The 1st social media Vigilante ever had was Myspace. He even remember the way he had it set up. On his homepage was a green money background with 50 Cents I GET MONEY playing whenever a visitor lands on the page. There were options of different videos he found interesting on YouTube and a top friends list.
Vigilante loved having the ability to contact any friend he already had outside of school and meet new ones he had never met in person. At this time he was only an athlete so he was not on social media for promotion, only to explore the new feature and communicate with friends. The cell phone was just beginning to come into play, having a computer mean you had a very old desktop computer (not a laptop) and social media only allowed people you knew to communicate with you so it almost defeated the purpose.
As myspace came to an end he was convinced to get a Facebook account. Vigilante declined the offer but later found out a friend of his made a profile for him anyway. Facebook navigation was very different from myspace but they shared the same concept. Facebook now allowed you to share your thoughts to a much wider audience. Also photos and videos. At this same time Youtube was becoming a house hold name and platform for video sharing. No one had the ability to have their own channel so no one had one. Having a video on YouTube at this time was very unique. This was start of the word and concept of GOING VIRAL.
Soulja Boy was the first artist to ever blow up from the YouTube platform and go viral. He ushered in an entire dance and song format that would help build YouTube to what we know it as today. Facebook, YouTube and myspace were both in building stages at this time. Facebook only allowed a person to have up to 5,000 friends and Vigilante quickly filled that list up traveling from school to school and moving from Michigan to Georgia. Once in Ga Vigilante would start a music career. At this page Vigilante’s page would take a turn.
Building social media support was never something he had to do so the concept was completely foreign. Branding became the key word for the rest of his life. Creating a visual image to match the imagery in his head and showcase it to the proper audience. Professional photography was the start. Putting together outfits in a way to never been seen in public in that same combination for the use of Graphics, flyers, default photos and more. Then came creating a YouTube channel. The first YouTube channel Vigilante was ever involved in was with his old group Lights Out Records. They all created music together and everyones music solo and as a group would drop on this one channel. The primary place all artist under LOR promoted their music was on Facebook. This Is where the lessons began.
The first thing Vigilante found he did wrong was he never brought his myspace fans over to Facebook with him so he had to rebuild from scratch. Thou it was not hard and did not take long there were still some very loyal people Vigilante would have loved to keep the support of. The 2nd thing he felt he did wrong was inboxing and putting his music on peoples wall without permission. No one likes spam and or feeling like they’re forced to consume a product. At the time LOR started having your own studio was rare. It was even more rare to know how to use it. The music LOR put out was lyrically good but the sound quality was awful. As a first impression to a new fanbase this was a major step in the wrong direction. The was no release schedule or professional project release role outs and this was clear as day even to the fans (who should never know this stuff).
LOR formed during the last wave of selling physical CD copies hand to hand. After attempting to sell CD’s at various Walmart parking lots and clubs Vigilante quickly learned that this direct selling method was not for him. He felt he was making great music and should not have to convince people to buy it. After another unsuccessful day of selling CD’s Vigilante had a talk with the heads of LOR expressing to them that he will not be selling anymore CD’s hand to hand himself. That the next time he sells cds will be will be when he partners with distribution companies and signs the autographs of the sold copies his fans buy.
At this time Facebook was transitioning transitioning into twitter. Twitter was the first social media platform where you had a direct line to your favorite celebs. Vigilante made the same mistake as he did before with not brining his fanbase from Facebook to twitter. Twitter’s limited character amount per post consolidated Facebook post that normally had no limit so to most twitter became a breathe of fresh air where you could rapidly take in information in small doses. Twitter was fun but it quickly became a lot of spam do to the over saturation of people trying to poke at their favorite celebs. Out of all social medias thats the one he had the shortest live on. Around this same time Vigilante began dropping rapid freestyles on the LOR YouTube channel. He become the face of the company during the twitter wave.
Around 2013 Vigilante was preparing to graduate from hight school and go to college. This marked the start of Instagram. It was not love at first sight. Myspace, Twitter and Facebook were based primarily on words or text that would occasionally have a photo or video attached to the post. Instagram was the complete opposite. A huge photo with a caption attached to the bottom of it. No one really joins instagram knowing how to work it either. You go from huge followings on other social media platforms to starting from scratch on instagram. Vigilante was determined to learn how to use the app and dove in head first. The first wave of instagram was only photos with a caption underneath. Vigilante came even remember if people were able to even be tagged. A few months later short 10-15 second videos were added as a feature. This opened a lane for the Vine personalities to repost their old content and spark a new flame. Shortly after these same videos turn to 30 seconds. This is where maino and plies began to thrive on instagram. Not to long after videos became a full minute long. Facebook live became popular world wide but no tother platform had a live streaming feature. That didn’t last long as both Instagram and Twitter both would add this feature to their apps. Snapchat was the only story driven platform but was shortly copied by the other platforms. IG TV creeped its way around the corner and sponsored post shortly followed. Now instagram became a one stop shop. The ability to post on twitter, Facebook and other platforms from posting on instagram is now a regular feature. As you can see Vigilante has evolved with the social media evolution.
Leaning how to use these platforms boost Vigilantes leverage as an actor and artist as well. A huge portion of being desired in the industry is knowing how to market and coming with a new fan base.
Currently Vigilante uses all social media platforms and is in the process of getting verified on both Facebook and Instagram. Once verified Vigilante will be starting a business helping others become more literate on social media and even get verified.
