Beauty insight

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Socially acceptable
BW Confidential examines how beauty brands can approach social networking and how the media will evolve

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ow that Louis Vuitton has posted videos of its fashion shows on Facebook, the term social media may make management at prestige beauty brands slightly less uneasy. Up until recently social media has mostly generated fear. There’s the fear that a democratic medium like the internet is not the place for luxury brands and that social media does not bring a real return on investment. There’s the worry of getting involved in the latest hot new thing, only to be told six months down the line that it is obsolete. And there’s a general panic of not really knowing what’s going on in social media, how it all works and of it being a bit too experimental. These fears are legitimate enough. But so is the consumer’s (and increasingly the competition’s) presence on social networks—there are now 87% more Americans using social networking than in 2003, according to Nielsen. This fast-paced growth has more companies asking how and where to participate. The advice has been to take six months to look at where consumers are spending time online and listen to them before beginning to participate. US-based consultancy Direct Message Lab ceo Steven Plous, however, recommends that brands interact with customers as soon as possible and learn as they go. “Companies think that what they start doing in social media is etched in stone and that they will be stuck with it forever. But what they start with will probably be very different six months later. Companies need to be constantly reworking their presence online—people will expect that. If web visitors are asking for x or y and the brand doesn’t react it’ll be ignored.” Content is king Most brands realize that they need to be on Facebook, and are paying more attention to blogs and communities, micro-blogging tool Twitter and video sharing sites (see box, page 7).