It’s been over a week since the release of Beyoncé’s self titled visual album hit iTunes. Beyoncé hit 828,773 album sales exclusively via iTunes in three days. This is the fastest-selling album ever on iTunes, according to Apple — with no traditional marketing machinery in place. As a huge Beyoncé fan I appreciate the continuous gifs and memes cluttering my newsfeeds daily.

But as a marketer, the countless write-ups on what brands can learn from Beyoncé and articles questioning if Beyoncé’s lack of album drop publicity means marketing is dead are even more intriguing.

I remember a time when Beyoncé had one million twitter followers yet she hadn’t sent one tweet. And I don’t mean that her publicist was handling the tweeting – Beyoncé’s tweet count was at zero for quite some time. Yet I and 999,999 others followed awaiting her first tweet.

Why did we follow Beyonce’s dead air? Because she’s Beyoncé and almost everything she does and associates her name with is ah-mazing. Beyoncé’s audience believes in the Beyoncé brand and we trust that from this brand we will always receive consistent, quality content.

But a brand of this nature does not happen over night. Destiny’s child hit main stream in the late 90’s and Beyoncé has been building her brand ever since. If you’re part of the Beyhive I guarantee you weren’t surprised in the slightest that Bey broke Apple’s record and lit the interweb on fire. We’ve been following her journey along the way, and every inspirational story we’ve been told was just a milestone leading her to this.

Since April 4, 2012 aka the day of the first Tweet, Beyoncé has really stepped up her social media marketing efforts, primarily on Tumblr and Instagram (even with 13 million followers, Twitter is not Bey’s social media platform of choice). Beyonce gives her Instagramin’ Tumblr loving fans a glimpse into her private life and becomes relatable to her audience as a mother, wife and career woman.

Is it a coincidence she has been most active and personal on two of the most visually driven social media platforms which are most popular within the 18-25 demographic? Of course not. Being “visual” is part of Beyoncé’s persona. So why not use these two vehicles as personal brand-building tools to convey that persona and reach your target audience all at the same time?

Marketing is not dead, it’s simply evolving and all brands need to adapt. Utilizing Instagram to announce the launch of “Beyoncé” was clever but 100% marketing strategy. If your product incorporates video, you want to create buzz, and you have over 8 million followers on Instagram – then friends, I think we may have something here.

3 takeaways from the Queen:

1. Be present in places where your audience is active. If you opened a local skate boarding shop, handing out flyers at the local skate park would seem logical, right? So – if your audience is on social media, and Twitter generates the most referral traffic to your website then.. you get the point.
2. Make sure every story you tell is compelling and share-worthy. Who doesn’t love a good story?! If it resonates with your audience, they’ll share it.
3. Make your content visual! I’m a bookworm, so please don’t be offended when I say – online videos, gifs and visually appealing photos trump online essays and long winded articles any day. I’m not the only one who thinks this.

For additional takeaways, read: 5 Things Brands Can Learn From Beyoncé 

It’s safe to say, very (and I mean very) few acts could attract the same attention as Beyoncé, but a strategy of this sort bears some valuable lessons — and possibly a future blueprint for not only the music industry but content marketing in general.