities on third-party social media. But I'd qualify myself as a Taylor Swift fan for sure. So I think.
I've been one since 'Love Story' came out in 2008. I was a late teen then, love was in the air and it was Swift's Juliet singing "on a balcony in summer air." I then heard the earlier released 'Tim McGraw'. That was her debut single, and it was as lyrical.
Lyrical, fresh and relatable: that's how I've always found Taylor Swift's music as she transitioned from country to a form of pop.
Over the last 15+ years since 'Love Story' though, Swift has remarkably grown as an artist and has captured the pulse of more than a generation. And now she's made history with her fourth Grammy for Album of the Year.
Listen to how her song 'Anti-Hero' starts: "I have this thing where I get older but just never wiser, Midnights become my afternoons..." Resonates at some point in life or another. Are some midnights not like your afternoons?
Or how about the lines, "The game was rigged, the ref got tricked. The wrong ones think they're right, You were outnumbered, this time," from her 2020 song 'Only the Young,' which is said to be about the 2018 US mis-term elections.
Played at other times, it's a song that either side on the political spectrum could relate with, even beyond US borders in our polarised world today.
But it's not just her music that drives this fandom.
It's also about her stance on owning her music and distribution - strengthening her right as an artist, and her deep connection with the fan community - offline and online.
Swift is an inspiration to any professional creator today. She reminds us, ownership is key.
She's fought legal battles for ownership of her content, and has gone on to re-record her old albums (the famous Taylor's Version of her old albums) to own and keep control of her work and the distribution of it.
That's also a defining theme in the evolution of the web today - ownership, but we'll stick to Swift's story and how she has been championing that in what many call a cut-throat industry. In doing so, she has regained power for other independent artists as well showing us new routes to creative freedom.
Before this record ownership episode, she'd stayed away from releasing some music on Spotify because it paid artists too little, as she put it at the time. Industry experts called it a bad decision, but it ended up driving sale of her music at physical stores - to the delight of some small vinyl stores as well.
And then last year she bypassed distributors to release a concert movie she produced herself, negotiating a better share. That line in the graphic above - "And this is our place, we make the rules..." - it's from her 2019 song 'Lover'. It may be a romantic pop number, but it captures her a part of her philosophy well.
It's about ownership and retention: in this case it being owned media and distribution.
Authentic engagement never goes out of fashion
Swift and her team have also been frontrunners when it comes to another thing key for professional creators and brands today - deeper engagement and distribution.
She's said to have had a deep connection with her fans: behind the scenes sessions, fan invitations to concerts, visits to fan events and contributions to fan causes, among other things.
But she's also scaled that way beyond offline.
She was a very active artist on MySpace (remember MySpace? I remember how Tom was all over it. It could be called TomSpace) when the song 'Tim McGraw' was released in 2006, and used it effectively for marketing.
As third-party social media platforms changed, her team has been quick to adapt and she has been active on other trending social media sites, commenting on fan posts and listening to community feedback.
Owning direct channels with community are rewarding
Swift also always prioritised owning her audience and retaining control of her communication channels - launching her own niche social network Taylor Connect with forums in as early as 2010, which was then replaced by The Swift Life app around 2017.
That's gone too - apparently because the app contract was tied to the release of some of her albums and when they released, the app was to be discontinued. But celebrity apps in general have had issues with stickiness, and that would make for a great community marketing deep dive, separately.
Lately though, Swift has rewarded her top listeners on Spotify with merchandise and her team's said to be experimenting with some NFT's for fan engagement.
It's this authentic fan interaction and her adoption of new channels of communication, backed by the offline interactions that has helped build a strong and engaged fanbase.
This is her community. It's her Taylor Nation, as they call it.
In marketing parlance today, this is her flywheel: she owns her content, she controls her communication channels and nurtures her relationship via personal experiences and active participation.
This keeps giving back in terms of community and brand building, sales and growth. The core is authenticity.
Perhaps a Taylor Swift fan network would make a comeback again, with tweaks on moderation that many found missing on The Swift Life app, and with other learnings.
Meanwhile though, there are numerous lessons in her journey for new independent artists and creators, and there are so many lessons there for community builders as well.
And Swift winning another Grammy is a good occasion to revisit a key message in those lessons: stay authentic and retain ownership of your content and community.
Play the long game, Swiftie.
