Whether you love or hate her…a lot is being said these days about Lady Gaga and her team’s marketing genius, as evidenced by her rapid ascend to the top of the charts, her incessantly played tunes, and her ability to license her brand (and videos) out. Whether this so called fame is just a passing phase is yet to be determined. Nonetheless, whatever your opinion of her music and sense of artistry, there is something to be learned from her marketing prowess, and specifically from her use of social media to truly engage with her audience:

• It’s your brand..take control – or at least know how to execute yourself before directing someone else on how to do it for you: According to AdAge, all parties who work with Lady Gaga on her label, management and marketing teams cite Gaga herself as the ultimate brains behind many of her creative and social-media ideas and tactics. She regularly Tweets to her audience from backstage.

• Be exclusive. it works -Utilize a phased approach in your content distribution strategy:  “Bad Romance” debuted last November on LadyGaga.com before MTV or any other outlet – resulting in a Universal Music server crash, a week-long Twitter trending topic and a cumulative 136 million (and counting) views on YouTube to date, more than any other past viral music video. (OK Go’s “This Too Shall Pass”, which premiered this past Tuesday, currently counts 3.5 million views).

• The people make you - Accept and embrace that your brand – and its success – is dependent upon your customers taking a stake in it:  As noted by ChurchofCustomer, while some artists  protect their image by prohibiting recording devices during performances, Gaga instead bars professional photographers from capturing her performances, including one in late 2009 in Las Vegas.  She prefers to allow fans to record and distribute videos of her live performances on YouTube.

If nothing but a social-cultural commentary or example of how quickly the marketing machine can be figured out, Lada Gaga is also a reminder that it can pay dividends to be fearless in how a brand directly engages with and grows to understand its customers – and learns from both the hits and misses.

AND…get this… about a month ago Lady Gaga was named the Creative Director of Polaroid for their specialty Products! Why? Because she shares such a close relationship with her fans. As the Lady herself says:

“I am so proud to announce my new partnership with Polaroid as the creative director and inventor of specialty projects,” said Lady Gaga. “The Haus of Gaga has been developing prototypes in the vein of fashion/technology/photography innovation–blending the iconic history of Polaroid and instant film with the digital era–and we are excited to collaborate on these ventures with the Polaroid brand. Lifestyle, music, art, fashion: I am so excited to extend myself behind the scenes as a designer, and to as my father puts it–finally, have a real job.”

All things said – we’ll have to wait and see how successful these statements will be.