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CASE STUDIESHow do fashion & beauty brands use social media?

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CONTENTS

Case Study 1 pages 3 - 11

Case Study 2 pages 12 - 20

Case Study 3 pages 21 - 27

Case Study 4 pages 28 - 33

Case Study 5 pages 34 - 42

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Case Study 1: How ASOS Use Social Media

ASOS.com is a global online fashion and beauty store based in the UK. It has fast become Britain’s largest online fashion retailer, since its launch in June 2000, selling over 65,000 products from a mixture of own-label, global and local brands. They currently offer free shipping to 234 countries and have local language websites for a number of countries across the world attracting 29.5million users per month.

Fashion is not their only forte, however. They have also dipped their toe into the editorial market, with the launch of their own monthly magazine in 2007, geared towards their female customer base. Alongside their magazine, which is available both in print and online, they also run an online blog called ‘Daily Newsfeed’, on which they share posts about style, beauty and celebrities.

The ASOS website is designed in a way to optimise the customer experience, with a range of

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handy tools and features on offer, from catwalk videos of models wearing items on sale, to the ‘ASOS Fashion Finder’ – a popular feature that showcases current fashion trends selected by the ASOS stylists and fashion bloggers. Links to each of their social media platforms can be found at the bottom of the homepage and visitors are given the option of sharing pictures of items they like on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook and Google+ below each product listing. Easy to use apps are also available on smart phone and tablets, for the ASOS Store and Fashion Finder, making browsing simple and accessible on the move.

The target market for the ASOS brand is fashion forward twenty-somethings and ASOS know full well that their marketing needs to be innovative and fresh, in order to reach and influence their desired clientele. In response to this, they have pushed social media to its limits with their strong online presence. ASOS have accounts on LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+, amongst others; though they are most active on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Here’s a deeper look into how they make use these top three platforms to market their brand.

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Facebook:

The ASOS Facebook page is currently one of the most popular retail brands on Facebook. They currently have over 3.5 million fans, in comparison with other online retailers such as Boohoo’s 2.2 million and Net-a-Porter’s 1.3 million.

They use the page to promote new ranges & sales, as well as to direct traffic to articles on their blog and online magazine.

On a typical day they will post 1-2 visual updates; which will generally rack up a couple of hundred ‘likes’ and a dozen or so comments. The updates that tend to be the most popular amongst their fans are ones that involve celebrities; however competitions and other posts that encourage their fans to get involved themselves also receive a significant response. A recent example of this was their #AsSeenOnMe campaign, that asks their customers to tag photos of themselves wearing their ASOS purchases, with the opportunity of being featured in a gallery on the website. An album of photos uploaded by ASOS customers was also added to their Facebook

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page to showcase their current entries. This is a particularly effective marketing technique, as it builds a relationship with their customers by valuing their taste and style; at the same time as exhibiting items that are available for purchase on ASOS.com.

Customers often use the Facebook page as a means of contacting the company regarding enquiries about purchases and ASOS are diligent at responding to all of their fans questions in a helpful and polite manner, even with the most difficult of shoppers.

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Twitter:

ASOS are exceptionally active on Twitter and have multiple accounts to cater for their different markets and purposes. Their primary global fashion page (@ASOS) has nearly 800,000 followers, in contrast to @Boohoo‘s 15.5k and @NetAPorter‘s 24.3k; however they also have pages for ASOS Australia/ US/France/ES/DE/Italia, ASOS Menswear, ASOS Careers, ASOS Fashion Finder, ASOS Marketplace and ASOS Greenroom.

They additionally run a separate customer care page – @ASOS_HeretoHelp, which enables them to keep their marketing and correspondence with potentially unhappy customers segregated. This is important for them to maintain a positive brand representation.

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A large amount of time and resources are invested into maintaining their Twitter accounts and engaging with other users. They are remarkably attentive when it comes to responding to fans’ comments and enquiries, particularly on their Customer Care account, which attracts a large response.

The key use for their multiple fashion accounts is to circulate links to their current stories on their blog and magazine, however they frequently share pictures and videos from outside sources which are appropriate for their clientele.

The updates that attract the most attention from their followers are generally ones that their customers can associate with

themselves, for example funny GIFs about lazy weekends and easy to apply fashion tips; usually receiving around 100-200 favourites and retweets.

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Instagram:

Unlike their Facebook and Twitter pages, ASOS have given their Instagram account a much more personal touch and present fans with a bit of a ‘behind the scenes’ insight into life at ‘ASOS HQ’.

They use Instagram much like any other user, piggy-backing on existing trends such as selfies and photos of their food. Posts often include snaps of the staff ’s breakfast or coffee break, to their stylist’s outfit of the day(from ASOS of course.) This makes the brand relatable for their fans, as well as providing inspiration for them to shop on the website when they see ASOS products on real people.

Hashtags are occasionally used on posts to maximise discovery in searches, however with over 3,000 followers they aren’t always necessary and the purpose of their Instagram account appears to be more for building a relationship with fans, rather than marketing their products. It is in fact the ASOS customers who make more frequent use of the affiliated hashtags and over 1 million images can now be found under #ASOS, so I guess their marketing is being done for them.

In December 2014, ASOS launched an ASOS advent calendar competition with prizes to be won

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every day leading up to Christmas; all fans had to do was post their festive pictures with the hashtag #instaadvent. Competitions such as this may not bring much publicity to the brand from outsiders, considering you would not instantaneously associate ASOS with the hashtag ‘instaadvent,’ though the interactivity and chance to win builds a loyalty amongst customers.

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Conclusion:

For ASOS, social media is the perfect tool for targeting their desired customer base of young and trendy individuals. It allows them to communicate directly with their fans, helping to build a closer and more personal relationship with their clientele and enabling their customers to have an input. This kind of personalisation helps customers to really associate themselves with a brand, meaning they are more likely to return or recommend the company.

The high number of followers for their social media accounts speaks volumes about the efficiency of their social media presence and demonstrates how it is successfully attracting their target market. Though their accounts are mainly beneficial for the brand and bring about a lot of positive feedback, a large number of customers also use them to contact the company about their dissatisfaction with the service, which may reflect badly on the company when the posts are public. ASOS resolved this issue on Twitter with a separate customer service account; however, on Facebook and Instagram the enquiries frequently appear in comments below images shared and can only be resolved with public responses to the enquiries, which are usually dealt with well.

Overall I think that ASOS are a brand to watch on social media and other companies could seek pointers from them.

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Case Study 2: How Burberry Use Social Media

Since being founded in 1856, Burberry has become a British virtue and a front runner in the fashion industry worldwide. They have gained recognition as one of the most highly esteemed luxury fashion houses on the market and are best known for their trademark tartan pattern and signature trench coat. The brand has come a long way since Thomas Burberry opened his flagship store in Basingstoke, now having stores all over the world and holding a position in Interbrand’s ‘Best Global Brands’ Report.

The Burberry brand is one that exerts class and elegance, and this is a quality they work hard to maintain on their social media platforms. They have adopted a consistent theme across all of their accounts – from the selected fonts, to a clear content strategy. Burberry is remarkably technology-savvy and digital media is in the forefront of how they connect with their consumers. They have been a pioneer for the incorporation of technology in the fashion industry and led the way in creating a social media experience for fashion fans, introducing live-streaming of shows, social media purchase facilities, allowing customers to order garments straight from the catwalk, and they even have their own social media site, Art of the Trench.

Burberry have fully embraced social media as a means to reach customers and fans, and over 60% of their marketing budget is now going on digital. Having admired their strategy and content from afar, I wanted to examine how they use Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to promote and market the brand.

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Strategy:

Burberry have a really strong social strategy and are one of the most digitally innovative brands of its kind. They have built a uniform theme for all of their platforms and although the content is similar across the different sites, they are fairly clued up about what content works best where and really use this to their advantage – for example, using Facebook for live streaming, posting sophisticated visuals on Instagram and encouraging the most user engagement and interaction on Twitter.

Their biggest and most successful digital campaign yet, was ‘Art of the Trench Coat’. First launched in 2009, it attracted the attention of thousands of fans of the brand, who got involved by contributing their own personal photographs of themselves wearing the trademark Burberry trench coat. These were exhibited on the Art of the Trench website.

The campaign was initially designed as a standalone social media platform, instead of being hosted on an existing platform, meaning Burberry had control over the aesthetics of the site rather than being confined to a particular format – however, users could comment on them, ‘like’, and share the photos via Facebook, Twitter and email. In the year following the launch of the campaign, Burberry’s Facebook fan base grew to over a million, which was the largest fan count in the luxury sector at the time.

Five years on, the campaign has been adopted across a number of social media platforms, particularly Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest and images can be found under the hashtags #ArtoftheTrench and #AOTT.

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Twitter:

Burberry are the most active on Twitter (@Burberry) of all platforms, posting an average of 5 times a day, and have probably made the biggest impact on there with their previous campaigns. Around the time of events such as London Fashion Week, they increase their presence for optimum coverage, and often launch a campaign that is guaranteed to set them out from the crowd on social media. The brand have worked with Twitter on a

number of initiatives in the past, including a live stream of their Spring/Summer show at London Fashion Week in 2012, and in 2014 they sold Burberry products through the ‘Buy Now’ function on Twitter. They have developed quite a following on

Twitter, having collated over three and a half million followers in the five years that they have been active on the platform.

Images shared are usually professionally shot to maintain the brand’s sophisticated identity, and they frequently use celebrity endorsement to promote their products and support the credibility of the brand by sharing images of the high profile individuals wearing their products. The most popular posts are generally photographs of new collections, which receive between 100-200 favourites and 50-100 retweets on average, however posts during London Fashion Week were exceptionally successful, and one particular photograph of CEO Christopher Bailey greeting xxxxxx

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famous guests Cara Delevingne, Naomi Campbell, Jourdan Dunn and Sam Smith received a huge 1.3k favourites and over 500 retweets.

Burberry really upped their game on Twitter over London Fashion Week this year and attracted the attention of thousands with their #Tweetcam campaign, which allowed fans to tweet @Burberry using the hashtag #Tweetcam to receive a photograph from the Burberry show, shot and sent live from the catwalk and personalised with their own Twitter handle:

Another recent campaign for their Burberry Kisses lipstick has also proven a success. It invited Twitter users to nominate a friend to receive a free Burberry Kisses lipstick and captured the attention of Burberry fans and makeup lovers alike.

I feel that Twitter is by far Burberry’s best used platform and if they continue to launch interactive campaigns in the way that they have been doing so, their fan base will no doubt grow even further.

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Facebook: Burberry have their highest following on Facebook, with a massive 18 million likes and over 84,000 visits. They generally tend to post about once a day, sharing a combination of videos and photographs of collections, events, etc; usually consisting of a more condensed selection of the Twitter content. A consistent theme for the style of posts has been maintained across all platforms, mirroring elements such as the profile/cover images used for each account and the elegant swirly font used in graphics and videos, in addition to the consistently high quality of their visual content and acoustic backing tracks on their videos.

Engagement from fans is at its highest on Facebook, with an average post receiving anything between 2,000 to 50,000 likes, though these are purely one way interactions, as there is no evidence of Burberry responding to any of their fans comments and contributions. The campaign photoshoots and images of new collections generally receive the highest response and Burberry’s most successful post over the recent months was their Lunar New Year campaign that featured Romeo Beckham, which received over 100,000 likes and 13,000 shares:

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Facebook is a good platform for Burberry to exhibit full galleries of their collections and of catwalk shows, unlike the other platforms that are best for singular images. During London Fashion Week, Burberry also made use of their Facebook page to live stream their catwalk show, which received a great response from fans who were unable to witness it in person. They have done this in previous years on both Twitter and Facebook and opted to offer the service again due to its success.

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Instagram:

I’m a big fan of Burberry on Instagram, as they post some really creative content on there, at the same time as preserving their air of sophistication and maintaining ongoing themes for the brand on social.

In the build up to London Fashion Week, they posted a series of #cinemagraphs of animated sketches from their LFW collection, catwalk makeup designs and moving images of scenes around London. I think they were a really nice touch to Burberry’s LFW promotion strategy and clearly their followers thought so too, as the average cinemagraph posted was receiving north of 35k likes:

In addition to these, they staged a collection of charming images created using figurines dressed in their trademark trench coats and

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photographed in a number of scenarios around London. I feel that images such as these are a welcome addition to their usual photographs of Burberry collections and the effort put into them is evident, giving the impression that they really care about their brand’s portrayal on social.

They make productive use of hashtags on their Instagram posts and are sure to incorporate the #Burberry hashtag into each of their posts for optimum exposure, though with 2.8m followers on Instagram I don’t think that reach is a significant issue for the brand.

A London Fashion Week community was built under the hashtag #LFW across the platform and Burberry were sure to incorporate it into their posts throughout the event for optimum exposure.

Instagram can be held accountable for a significant part of the success Burberry have seen for their Art of the Trench campaign. Thousands of posts can be discovered under #ArtoftheTrench and #AOTT, including professional Burberry contributions, as well as User Generated Content. They have not placed much focus on this recently however and I feel that it could be revived to encourage consumers to contribute more content of their own.

Most of Burberry’s posts attract a large number of comments from followers, however the majority of these are for the purpose of bringing friends’ attention to the image.

On the whole I really enjoy the Burberry content on Instagram and feel that it is very befitting with the brand. The consistency of their posts is on point and they do a great job of maintaining fans’ interest. xxxxxx

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Conclusion:

Overall I feel that Burberry may just be the most digitally innovative brand of its kind and are really successful at standing out from rival fashion brands on social, with their unique and creative campaigns.

The quality of content shared matches up to their high calibre brand image and their profiles maintain a consistent sense of sophistication across all platforms. It is evident that they have a clear vision about how they want to present the brand on social and execute it adeptly.

Their one downfall however, is that interaction with fans tends to be somewhat one sided or computer generated. This being said, they successfully encourage engagement from followers, including user generated content for their Art of the Trench Coat campaign and participation in Twitter giveaways.

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Case Study 3: How Nike Use Social Media

Nike is one of the world’s biggest brands and therefore it comes as no surprise that they have such a huge following on social media. Expectations for their social content are high with the budget they must be working with. They don’t disappoint and they have built quite a name for themselves in the social media world, having produced heaps of viral content and campaigns that really get people talking.

As a sports brand, I feel that it is important for Nike to perform well on social media, as sports is a sociable activity and sporting events create a huge social media buzz.

I’ve taken a look at how Nike make use of Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, pinpointing where they excel and how they could improve their social media activity.

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Instagram:

Nike have really strengthened their brand on Instagram and I can see how and why. From captivating, carefully shot photographs, to arty videos, Nike’s content is always really good quality and befitting with their brand image, that encourages high energy activity and adventure.

I think that good visual content goes a long way and it seems to be working for Nike as they have 14 million followers on there.

Posts generally receive between 300k – 400k likes and dozens of comments from followers, mainly of people sharing the content with their friends. They have developed a number of brand hashtags, including their trademark #justdoit, as well as #nikewomen to support their ongoing campaign to empower women in sport and others specific to products or

events, such as #airmaxday.

These hashtags are frequently adopted by other Instagram users and a huge Nike community has been formed for people to share their own Nike fitness journeys.

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Twitter:

As Nike has grown as a brand, they have branched out into a number of departments, catering for specific sports and setting up new ventures, such as their mobile fitness apps ‘Nike+ Fit Club’ and ‘Nike+ Running.’

For this reason, Nike have a multitude of Twitter accounts representing each of the different sports they have involvement in (e.g. @NikeFootball), for different regions where they have their largest market bases (@NikeNYC), an account specifically for women and also one offering support to athletes from other athletes. Their largest following is on their general brand account (@Nike) which currently has 4.78 million followers, though they have a further 3.44 million followers for their Nike.com account (@Nikestore) and an average 1 million for their other accounts.

So as not to complicate matters, my study is going to focus specifically on the activity shown on Nike’s general account (@Nike) and their Nike UK account (@NikeUK).

They don’t post as frequently as I expected on the main Nike account, updating just once every day or two, which is surprising considering their large number of followers on there and high profile of the brand.

When they do tweet, their posts are brief and tend to be sentence-long motivational statements,

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most with the hashtag of their catchphrase “JustDoIt.” Despite the simplicity of these tweets, they generally receive a couple of thousand retweets and favourites.

The majority of content on the @Nike account is made up of retweets from all of their other accounts and I feel that the purpose of the account has become a centre for Nike followers to receive the highlights from all Nike departments.

The Nike UK account shares much more of their own content, from new products, to information about Nike run sporting events; although, they too only post about once a day.

Most posts contain a photograph, which I feel makes a huge difference in being engaging to followers. They do a good job of getting followers involved by asking

questions about what their favourite Nike products are and encouraging them to send in pictures of their own Nike gear. An example of this was their recent #airmaxday campaign, where they asked users to tweet photos of their Airmax trainers.

Where Nike really excel on Twitter is their interaction with followers. They respond to nearly every mention they receive on the platform with advice and fun responses that will make the consumers feel valued. xxxxxx

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Facebook:

Nike have their largest and longest standing following on Facebook, with just under 22,000,000 followers.

Their Facebook page functions as a bit of a hub for Nike’s online activity, as their multi-purpose account not only works as a normal fan page, it also has customised tabs that link followers directly to their Instagram account and Nike Support app. In addition to this there is also a ‘Shop Now’ button that redirects users to their online store. It looks like Nike have Facebook nailed.

In terms of content, however, they do not actually post that frequently, posting just a couple of times a month.

Like on Twitter, they have multiple Nike accounts on Facebook and I found that the smaller specialised pages are more active than the key account. Running has always been one of Nike’s key focuses and their Nike Running page is one of the more popular, where they regularly post all content running-related, from the release of new running trainers, to information about running events that they host.

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The Kenyan National running team are currently involved in Nike Running’s latest campaign and feature in a high volume of their Facebook posts, including videos and quotes from members of the team.

Updates on the Nike Running page tend to receive a high level of engagement and a community of keen runners has been formed, who use the page as a forum for discussing their hobby, sharing tips and finding out about new products and events.

Like on Twitter, Nike are really good at responding to comments from followers and they make the effort to write back to nearly every person who writes on the page, whether it is in response to a purchase enquiry or just a general remark about a post.

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Conclusion:

In conclusion, I feel that overall Nike have social media sussed and although I found that their content is all a bit segregated, I understand that for such a large organisation with projects going on in lots of different areas, it makes sense to treat them as separate entities.

The value of creating separate Facebook and Twitter pages for different sports, is that communities have been formed surrounding mutual interests and content can be tailored specifically for that audience, meaning followers see exactly what they are interested in. Despite this, I feel that a bit more can be done on the general Nike pages, as they have fallen a bit quiet and are still home to the largest followings.

I am a big fan of Nike on Instagram and think this is definitely where they stand out on social media and other brands can learn a thing or two from their creative visual content.

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Case Study 4: How Rimmel Use Social Media

Rimmel London initially began as a perfumery in the 1800s, established by Eugene Rimmel. He eventually expanded to be interested in both perfume and cosmetics but died in 1887 leaving his beauty estate to his 2 sons. They went on to develop his products internationally and specialised in mascara – Rimmel actually translates as mascara in many different languages. After WWII Rimmel was taken over by Robert and Rose Caplin, from a London based advertising agency. Rimmel as a brand then blew up and became hugely successful as they transformed it into a modern day brand that was both engaging and bright.

Rimmel focus on the British element of their brand, with their famous line ‘Get the London Look’ becoming extremely well known amongst British crowds. They also have Kate Moss as a brand ambassador and model – someone the British public familiarise with. It is a classic British brand with an array of exciting products that are well advertised on both television and social media.

So what makes Rimmel stand out from all the rest? Rimmel are very active on social media with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Vine and Google+ accounts. They have tailored the perfect strategy suited to their brand and that is what I want to explore. They are a British, fun and bright brand who know their audience and create content that is both visually stimulating and entertaining at the same time.

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Twitter and Facebook:

Rimmel have over 120,000 followers on Twitter and even their bio is perfect – “Your backstage pass to Rimmel London HQ, showing you how to Get The London Look and rock the latest trends“.

Automatically their statement phrase is thrown into the mix and we know exactly what to expect when we follow them on Twitter. That is what is so good about Rimmel’s social media presence – we know exactly what we are getting and they have a purpose and intention to fulfil. They want to interact with their audience, show off their awesome products and beliefs whilst providing fun content for their audience to engage with – nothing more and nothing less.

Rimmel have over 387k likes on Facebook. They cross post on both platforms, with the only difference being the posting of links on Facebook to get traffic referred back to the main website.

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Hashtags and humour:

Rimmel understand that hashtags should be used to personalise your brand and build up your own community and discussions. They bring out a new hashtag for every promotion, campaign and competition making it easier to follow them and simple to understand. You do not have to continuously search, and all the content is under the same hashtag so you can see what other people have sent in in relation to competitions and photos.

The hashtag being used is #nailthelondonlook and all posts that appear under this hashtag are relevant to this particular promotion. What can also be noted about Rimmel’s Twitter presence here is their humour and clever play on words, e.g. ‘Nail the London look’, which incorporates ‘nail’ design into the equation, which is simple yet genius. They incorporate humorous and clever phrases quite often which makes the campaigns more fun and individual.

They even managed to connect make up to the eclipse 2015, once again with a play on words ‘Apocalips’.

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Themes:

What Rimmel London also do is focus on colour as a key theme in their social media strategy – important as their brand is all about colour. They make sure that their content is bright and colourful as well as using colour as an actual topic. For example, here they use colour psychology to engage specifically on Twitter and Facebook:

It is very clever to incorporate colour as a theme, especially when they go into depth about what each colour means. It shows they understand that make up and style are personal and reflect different moods and personalities. Their audience will read into these images and think “that sounds like me maybe I should get this colour or maybe I should try this other colour to change up my mood for this week!” It really involves people using their brains and deciding what kind of personality they want to reflect when wearing the Rimmel brand.

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Target Audience:

What Rimmel do across all their social networks is target their audience with their content. They know they have a broad demographic, as many make up brands do but they also understand that they appeal to the young adult in British society. Festivals are a huge British trend and young people are often the main demographic attending these events. Rimmel target the festival goers by providing solutions to what they should wear and how they should do their make up and once again incorporate another competition:

They often talk about large Saturday nights out on the town and Made in Chelsea, once again appealing to a younger crowd.

They celebrate national event days and always link it back to the Rimmel brand for example, Red Nose Day with red lipstick and International Woman’s Day with purple nails. They want to use social media to encourage people to be creative with make up and to incorporate it into their every day routines and lifestyles.

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Competitions:

One of the reasons Rimmel excel on social media are their competitions. What is different about their competitions are that you don’t simply click on a link, write in your details and be in with a chance to win a prize, however they often include a links to their websites for their competitions so you can find out more. They want to actively engage with their followers on Twitter, they want to understand the people who use Rimmel and they want to connect users who use Rimmel. This is such a unique quality to have on social media and really shows that Rimmel care about their audience, they want to know more about us which is great as we want to share our stories!

A recent competition asked users to send in photos of their personal accessories and Rimmel would clash or match a nail varnish to their accessory, once again they have their own hashtag #Rimmel60Seconds which people can use when uploading their images.

They encourage people to showcase their own accessories, this also lets people know that Rimmel understands make up. It is about fashion too which is what this competition is all about, making a statement and using make up to complete that statement.

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Case Study 5: How Glamour Use Social Media Glamour Magazine was first published in the USA in 1939 and has expanded to become one of the most popular women’s magazines of its time. It generally covers stories and features dealing with celebrity life, fashion, love, health and beauty.

In a time where the media have heightened our fascinations with the celebrity and have turned us into a health conscious society; magazines are really taking advantage of targeting woman to better their lifestyles and to provide their daily dose of gossip.

In these modern times, magazines like Glamour have a new platform to direct traffic towards their content – social media. Social media means they have also changed their strategy in order to adapt to a technology savvy audience (who are equipped with the latest apps on both their mobiles and iPads). Glamour has established a unique social media presence that endorses their brand in a strong way.

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Strategy:

Glamour has a presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Pinterest and Google+ with Glamour UK also having their own social media pages. It is now easier than ever to access Glamour on the go without having to actually purchase the magazine – Glamour was the first women’s magazine with an iPad edition. Last year, Glamour also launched Lipstick.com, a beauty site and its first ever digital spin off. However, as we can see from the statistics, they still have a 12.2 million print audience with a circulation of over 2.3 million. Glamour also has major competition on the social media front with other magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Elle and even gossip magazines such as Heat running against the brand.

In an interview with TabithaWebb, Joe Elvin, the editor of Glamour magazine UK gave her opinion on social media:

“Social media and online are of course incredibly powerful and important but the life of the printed magazine is still very much alive and well. As with many industries, all these things work in tandem.”

In 2011, Glamour used SocialSnapTag. According to Folio, this generated over 500,000 impressions and increased their Facebook fans by 50,000. Already they were taking advantage of a new mobile audience and providing social interaction through this platform. Now their social media presence is staggering, including their site lipstick.com which also has its own social media pages.

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Facebook:

Glamour’s Facebook page alone has 4.35 million followers which is more than a 1/3rd of its print audience. Every single Facebook post is linked to a picture – one of Glamour’s recognised strategies. On Facebook it is easy to scroll past information because there is so much of it but by using imagery it makes the brand stand out and gives followers a reason to click. Each post links to the Glamour website so they are automatically driving traffic with their short post titles which are to the point, leading our focus to the article being displayed:

The post above is short and snappy – it has an eye catching image too. This is also a great post for during the day when woman are at work or at home with the kids, as it pulls on the heartstrings.

What makes Glamour unique is they keep up with current conversations and topics and put their own spin on it. For example, in the recent #thedress debate over whether a dress was blue and black or white and gold, Glamour got involved, by producing a post with the science behind the whole theory.

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Instagram:

Glamour has 643,000 followers on Instagram where their focus is fashion and the celebrity. They produce images of great quality that are extremely captivating and pleasing to the eye. They are full of colour and are everything you could want from an Instagram account.

There are many photos of behind the scenes moments at fashion shows, that the public would not necessarily get to experience themselves, so Glamour provides an opportunity for followers to become involved with events and the celebrities that attend.

The captions are both informative and fun letting us know their opinion as well as the basic facts. Going behind the scenes and showing real photos of real moments really humanises Glamour and shows their unique approach to their version of the celebrity and celebrity culture in general.

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Twitter:

Glamour has 965 000 followers on Twitter. Unlike on Facebook, they don’t put an image with each post that is created. However, they do use a number of varied techniques to really engage their audience.

With Twitter being one of the most informal and playful social platforms, Glamour really take advantage of this. They use intriguing wording, GIFs, capitalise their words for dramatic effect and even use emojis. This makes posts unmissable and really makes the content fun to read.

Glamour often use questions as titles so people want to know the answer, they also post coming soon and behind the scenes regularly to keep followers updated.

Additionally, Glamour understand how to relate to their audience by using humour and making content playful in general.

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Pinterest:

Glamour have 148,606 followers on Pinterest, 70 boards and 8,004 pins. The great thing about Pinterest for Glamour as a brand, is it showcases what they are about, who they are and what they stand for as well as the image they are trying to represent. They also know what their audience wants and that’s why their page is so popular, as it appeals to the interests of the consumers who are attracted to the content. Ultimately, Glamour’s Pinterest page celebrates the woman who follow the brand and their interests.

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YouTube:

One of my favourite platforms that Glamour uses is YouTube. Glamour joined the video phenomenon in 2007 and have over 197,000 subscribers and 46 million views! They even have their own website dedicated to their videos that they have created.

One of their most recent videos is their ‘Confessions from Fifty Shades’ Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson’, which got over 2.7 million views in just one month! They create personal videos true to their brand that you won’t find anywhere else. The ‘Glamour series’ of videos have specific titles including ‘Glamourscopes’ and ‘The single life’ that their audience can relate to. They also have step by step guides to beauty and funny videos that are entertaining.

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Google+:

Glamour has 3.5 million followers and over 38 million views on their Google+ page. They cross post on their social networks but make each post different by changing the titles and descriptions.

Glamour encourage discussion through their titles and are very to the point with their descriptions. This is good for Google+ as users want to share and comment and means that this has become Glamour’s second most popular social media platform!

Vine:

Glamour have over 33,000 followers on Vine. Their Vine account is funny, current and everything you would want from behind the scenes at celebrity parties and events. They use hashtags appropriately and create vines that they know the public will react well to. They also regularly revine posts which encourages interaction and shows they are interested in other people’s posts and videos.

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Conclusion:

Overall, Glamour magazine are successful on social media because they know exactly who their audience are. Not only is their content engaging, the way they put out their content is also strategic. The punchy titles, the comedic descriptions and the casual and relatable wording really make Glamour stand out when it comes to magazine brands on social.

They cover most social platforms so they can target different types of users – people who want to browse images, people who prefer video and people who love to read articles on Twitter and Facebook. Brands and businesses should learn from Glamour as they are a brand that are dedicated to their audience, their relationship with their followers is unique, it takes great commitment and shows a mutual understanding.

Finally, we also must note that just because there is a focus on social media, this doesn’t take away from the print audience. Both work in relation to each other and this shows the true power of Glamour’s presence as a brand in general. Of course they have competition but because they are unique, no one else can emulate what Glamour stands for and that is their message to empower woman, understanding their audience and their individual identity.

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About Link Humans

Link Humans is a social and digital marketing agency based in London.

We help clients with:

• Creating a digital marketing strategy - We help you to build a positive brand image, through thoughtful brand messaging, online reputation management and performance measurement.

• Content creation - We produce and curate meaningful and engaging content that will represent your brand in the best possible light; from articles, to graphic design and video production.

• Social media management - We will manage your social media accounts to build and maintain a valuable online presence, encourage engagement from your target audience and grow brand awareness.

You can find out more about what we do here.

Connect with us

Tel: 020 8371 6920

Email: info@linkhumans.com

Web : www.linkhumans.com

Tweet us: @LinkHumans

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