A social media strategy is essential to any company operating in the
beauty markets, yet surprisingly few have embraced this new way of doing
business. Generally, it is the smaller, more nimble companies that have
got their heads around blogging, FaceBook and twitter, etc. The big
global companies are still playing catch up.
What lessons can be learnt from having {or not having} a social media
strategy? Dell Computers is perhaps the most famous example of a company
that managed to turn social media to its advantage after having gained a
reputation for unreliable products and poor communication with its
customers. Caught out by an online video of one of its laptops catching
fire, the company earned itself the moniker “Dell Hell”, after the You
Tube video went global. The bloggers had a field day. Then BuzzMachine.com
{which is currently busy discussing the WikiLeaks affair}, featured a
blog post entitled “Dell lies. Dell sucks” and attracted vast numbers of
reader comments from people wanting to vent their own stories of Dell
hell. BuzzMachine blogger Jeff Jarvis wondered if Dell was reading blogs
and invited the company to respond to him in a public forum. He was met
with a wall of silence. Eventually, the company did wake up, developed a
social media strategy and turned the criticisms to their advantage.
Today, anyone looking to start developing a social media strategy
should go to www.dell.com for lessons on how to do it right. Sean
Singleton, managing director of digital creative company Skive, believes
that beauty brands have a lot to learn from the Dell example. “Beauty
brands like to control their message and to be visually strong,” he
says, noting that marketing is often reluctant to take risks as they are
worried about losing their jobs. “Global companies tend to be risk
averse, but social media is about doing a hundred things and seeing what
works.”
Many of the big beauty companies have some way to go before they
embrace social media, especially those with massive brand portfolios.
“Brands need to let go of their control and be humble. Consumers are in
control and they need to get used to it.”
Sean Singleton will be giving a paper on social media at next year’s
in-cosmetics marketing trends presentations, taking place in Milan on
29-31 March.