This essay is about my Field Observation on #Beyhive on the twitter app. I followed and observed this hashtag to understand the social relationships and interactions of the Beyhive Twitter community. It was my first time conducting a field observation. Writing this essay taught me more about how online communities are a niche for people to communicate on a topic they hold dear to themselves.  

The Social Relationships and Behaviors of the Twitter Beyhive

Loyal fan base members will do anything to protect their idol. When idols have conflicts, their fan bases react equally. The Beyhive, Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter’s fanbase has a strong reputation for being one of the most loyal and active fan bases across multiple social media platforms. The Beyhive’s members come from different age groups and ethnic backgrounds. Over the years, the Beyhive has gained attention for their behavior on social media. Members of the Beyhive have gone as far as to stalk pages and celebrities adding crude comments under posts as justice for Beyoncé.

Originally called the Beyontourage, the Beyhive has followed Beyoncé since the start of her career. The fanbase started when Beyoncé stepped into the limelight as a singer in Destiny’s child and evolved as Beyoncé became a solo artist. The origins of the term Beyhive are unclear, the term Beyontourage slowly faded the longer Beyoncé was a solo artist. As the internet became more accessible, the Beyhive grew. It expanded to multiple platforms and has a strong presence online.

I originally planned to observe a select Beyhive online group on Facebook but I needed permission from the page’s moderator to gain access. I ended up choosing to observe the Beyhive on Twitter. To gain access to the community, I used “#Beyhive” to scan through posts. The #Beyhive’s twitter interface follows the same white and blue aesthetic that is traditional to the social media network. Twitter functions like ‘reposting’ or commenting to keep conversations active in the community. The field site permits members of the community to post quotes, clips, gifs, information, statistics, and website links of Beyoncé related topics. Members of the Beyhive also share users through the platform. Oftentimes, when an account is it is because a member of the community has asked for help in reporting the account. Accounts that get reported have posted something negative about Beyoncé.

Like other communities, the Beyhive have a certain set of vocabulary and vernacular that they use to communicate with each other. The community uses a lot of hashtags– some examples are “#Beychella” and “#queenb”. These hashtags help circulate new and old content in the community. The term “#Beychella” originated from Beyoncé’s Coachella performance. The Beyhive uses the hashtag to show footage from the performance and film.  Other vernacular includes emojis. The most used emojis are the crown, bee, and lemon. The crown and bee emoji are often used simultaneously– as a pictorial representation of the term “Queen B”. The lemon emoji pertains to Beyoncé’s album Lemonade.

The Beyhive can be categorized into different sections. Like many artists, Beyoncé’s fanbase is composed of different types of members. A 2010 tumbler post titled, “Know Your Bees” by Lauren Agnew stated that the Beyhive tends to get clumped into a singular narrative of being a “hater-silencing group”. According to Agnew, the Beyhive is composed of digger bees, killer bees, Honeybees, and Yellowjackets (Agnew, 2010). The behaviors of the bees differ– Digger bees are members of the community that are journalists looking for information about Beyoncé. Honeybees are “peaceful” members that praise Beyoncé’s work and ignores critics. Killer bees are members that “attack”. And, Yellowjackets are members that are seasonal fans– oftentimes, they are looked down upon by other members of the community for their lack of consistency.

In the Beyhive, the community radiates positive and supportive energy. Members express appreciation when digger bees share information that isn’t widely known– these members will “retweet” posts to inform other members. Digger bees like @beyonceaccess help report news and information on Beyoncé almost daily. Newer members of the community rely on the information in the community to gain a better understanding and updates. Honey bees are usually the most supportive and are the largest observable group of the Twitter Beyhive. I observed a large number of honey bees who posted daily gifs of Beyoncé and quotes to the community. Killer bees seemed the quietest– there aren’t any large scandals circulating surrounding Beyoncé. Smaller groups of Killer bees are still reporting accounts like @beyyyhere. I did not see any yellow jackets.

The Beyhive gained a lot of online presence in 2016 after Beyoncé’s husband’s marital affair was exposed. Anyone linked to the affair was under scrutiny by the online community. Roy who was a subject of many rumors surrounding Jay-Z was bombarded with hate messages and bee emojis. Killer bees would comment on her Instagram page and Twitter.  Roy later made her accounts private. However, it did not stop members of the community who later moved on and commented on her daughter’s posts saying things like, “yo mom needs to drink bleach.” Killer bees feel like they are the protector of Beyoncé– all of the negative comments felt justifiable to them. Behaviors that wouldn’t be accepted outside of the screens were apparent during this period.  This issue surprised me. I have heard of members who have taken it too far but I wouldn’t have imagined that they would comment on Roy’s children’s posts. Even after the commotion around Becky quieted, Killer bees continued to look out for any posts that said anything negative toward Beyoncé. Their behavior was not limited to celebrities or personas, even smaller accounts, and less famous accounts were under scrutiny if they posted anything negative.

Current discussions in the Beyhive are surrounding the results of the “Top 10 Best Selling Artists of the Decade”. Beyoncé did not make an appearance on the list which has many of the online community members speculating the reasons why. Some are arguing that not enough fans were buying DVDs or streaming her music. More discussions include Digger bees telling fans when and where the live streaming parties are happening. So far, there have been streaming parties for Beyoncé’s old single “Halo” and for her “Homecoming” film, which Netflix released in 2019. Members of the community are also asking for others to vote for the “Beyhive Awards”. The awards have different categories ranging from “Best New account” to “Most problematic”. The discussion seems drier. I think it is because Beyoncé has not been very active this year.

Through music and other media, Beyoncé empowered people to become their best selves. Many members of the Beyhive developed deep and personal connections with the artist. These connections have led many people to feel like they need to protect her. The Beyhive lacks a singular narrative; members of the community are diverse in all forms of identity. I think that any social interactions and behaviors created and spread in the group are a reflection of the member’s cultures and subcultures.

Works Cited

Bereznak, A. (2016, June 3). Inside the BeyHive. Retrieved April 8, 2020, from https://www.theringer.com/2016/6/3/16042806/beyonce-beyhive-online-fan-forum-b7c7226ac16d

Chapin, A. (2016, April 30). The wrath of Beyoncé’s Beyhive: how fans have lost the plot. Retrieved April 8, 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/apr/30/beyonce-beyhive-fans-rachel-roy-lemonade

Hoffman, I. (2019, December 23). A-“Bey”-C: Learn The Lingo Of Beyoncé. Retrieved April 18, 2020, from https://www.dictionary.com/e/s/beyonce-vocab/#1