Let’s Get Social: Indie Beauty Brand Founders Share Their Go-To Digital Platforms

In this edition of Beauty Independent’s ongoing series posing questions to beauty entrepreneurs, we ask 10 founders and executives: What social media platforms do you use?

Jill King Co-Founder, Campo Beauty

Social media plays a major role in our marketing strategy. Instagram and Facebook are where we spend the majority of our time engaging with our customers. We also have a third-party affiliate program with RewardStyle.

In deciding which platforms were right for Campo, we first built a very specific profile of who our customer is down to where she vacations, what stresses her out and what motivates her. Then, we answered the question why she needs Campo and how we can add value to her life. We then took a look at all the social media platforms out there and analyzed demographics, targeted audience engagement and trends for beauty and wellness. Ultimately, Instagram and Facebook were the best fits for us.

Not only are Instagram and Facebook great for engaging directly with customers in real time, but they are powerful sales channels. Facebook’s shop features and Instagram’s product-tagging feature have created tremendous opportunity for brands to garner sales from these influential platforms.

Mariska Nicholson Founder, Olive + M

We focus our efforts on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest. Instagram visually communicates the aesthetic of the brand through curated intentional visuals and messaging while reaching our target demographic daily on their favorite social platform. We also feel it is the best platform to connect and collaborate with influencers and other complementary brands.

Facebook has the ability to increase exposure to the extended network of our followers through re-shares and organic engagement, and to hyper target our intended audience and show them content that they want to see when they want to see it through advertising.

And Pinterest has the ability to organically reach our target audience via a specific search and provide more in-depth informational and trendy content than other social platforms provide. We can also drive traffic directly to our blog and introduce new people to our brand.

Sandy Marion Owner and Founder, I AM Organic

We utilize Instagram, Facebook and Twitter for our business. They all serve different purposes. Instagram is really wonderful for sharing beautiful photos of our products that our consumers have taken. Facebook is great for posting blogs and articles with our followers. And Twitter gets a small amount of information out in a quick, convenient way. No matter which social media we are using, we are connecting and engaging in conversations with the consumer, and that's the most important part.

Lucy Cloonan Founder, James St Organics

We absolutely love Instagram. It’s so easy to use and so much better than Facebook. Nearly all of our customers come from Instagram, so it’s been fantastic for us. I think it’s really important to give people as much content as possible so they can really learn about your brand and feel they can trust you. We are very happy to be using Instagram and have no plans to change this.

Julia Teren Founder, Thesis Beauty

Some platforms we use heavily and others just occasionally. The focus is mainly on Instagram and Facebook followed by Twitter and Pinterest. The first two allow us to reach both age groups that we are targeting. Plus, Instagram is somewhat of a must-have these days. Also, some people, even having accounts on multiple platforms, would usually frequent one of them more than the other. So, it made sense to diversify.

Michelle Ranavat Founder, Ranavat Botanics

Right now, we use Instagram and Facebook primarily. These platforms are constantly changing. and we’ve had to adapt to maximize our organic reach. We’re now focusing on adding more video and creating content that is easily digestible in Stories.

Gone are the days of blog posts that just live on your site. While we are more dedicated than ever to our Journal, we’re also taking that content and adding it to our stories and feed to maximize its reach. We also just launched Claim Your Crown which I call the soul of Ranavat, which is a platform for empowerment, and we will be creating lots of fun content through this channel that lives on both Instagram and Facebook. I think having these platforms are a great way to showcase the DNA of the brand and have a broader conversation with the community, and social is how we tell our story.

Mehrbano Sethi Founder, Luscious Cosmetics

Our social media strategy focuses heavily on Facebook and Instagram. As an indie brand, we have to choose the channels that work best for us to focus our resources and amplify those instead of spreading ourselves too thin. We have a growing affiliate program, and an influencer relations team that identifies and sends out products to those influencers who we feel are a good fit for our brand.

Rosalina Tan Founder, Pili Ani

We are very active on Instagram and Facebook. We believe these two platforms are very effective in reaching our market, especially for a new product that needs a lot of introduction and explanation on its benefits.

Sara Elizabeth Founder, Sara Elizabeth Skincare  

The visual element of Instagram helps me connect with people and further my mission to provide naturally healthy skin. Photos can magically transport my followers to experience the ingredients by sight, but also stimulate other senses like smell.

Rachel ten Brink CMO and Co-Founder, Scentbird and Deck of Scarlet

For both Scentbird and Deck of Scarlet, we’re on most social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. It’s very important for a digital brand to be able to connect with our community beyond just a website. It’s not only a space to find like-minded individuals, but also a place to make connections with our consumer base and showcase our brand in a more personal light.

Social media provides a platform to have meaningful one-on-one conversations with our customers, which is incredibly important. In addition to our own social media channels, we place a strong emphasis on influencers. We consider vloggers a key part of our community both for Scentbird and Deck of Scarlet. They are amazing storytellers that can relay our core messaging visually, written or on video in a very clear and compelling way.

To maximize our work with bloggers, our head of acquisition Oleg Popov leverages YouTube content to create paid social media ads that are a major part of our acquisition strategies. He explains that we use different content concepts, which we constantly test to find the best one for each social network. We also use different types of video content for Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat because these three social networks are very different, and you have to adopt video content for each one of them.

If you have a question you’d like Beauty Independent to ask beauty entrepreneurs, please send it to editor@beautyindependent.com.