Last week I watched a video interview of Richard Stacy, a social media consultant in London, on Cosmetics Design Europe. The headline that pulled me in was: "Small and medium-sized cosmetics players lead the way in social media." Before I even heard the interview, I nodded my head in agreement. It has been my experience over the years that smaller brands (regardless of niche) tend to be willing to try new things to expand their reach while larger brands have a tendency to "wait and see." Shoestring budgets often energize smaller brands to take creative approaches to marketing and publicity than a larger company would. Would you agree?
Here are some key points Stacy made regarding social media that I absolutely concur with:
* Social media is a journey and a process. I'm so glad I am not the only one who is saying this. The truth is that while it may look easy, as a brand you need to put your strategies in place well before you jump in with both feet. Keyword here is, "time investment."
* There is no typical demographic profile for a social media user. If you attended my presentation at Cosmoprof North America last summer, you know that I stressed this point. No longer can we say social media is just for a specific demographic or target it as a youth-oriented trend, because if your mom hasn't already sent you a friend request on Facebook, she will any day now.
* Advertising doesn't tell brand stories very well. I consider this the 2 dimensional approach in trying to capture an audience. You tell your story but fall flat on engagement. I will forever say, "Less talk, more (inter)action."
Do you agree with Richard Stacy's points? Do you agree or disagree that smaller brands take bigger leaps of faith into platforms like social media than a traditionally larger brand would?
Posted by Shannon Nelson on April 27, 2010 10:00 PM
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Comments (5)
I agree with the three key points that Stacy says in the video. First of all, I think that the social media is a process because organizations need to learn how to use it everyday, and I think that these tools have more possibilities that the ones that the organizations are using nowadays, so I think that they even need to learn a lot.
About the demographic profiles, maybe the social media in a global way has not a specific profile, but every community inside the social media has different interests, so the organization needs to communicate with niches.
Social media gives a better possibility to know information about a brand because people have more time to see and read them (better for corporate information) and advertisements maybe are better only for promotional campaigns, because people only need to remember one key message, not a long story.
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maria |
April 27, 2010 1:20 PM
Posted on April 27, 2010 13:20
Right on, Shannon. I completely agree. I have worked with small brands and big corporations and without fail the smaller brands are more game to get into social media. Large corporations tend to have more old school personalities and formal processes that get in the way of getting a campaign off the ground in a timely manner! There's just such a different mindset for a large corporation when they enter the social media world. And it's a mistake!
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Alyson |
April 27, 2010 2:04 PM
Posted on April 27, 2010 14:04
Shannon you are spot on! I believe that small businesses are a great place to be because of that willingness.
Your points are all great. White Horse recently wrote a post about how to get started in social media called the TIME Method. It expresses the idea of 'time' investments and that you need to find your niche in this social universe. We also encourage people to go out and meet the audience for that interaction which many people forget about.
You can read more here: http://bit.ly/aJgxwo
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
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Courtney |
April 28, 2010 5:49 PM
Posted on April 28, 2010 17:49
Shannon,
Here is an example that I used in my presentation at the conference - cosmetics brand Lush http://www.facebook.com/lush.co.uk. They have 80,000 Facebook fans because what is happening on their Facebook page is conversation. There are a few things that Lush could be doing better - in terms of coordinating their social media presence - but they are a great case study to put in front of any current or potential client to show them what they need to do. Here is the presentation I gave which references some of the big brands that are failing. http://www.slideshare.net/RichardStacy/richard-stacys-presentation-at-incosmetics-paris-130410
Thanks for the mention!
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Richard Stacy |
May 10, 2010 7:17 AM
Posted on May 10, 2010 07:17
Hi Richard, you are more than welcome for the mention. I will check out your presentation, thanks for stopping by!
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Shannon Nelson |
May 11, 2010 10:39 AM
Posted on May 11, 2010 10:39