UPDATE: Soulja Boy appears to return back to Twitter with a change of heart or did he do it on purpose to trick the media? “How many fake accounts were there while I pulled my genius plan?” – Soulja Boy

This isn’t the first time that a celebrity chose to stop being a Twitizen. Miley Cyrus deleted her account when she got to 2 million followers and now rapper Soulja Boy did the same. It is rumored that Soulja Boy deleted his Twitter account because of the trending topic #ifSouljaBoyisarapper where many tweets poked fun of him.  Soulja Boy haters were tweeting:

#ifsouljaboyisarapper amy winehouse supports the D.A.R.E program

#Ifsouljaboyisarapper USA wins the 2010 worldcup

#ifsouljaboyisarapper then Ron Artest can win a NBA championship without Kobe

I did not get hold of Soulja Boy to confirm this is the real reason why he deleted his account, but the same day the trending topic appears, his account is gone. It quickly comes to the conclusion that Soulja Boy’s ego was deeply hurt by the trending topic.  Twitter and Facebook are the biggest ways for an artist to establish themselves on the web and engage their fans.  If an artist is not taking advantage of Twitter and Facebook they are losing tons of potential to reach out to their fans.  Before when an artist leaked a new song or video they had to rely on their publicist and other popular sites.  Now it’s on the artist’s grind to make themselves important to their fans by posting their own content on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.  Any artist that deletes their Twitter or Facebook account will eventually kill their career.

Everyone foresees record labels will no longer play a role in the future since the digital game is rapidly changing times in the music industry.  Soulja Boy had over 2 million followers which made him top of the list amongst the hip hop genre.  To be able to have that many followers to let them know about a new song that’s available on iTunes to buy is HUGE.  If rumors are right that he deleted his account because of the trending topic, he is letting his haters win.  Success is the best revenge.  Everyone is not going to like your music, you have to have thick skin especially in the music industry.  I think Soulja Boy deleting his account was one of the worst mistakes he could make in his career.

I remember when Chris Brown deleted his account after being blackballed by stores for not selling his album in December 2009 and later came back to twitter asking everyone to follow him again.  This is a very bad move.  At the end of the day, anyone who deletes their Twitter account is letting down their fans.  Once you let down your fans then what’s plan b?  It seems like a lot of younger artists (Miley Cyrus, Soulja Boy, Chris Brown) are deleting their accounts rather than the more established and older artists.

I found an interesting quote from Soulja Boy on the Tim Westwood TV in December 2009 in response to Chris Brown deleting his Twitter account:

“I was thinking about that last night man,” Soulja Boy told radio personality Tim Westwood. “I just think, I don’t know man, you see Miley Cyrus deleted hers and then when he did it I was just thinking like ‘Who’s gonna be next to delete their Twitter?’ I don’t never say never because you never know, one day I might just wake-up and be like I don’t wanna be on Twitter no more but right now, nah, I don’t think I’d ever delete my Twitter. I work hard for them followers, the 1.9 milli’s baby. They gonna be disappointed in me man.” (Tim Westwood TV)

He is absolutely right, his fans will be very disappointed.

I remember being with Chamillionaire back in 2008 when we didn’t understand what Twitter was and the buzz about it.   After learning about it more we decided it would be a good move for him to get on Twitter.  Now he has over 570,000 followers and the rest is history.  Chamillionaire might not be the biggest artist on Twitter but with my help he has really done a great job engaging his fans digitally and personally. I think a lot of rappers on Twitter miss a lot of key elements to be successful on Twitter.  You can’t just get on Twitter and talk about your next album all the time, that gets redundant.  You need to open up personally (with your own limits) to your fans by posting Twitpics of the events you are at or what sport game you are rooting for.  There were several rappers that I was following that just do not get Twitter and how to tweet.  Soulja Boy statistics show that he does a good job of engaging his fan base, he worked too hard to end everything like that.