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How "LUSH cosmetics USA" can enhance customer engagement?

In the first part of monitoring, you were introduced "LUSH cosmetics USA" social media and their customer engagement via groundswell. Two weeks past, a lot things have changed for "LUSH cosmetics USA" and there are some new things I found.  In this post, I will continue to monitor some changes of  "LUSH cosmetics USA" and considering the problems I find in my post, I will also figure out some steps that "LUSH cosmetics USA" can generate more buzz in the groundswell and enhance customer engagement.

• New campaign: Make Fur History

Cruelty-free cosmetics brand LUSH is joining with the Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals and Montreal SPCA in hopes to #MakeFurHistory. People can join the fight against the fur trade by taking the pledge online or spreading the hash tag, #MakeFurHistory, with a picture of your favorite fur-bearing animal via your Twitter and Facebook accounts.

We see that many people support LUSH #MakeFurHistory campaign on Facebook.A major tenant of the LUSH is not to test its products on animals; these vegan and vegetarian products attract consumers fighting for animal rights.  LUSH also makes the majority of its products with fair-trade ingredients, which grabs the consumer who is concerned with social justice. LUSH’s target markets are women 18-45 who are middle to upper class and desire fresh organic beauty.

• Consistent increase of fans and followers

  

  Twitter increase fans and followers

  

  Oct.29th

  

  Nov.3rd

The increase in fans and views on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Google+ continued in last two weeks(data gathered from Starcount). The daily increase of fans can be 600-700 on Facebook, and the most fan increase in on Instagram, about 2000 a day. During the two weeks, followers increased more than four thousand on twitter only.

From the data I gathered from Tweetstats, LUSH cosmetics has about 124 tweets per day and 1610 tweets per month. On Thursday it has the most tweets-568 tweets. About the hourly tweets, around 4 pm it has the most tweets in a day-435 tweets. What's more, the graph shows through Sept 14th to Oct 14th, the tweet number grew from 961 to 2259 in one month. 

You maybe wonder why tweets increased that much on October and reach to the peak on Oct 14th.

• #LUSHoween - LUSH Halloween 

Lush Cosmetics love any excuse for a lim-ed product launch. Whether it’s Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Easter or a campaign special, Lush have our backs with season tailored goodies. Halloween is no different. This year, Lush launched their Christmas and Halloween ranges at the same time , new product for Halloween is October 1st online, and 3rd in stores, and new products for Christmas is in the mid-October. That's can explain the peak in the graph of interest over time at the beginning of October, and the peak in the graph of daily blogs citation trend in the mid-October (data gathered from Google Trends and Ice Rocket).
As a result of  Make Fur History Campaign, we can see there is a peak at the beginning of November in the first graph and As a result of Make Fur History Campaign, we can see there is a peak at the beginning of November in the first graph and the line rose up in the second graph.

• Feedback and problems

- Different types of criticisms on Facebook and Twitter

It wasn't easy to find negative comments on its Facebook pages, as positive comments seem to be more frequent than complaints; however, I categorized different types of criticisms:

A. The staff is overbearing. By trying to be too friendly and helpful, some staff members come off as pushy. Or the opposite, staff is snooty and the customer feels ignored.

B. Products weren't as fresh as they should be, or the customer was expecting something different from a certain product.

C. Discontinued products: comments asking for discontinued products to be brought back (this is not exactly a complaint, but we have seen a lot of these)

D. After ordering online, customers complain that the products arrived late or damaged. (They sometimes post pictures as well.)

On the positive side, happy customers leave comments as well: to thank the brand and express how much they love it, praise the staff members for their help, post pictures of their makeup, nails, in-store experience, etc.

- On LUSH cosmetics forum   

                         

As a communication platform for customers and LUSH cosmetics USA, I found sometimes there standard answer in it. Customers deserve to feel special, so I don't think they should use standard answers. If they response this angry customer in one short sentence, I don’t think this customer will be satisfied with their solution. Also they failed to give timely response to their customers sometimes.

- Problems on Facebook

- During the two weeks, I have noticed that LUSH cosmetics on Facebook didn't respond to their customers’ questions. As an example above, five days past, LUSH hasn't given a timely response. But on Twitters, I can see an active communication between customers and LUSH. I think maybe LUSH cosmetics should pay more attention on timely response on Facebook.

- To grow a Facebook community, brands promote what they stand for, knowing that the fans share the same values. LUSH cosmetics did really good at that aspect, they held campaign for protect animals rights, but here are some followers hold opposite opinion with LUSH on Facebook.

For example, in LUSH #MakeFurHistory campaign, many customers support LUSH’s value about people shouldn't use fur and what LUSH post on in their Facebook, but there are some customers don’t agree on that, so they have argument on Facebook. Also I can’t see there is any response from LUSH to deal with these replies. I think this can make LUSH loose their followers.

• Few steps to enhance customer engagement

- Assess customers’ social activities. Listen to your customers, and talk with them.  If customers are happy about the in-store experience, they will tell you on Facebook, and it’s important to show them that you’re thankful. If they are unhappy, they will also tell you. The company has to show that they care, and try to fix it somehow.

- Decide what you want to accomplish. Company should support their customers, and  energize their best customers to evangelize others. Then try to collaborate with them to figure out your objectives of each activities or campaign.

- Plan for how relationships with customers will change. LUSH should involve right people in their campaign and measure the effectiveness of their campaign.LUSH seem to have an international community of loyal fans. It becomes easier to do customer service on social media  when fans are ready to step up and defend the brand at any time, as well as answer other fans’ questions.

- Pay attention to what your fans/customers are complaining about: staff, products, orders, etc. and try to fix any problem they may have as soon as possible. 

It's time for companies transform with groundswell!

The future of business has veered in a direction that explores customer and employee centricity, driven in part by technology, combined with the centralization of digitized human expressions and expectations. Executives need to see how social fits in to the overall vision and goals of the organization in order to lead a top down charge that changes how employees and customers connect and collaborate. There must be a purpose coupled with tangible results.

Companies had to take a mental step back from their usual approach and allow the customer to become the center of their organizations. Sound easy? It isn't. In the Chapter 10 of Groundswell – How connecting with the Groundswell transforms your company. There are three essential points of this transformation.

• Take this mental shift step by step – Things won’t happen over night. Your organization needs to understand that this will take time.
• Each step naturally leads to the next important step – You will need to create a plan and a vision about where you want to take your organization.

• Gain Executive support – Create a plan on how you will sell your Groundswell approach to management  They need to buy in and support you through all of the essential steps.

             

Burberry may have been established over 150 years ago, but there’s no doubt that their use of social media has been exciting to watch in recent times. One of the most prestigious fashion brands in the world, Burberry has climbed completely on board with social media and embraced groundswell blurring the boundary between its online environment and physical stores. I think Burberry is a really good example of how to incorporate the three elements of groundswell into their transformation.

- They take small steps that have big impact.

Burberry’s ‘Art of Trench’ campaign is an ambitious project that allows people to upload images of themselves wearing one of the brand’s trench coats. With the Art of the Trench campaign, Burberry was one of the first brands to truly embrace the full potential of user-generated content as a powerful marketing tool. Within the first six months after the November 2009 launch, there were seven million views, and the site is still going strong today.

That’s a great testament to the power of transforming your fans into a loyal community of supporters who are eager to speak and create on behalf of your brand. Think about how you can cultivate your own brand advocates.

- They have a vision and a plan.

In this video, Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts explains she has taken action to explain how Social Media will transform her business. And we can the future outlook of where she wants to take with the company with groundswell. What Ahrendts and her team have accomplished made Apple sit up and take notice, and can serve as a social media case study for any company looking to engage an audience online. They have the vision of what kind of conversation they want have with their customers. 

- They built leaders into the plan.

Under the leadership of ex-Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts, the 157-year-old brand has walked the runway straight to digital stardom, ranking number one in 2011 and 2012 in Luxury Lab’s Digital IQ Index for Fashion, which evaluates the digital competence of 64 brands based on their site, digital marketing, social media and mobile initiatives.

Let create brilliant digital campaigns and experiences for consumers as the beginning for Burberry. In order to continue and build on their success, Bailey – now the boss of Burberry, continuing focus on digital. 

Digital kisses is Burberry's new online buzz after new CEO on the position, by transforming the lip print left on their phone screen into a digital kiss signature. The sealed digital letters can then be sent via e-mail, Google+, Facebook and Twitter to loved ones.Going through transformation with groundswell has helped them to become one of the most popular and admired brands in the world.

Monitoring "LUSH cosmetics USA" Social Media

Lush Cosmetics is a company that produces natural, handmade, cosmetics that focuses on using fresh, organic, and vegetarian ingredients while also using little or no preservatives or packaging.

Over the course of the past two months I've been using a few different Lush products including a cleaner, a toner, and fresh mask and I've noticed dramatic improvements in the clarity of my skin so I plan to begin a series of Lush-related posts  monitoring "LUSH cosmetics USA".

LUSH’s products are lovingly made by hand. They invent all their products with a personalized touch, while creating local jobs and using resources from their backyard. Rather than rely on mass-produced, machine-made formulations and warehousing excess stock, LUSH makes products as needed to ensure that everything delivered to their local shops and customers is as fresh as possible. Here is how it's made by HAND!

Lush is ruling various social media platforms

LUSH Fresh Handmade Cosmetics relies almost exclusively on word-of-mouth advertising via social media to promote their products and social awareness campaigns–they do not partake in any traditional media advertising (magazine, newspaper, TV, or radio ads). They rely on like-minded consumers who share the same principals and social values as the company to promote their products and campaigns through personal blogs (reviews, promotions, and giveaways), personal (reviews, hauls, demos) and proprietary (demos/tutorials, campaign specific awareness) YouTube videos, Facebook (main company pages, plus individual store pages), Twitter (main company feeds, plus individual department, and employee feeds), and the company-run forums.

Examples of how the use of social media has encouraged customer 

• Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics Company has a campaign supporting charities concerned with human rights, animal welfare and environmental protection. And now, one of those charities is Save Shaker Aamer. In 2013, Charity Pot donated over £2.5 million to organizations around the world. The funding generated by Charity Pot sales is essential for the survival of independent groups. This can encourage customers to buy their products, in order to support organizations for human rights, animal welfare and environment.

• Halloween is coming, Lush is holding a campaign called " Green Halloween". Lush encouraged customers have a Green Halloween party. They said:"Reducing the amount of waste we generate by cutting down on excessive shopping is not only better for our planet (and easier on our wallets) but reducing the number of products we purchase also teaches our children the art of simplicity as well the value of moderation." They let their social media campaign related with recent festival, it's also a way to promote their sales.
  

Social mention analysis

 

The information I gathered from Social Mention showed an increase in the strength of discussion surrounding Lush from 1% to 51% from week to week.  The passion of discussion increased gradually from 29% to 41% over the weeks. However, there was fluctuation in the sentiment around conversations from week one to last. Most of the mentions are either positive or neutral and there isn’t a noticeable negativity around conversations. Another important thing to note is that there is an increase in the average per mention, and the number of unique authors reduced on second week and then rose up again to 97.

Lush topics trend on Google Trend

We can see from the line chart that the overall trend of interest of Lush through Sep 29th to Oct 13th went up, though there are fluctuations during this growing time. What we should pay attention is about the part of regional interest, because of this brand is a British brand, so the number of U.K. is 100. But the number of USA, compared to other regions is really low, only 34. It's at the bottom of the chart. Lush should improve level of recognition of the brand in America.

Daily blogs citation trend by IceRocket

I gathered the blog citation data from Sep 21st to Oct 19th, the rise trend of the line chart, we can see some days the number of blog citation can be zero. There have been big swells during last 30 days. And I think this may be related to Lush social media activity level.

Data of unique visitors from Compete

A Unique Visitor can be defined as a person who visits a site at least once within the month being researched. As we can see from the chart, in the rise level of the unique visitors through the past one year time, the peak of the  line chart showed in the end of 2013. And in Aug 2014 the total unique visitors number is more than 90,000.

A consistent and effective brand personality on social media platforms is important for companies of any size. Overall, Lush posts a range of different media to keep their audience engaged and add a personal touch to their tweets/posts. This leads to more interaction between the brand and their audience and oodles of user generated content.

During the next few weeks, I will continue to monitor and see what will happen with social media of Lush cosmetics USA, especially see if Lush can have any improvement of its social media.

  

The Wrong Play at the Wrong Time

McDonald's has enlisted professional skeptic and former "MythBusters" co-host Grant Imahara for its latest attempt to counter what it says are some of the persistent myths about the quality of its food. The launched it’s new "Our Food. Your Questions" series began on Oct 13^th with TV spots showing real people's questions and an invitation to consumers to pose questions via social media, such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.  Imahara is featured in a series of webisode videos addressing consumers' persistent doubts and questions.

McDonald's is hoping their campaign will dispel the unappetising rumors about "pinkslime", worm meat and other burger fillers that have long haunted the chain. The company is also inviting the public to send questions via Twitter and Facebook about what actually goes into their food. Among the many stubborn rumors circulating on social media for years include claims about burgers that never rot. Another question on its US homepage asks: "Does McDonald's beef contain worms?" to which the answer is simply "No. Gross! End of story." A video posted as part of the campaign showed Grant Imahara, a former host of the TV show Mythbusters, touring a Cargill beef plant where McDonald's burgers are made. However, it could be the wrong play at the wrong time.

Social media is not the right answer

Ben Stringfellow, a spokesman for McDonald said, “People are looking for faster, more straightforward responses to their questions about our food.” Actually they’re not. That’s what late-20th century research techniques and the ad agency told you. 

What they’re looking for is quality food (quality, which by the way, it turns out they’re willing to pay for at fast-casual restaurants), served in a reasonable timeframe. That’s not exactly the secret of the decade. But with consumer decision-making more emotional than rational, Q&A, no matter how many social media platforms are used, isn’t the answer to this problem. A new wrap, a “natural” frappe, or a social media app won’t fix what needs fixing. It’s the brand. And it needs reinvention.

That and what the brand stands for à la emotional engagement. Where emotional engagement with a brand is high , consumers are six times more likely to trust you. When they do, they don’t ask questions like “Are your ingredients pure?” or “Is it actually meat?” They walk into your restaurants already believing all that! 

The right answer for McDonald

When your hamburgers are rated as the "worst in America," it's not time to show customers educational videos about meat processing -- it's time to make and market better quality hamburgers. 

McDonald's has the right idea with its "build-your-burger" test program in several locations, which lets customers order custom burgers via a touch screen menu. It makes McDonald's burgers look fresher and more "bistro-like," as opposed to pre-made burgers which are left under the heat lamp.

As for its value menu, McDonald's needs to offer more creative menu options, on par with Taco Bell's Doritos Locos Tacos or Burger King's French Fry burgers, to get customers talking about the chain (in a positive way) again.

McDonald's Q&A social media campaign is an interesting approach to improving its public image, but it simply shines the spotlight on the fast food giant's previous problems. If the company wants to turn itself around, it needs to give customers better quality hamburgers and more exciting menu options -- not simply remind them that they're not made from pink slime.

Making friend with crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing - The power of social media marketing

Crowdsourcing has become one of the most effective ways of strengthening the connection between customers and businesses/brands. Your customers and prospects have tons of valuable ideas that can help your brand for the future, and social media is the perfect platform to tap your customers and prospects for insights on everything – from products concepts, campaigns, advertising and so on.

In the chapter 9 of Groundswell, there is a simple explanation of crowdsourcing - asking the groundswell to provide you with ideas. Here are ways you can  through the platform of social media crowdsourcing your products.

Asking your customers for ideas

Lego has created a website, “Lego ideas” which is mainly for their fans who want to contribute product ideas. This is how it works – users need to submit their idea, and they have a limit of 365 days wherein they need to collect 10,000 votes from people. Once your product has garnered the essential amount of votes, it goes to the next step where the official Lego review board decides, if they want to replicate the product idea or not. Their users even share the idea’s they have created on social media , so to increase more awareness and so they can pledge for more votes.

The Lego for Sherlock was created by a certain fan it got the 10,000 votes but was not approved by the board. Similarly they have a lot of ideas in pipeline from where they decide. This website is a brilliant way for Lego to find many such innovative ideas from its own customers, and great way to get a firsthand look at their customer’s preferences.

Make humility and creativity coexist in all kinds of business

As mentioned in the Groundswell, this is a way to avoid wasting of talent. Companies need to listen to and act customers suggestions. That's what accelerates innovation - starting a conversation with your customers and using your skill to understand and exploit their knowledge.

Lay’s has been hosting contests to engage the public by creating new chip flavor ideas. And the Lay’s “Do Us a Flavor” contest is one of the most successful new product crowdsourcing campaigns. Participants can access the contest through Facebook or their contest landing page. Lay’s makes it easy to enter. Participants simply choose a name, give three ingredients and then tweet about their entry. An update is automatically posted to participants’ Facebook timelines, which spreads the reach of the contest and potentially gains more crowd input.

Lay's did more than just asked for feedback and new flavor, they show their customers on Facebook that they are ready to act and improve their products. So work on both fronts in your company - master up the humility to listen and tap into the skill to take what you've heard and make improvements. You’ll discover how crowdsourcing your products through contests on social media will help you deepen customer involvement and increase loyalty.

Have you ever heard about Social Media Week?

Social Media Week is a week long conference that provides the ideas, trends, insights and inspiration to help people and businesses understand how to achieve more in a hyper-connected world. The event features a central stage for keynotes and panels, multiple rooms for workshops, masterclasses and presentations, and an area dedicated to co-working, networking and interactive installations.

Social Media Week provides engaging, entertaining, educational, diverse content and experiences that helps us to think differently about human connectivity and our shifting relationship to technology. By showcasing provocative speakers, innovators and thought leaders, we examine how the ways we live, work and create can lead to meaningful change and a more productive life.           

September 22nd 2014 sees another Social Media Week kick off around the world both on and offline. With events taking place in 12 major cities worldwide the week brings together some of the most innovative and brightest minds in digital marketing.The London event, a yearly get together of brands and agencies discussing how to best “do social”, came to an end last Friday.       
Here are a few lessons we can learn from this year’s sessions.
- The ever increasing popularity of video: 
VP of Community and Customer Experience at HootSuite, Jeanette Gibson, predicted earlier this year, ‘because short, shared, online video is so popular amongst younger generations, many brands are also embracing it as a powerful marketing tool’. Most millennials grew up with online video and they have certainly started a major trend in video sharing on social media. The growth of Vine and the recent introduction of Instagram’s Hyperlapse show just how important video is to major communication platforms. 

- Never neglect your community: 

Chicco says: “The SMW event happens once per year, per city but you need to keep your community active and interested in what you’re doing throughout the year. Otherwise, it’s very difficult, in a very short period of time, to remind people why you are relevant and move them to action.”SMW London achieves this through a range of digital and social media competitions and activity throughout the year. For example, the #SMWCreative contest sponsored by Microsoft encouraged the community to create an original short video using Nokia Lumia 930 smartphones. In itself, this is a great example of content marketing.

                                     

- Shareable Content:

Reaching people on a personal level is the key to success in social media, according to Andy Wiedland, Buzzfeed’s chief revenue officer. In a session titled Creating Content for How It’s Consumed, Wiedland emphasized the importance of generating content that users want to share. Instead of focusing on content that will reach the masses, he recommends going local with content. One of Buzzfeed’s most popular posts at the moment centered on issues specific to short girls. This small group is more likely to relate to the post so much that they’ll share it with others, Wiedland said.

-The impact of Gen Z: 

Is the email dead? Daily social media habits are changing and considering Facebook is the new email for ‘screenagers’  the big question is just how much longer the good old email will be in use for. Granted, it’s a vital cog of most businesses but even now some businesses have turned to services like Huddle to engage and communicate. The huge growth in Gen Z, or #GenMobile, means the way we communicate in tomorrow’s society will look quite a bit different.

Social Media Week itself aims to capture, curate and share the most meaningful ideas, best practices and trends with regards to social media. However I also see Social Media Week as the perfect example of how digital has connected us. Whether it’s as customers, brands, partners or stakeholders, Social Media Week 2014 has connected, enhanced and encouraged collaboration in this increasingly globalised society.