STAR of the Month: Social media plays role in Shane O's return

Social media gave Shane O a place to deejay, to reach out, to share and to remain in the spotlight entertainers are used to when they are trending.

What started out as a platform for the 30-year-old deejay to freestyle and exercise his skills became a place to start again, rediscover the power of fan feedback, and promote Shane O, the dancehall artiste, as well as his SOR record label.

"A dat me use bring back myself," Shane O told THE STAR. "Facebook [fans] especially proud a me cause a me and dem a par fi years."

The STAR of the Month has done freestyle and live videos via Facebook, which have earned him support from the social-media community over time.

"One a di time, when mi post a freestyle and see seh it have 2,000 views, mi jus seh, 'Jah Jah,' and continue put up video a play riddim and freestyle," he said.

Daily posts, status updates, videos of studio sessions and pictures depicting his lifestyle also kept members of the dancehall fraternity interested.

"Di year when Gully Bop buss, we do a one-fi-one freestyle and see it move from 40,000 views the morning mi wake ... [to] 500,000 views. That's when mi seh it a comeback now," he said.

He is also popular for religiously sharing information about the creation process for his singles during live video feeds.

The Jah Know deejay says social media has remained very important to him since rebuilding his brand because it is the first place that selectors or radio disc jockeys look to see the audience a song may have.

"Dem gwaan pon di IG (Instagram) and FB (Facebook) fi see how popular it is and seh 'A dis me, a play.' A dat dem a work wid, so a dat me a work wid too," he said.

Shane O added that the moment he goes missing from social media, people start questioning his whereabouts.

"Once people can see seh yah work, them will stop by weh yuh deh," he told THE STAR.

He noted that he does not allow more than two days to pass without posting to his social-media pages. And although he only has 50,000 followers on Instagram, he is confident that the numbers will keep growing.