Promoting Single on Social Media - Ed Sheeran

Ed Sheeran has recently released 2 singles after being silent in the music industry for over a year.

His singles went straight to Number 1 and 2 in the Uk Top 40 and Number 2 in the US Billboard 100. This is not solely due to Sheeran's huge following in the UK and celebrity status, the advertisement and promotion of the singles created excietement and awareness of the Suffolk singer's new music.

Social media is now used as one of the main promotion tools in the release of a single. This was definitely used by Ed Sheeran, who inticed his 16.9million followers with a series of tweets.

On the 13th December 2015, Sheeran posted an image (seen below) where he announced his break on social media and from the music industry after a successful 5 years. At the end he reassured his fans that he would be back with a third album next autumn...




















Exactly a year later, on 13th December 2016, Ed Sheeran tweeted an image of a blue square, along with changing his profile picture and header to a blue image. Although to most people this would not seem like a big deal, after a year away fans where avid for his return, and that being a simple change in social media showed them that he was back. Sheeran is known for having a colour theme run through his albums.


Plus, 2011, ORANGE

The main colour for this album was orange. Sheeran is jokingly known as one of the most famous ginger haired singers in the world. His ginger hair is one of the reasons he stands out so much, which could be the reason behind his orange case.







Multiply, 2014, GREEN

The main colour for this album was green. He changed his profile picture to album artwork and changed the header to a green colour. The extreme colour change makes followers gain attention and excitement as they know utmost be for a new album.






Divide, 2017, BLUE

The most recent colour is Blue. This was first revealed on the 13th December 2016 in a cryptic tweet that received 128 thousand RT's and 295 thousand Likes on twitter.

The blue square which was tweeted sent fans crazy...

The blue square tweet was followed by a video on 1st January, of Ed holding up a sign which read 'New Music coming Friday'. This received 274 thousand RTs and 510 thousand likes. I believe it received more as many people wouldn't of understood his tweet of just a coloured square.





This was a good way of getting fans excited for the year, a new year and new music from Ed Sheeran. This gained media attention from many radio stations, news reporters and fans, allowing the information of new Ed music to travel the world extremely quickly.

Another way Ed got his audience involved with the release of his new music was to make the audience guess his album name. His first album was Plus, then Multiply so the big question was will it Subtract or Divide??? Ed played on this and tweeted a video of a subtract sign transforming into a divide sign. This was accompanied by the caption '6th January 5am GMT'. This showed fans when the music was coming as well.

In the build up to the 6th January, Ed continued to use social media to create interest and excitement. On the 3rd January he tweeted a video of a set of words 'When I was six years old I broke my leg...' and on the 4th January he did this again but with the lyrics 'The club isn't the best place to find a lover...'. This got fans minds working about what the new music was about.

When I was six years old I broke my leg... pic.twitter.com/IDIoHf5h8b

— Ed Sheeran (@edsheeran) 3 January 2017

The club isn't the best place to find a lover... pic.twitter.com/SKmXJQZilu

— Ed Sheeran (@edsheeran) 4 January 2017

Then on the 5th of January he tweeted " ÷' which confirmed the name of his new album. He then tweeted two videos showing two different beats. This suggested Sheeran had two new songs to show. One video further more took forward the idea of the album being called Divide and the other Subtract, by the visuals that were portrayed on screen.

This then bring us to the 6th January, the release date for the new music. The tweet everyone was waiting for read, 'Cause I've been away for a bit here's two singles rather than one - Castle On The Hill & Shape Of You'. The video was a mixture of the previous beats but this time with the vocals of Ed Sheeran.

By regularly communicating with his fans and followers, he gained interest and world wide attention for the release of his music. Therefore by the time the music came out, everyone was ready to listen and purchase the singles which would have helped it reach the top of charts following its release.

After releasing his new music, Ed Sheeran continued to use his social media platform to communicate with fans and once again create interest and get people talking. He further done this by releasing the tracklist of 'Divide' and the artwork for the new album. This gets people excited as they read the names of the songs and guess the vibe of the album and what the songs are about. Along with the artwork was the release date, 3rd March. By sharing this to his near 17million followers will guarantee him sales and fans knowledge of when his album is out.



Social media is free, quick and globally accessible. As seen with Ed Sheeran, huge amount of worldwide interest can be created by using platforms such as Twitter.