Big Hit’s label CEO, Bang Si-hyuk, stated in an interview with JoongAng, a South Korean national daily newspaper, that the label wanted to create an Idol group that would enjoy communication with their fans on social media and be a hero with a shoulder to lean on (Bruner, 2019). BTS utilizes the global capacity of new media platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, and Weverse (South Korea-based official online community platform for fans) to reach their expanding fanbase.
An investigation that sought to explore the consuming behavior of K-pop videos across social media sites, noted that there is an established difference between YouTube and Twitter. The results of manual content analysis show that videos in the YouTube network focused on music videos while videos in the Twitter network concentrated on various types of video, including FanCam (videos filmed from audience perspectives), interviews, film, and so on. (Kim 820).
This investigation relates to my argument of BTS successfully using social media to establish fan connections, since Twitter is their main source of communication. By making Twitter the main social platform Bighit, BTS’s music label, can distribute a wide range of video content. BTS uses this platform to their advantage and creating two main accounts; The promotional account, @bts_bighit, with 17.6 million followers and the personal account, @BTS_twt, with 22.7 million followers. The promotional account is used to inform fans on YouTube video uploads, song releases, and Facebook posts. While BTS_twt is mainly posts from members sharing pictures of family members, vacations, studio content, and what they ate for dinner. This is a unique marketing strategy since most well known artists, like Ariana Grande, only have one Twitter account that includes both personal content and promotional content.
BTS has especially exploited the fan connection of ‘micro-particpation’ created from social media. For BTS fans, mundane fan practices, like commenting on a post, are potentially rewarded from other fans or even the K-pop idols themselves (Yoon 187). Micro-participation then enhances the idea of sincerity and a close connection to that artist. Bighit Entertainment has created a social networking platform called WeVerse that is a majority ‘micro-participation’ based community. Here, the fans have the freedom to post on the app and BTS can directly interact by commenting. There is also an incentive to buy fan-membership in order to access additional exclusive content and be able to enter the concert ticket lotteries. BTS also uses ‘micro-particpation’ during their live streams on the Korean application Naver’s Vlive. Fans are able to comment and send hearts while they are broadcasting. The more often a fan watches the higher their ‘Chemibeat’ or “chemistry beat’ increase.