01Socialbakers a.s. has no affiliation whatsoever with the presented brand and is only processing and analyzing publicly available data from social media platforms concerning the brand. This document is based on publicly available data only.

02

LUSH is a British cosmetics company specialized in beauty and natural hair products. Since its foundation in 1995, they have opened over 820 stores and are present in 50 countries worldwide. They have taken that success to social media as well by establishing a strong presence on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Their messaging frequently raises awareness about environmental issues with eye-catching product photographs and behind-the-scenes videos uncovering the secrets of their cosmetics production. LUSH is also leading the way with social customer care. The company puts their audiences at the heart of their strategy by providing excellent customer care on Facebook. To strengthen their image as a customer-friendly and honest company, they leverage user-generated content and demonstrate how their cosmetics are manufactured, which helps them to continuously grow their audience. We analyzed LUSH’s performance across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram from June to December 2016 to uncover best practices any company can learn from.

Introduction

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Create seasonal and behind-the-scenes content to generate product demand

Provide exceptional social customer care to strengthen relationships with your audience

Produce brand-specific hashtags to stand out from the competition and raise brand awareness

Align with your audience’s tone of voice to generate a high volume of interactions

Leverage user-generated content and appoint brand advocates to produce more authentic content

Facebook Twitter Instagram

Key Takeaways

04

Generate Product Demand with Different Types of Facebook Content

From June to December 2016, LUSH grew its 1.1 million Facebook community by more than 74,000 new Fans.

Over this time period, they generated nearly 430,000 interactions with their highly engaging content. To put

these numbers into perspective, LUSH accumulated over 50,000 more interactions than MAC Cosmetics, one

of the biggest beauty companies on Facebook with an audience size of 17 million! This goes to show that

LUSH’s content strategy is extremely effective and that a large audience doesn’t guarantee a high volume

of interactions.

Using Socialbakers Analytics, we found that LUSH published 30 posts every month of the analyzed

period, each varied in content type and theme. Most frequently, LUSH posted creative photos of their

cosmetics, employees or events which they hosted or participated in. The company also incorporated

photographs to support their holiday marketing with showcasing their upcoming seasonal products.

With this approach they evoke customers’ curiosity, which successfully generates product demand before

the cosmetics are even on sale. This is a great way to build up anticipation during the holiday season.

Offering your audience a preview of your future products can make your fans feel a part of exclusive community, which is a clever way to strengthen relationships with your customers and raise brand awareness. TIP!

Photos

Videos

Links

Statuses

Count

102

59

45

3

48.80%

28.23%

21.53%

1.44%

Share

LUSH - Distribution of Page Post Types June 1 - December 31, 2016

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Between June and December 2016, LUSH posted 45 videos. As much as 29% of them offered

a behind-the-scenes look at the product manufacturing process, which proves how important it is

for the company to educate their Facebook audience about LUSH cosmetics. Their audiences clearly

love videos from LUSH’s factories, as they are among the company’s most engaging Facebook content

- 2 out of 6 of their top-performing posts were behind-the-scenes videos. The post below featured

the production of LUSH’s face mask, and was their most engaging video which garnered over 11,000

interactions and more than 380,000 views.

Despite that this particular video received the most interactions for this time period, statuses were their

most engaging post type. LUSH statuses received nearly 4 Interactions per 1,000 Fans1, which is 14% more

than their videos, and 52% more than photos. LUSH’s behind-the-scenes posts support their transparency

approach that consists of the company being open about the origin and type of ingredients they use.

This helps LUSH to promote their environmentally-friendly products to audiences that are increasingly

concerned about environmental issues.

Social media marketers tend to believe that photos and videos generate a higher number of interactions over other content types. In the case of LUSH, we can see that their most engaging post types were not visuals. Using an advanced analytics solution can help you discover which content types work best with your audience so that you can allocate your resources to producing highly effective posts. TIP!

1 Interactions per 1000 Fans: the sum of interactions divided by the number of fans a Page has at the time and date of the post and multiplied by 1000. This is a better metric for benchmarking engagement against pages of different sizes, as the formula takes into account the size of the Page.

5

4

3

2

1

0Status Video Photo Link Albums Others

STATUS

3,95 Avg Interactions per 1000 Fans

LUSH - Most Engaging Post Types June 1 - December 31, 2016

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Put Your Customers at the Heart of Your Facebook Strategy

We’ve been measuring social customer care for more than 4 years to understand how businesses

are strengthening their customer relationships on Facebook and Twitter2. Companies are expected

to meet the demand of their audiences questions on social media, as people increasingly reach out

to their profiles for customer support. Think of it this way - every response to a question or positive

comment is another chance to improve your customer retention and brand affinity.

We conducted a customer care analysis for Q3 2016 covering more than 550 Beauty companies

from North America. We found that they addressed only 53% of questions with an average response

time of 35 hours and 14 minutes. LUSH surpassed these numbers by far during June to December

2016. The company responded to 84% of 916 inquiries posted on their page in an average time

of 6 hours and 15 minutes. This is 6x better than the average response time of Beauty companies in

North America.

LUSH not only replies to numerous questions in a timely manner, but they also answer extensively.

For every single inquiry, the company gives an exhaustive response, frequently written in an informal

language spoken by their audience and involving links to their e-shop. This helps LUSH to humanize

their company and encourage their Facebook community to buy LUSH cosmetics.

2 Our Socially Devoted metric measures average Question Response Time and Question Response Rate.

84%Responded 771

Unresponded 145

LUSH - Question Response Rate June 1 - December 31, 2016

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Leading with Organic Facebook Content

In a September 2016 interview with Warc3, LUSH revealed that they don’t promote their Facebook

posts, but rely solely on organic reach. This is a reflection of a broader trend among beauty

companies in North America, who allow 90% of their content perform organically. Although LUSH

doesn’t have a paid promotion strategy, it still manages to generate a high number of interactions.

Three of their most engaging posts garnered an average of 17,900 interactions.

To put that into perspective, three of the most engaging organic posts from the 4th largest

Facebook Beauty Page - Avon - generated an average of 2,900 interactions. This proves just

how effective LUSH’s content is. If in the future the company decides to change their strategy by

allocating budget to their posts, they might achieve some of the highest reach and engagement

rates in the industry.

WednesdaySEP 14, 2016 03:27 UTC +02:00

Organic21 907 InteractionsClick to see Post Detail

Lush Cosmetics North America/ lushcosmetics

LUSH - Distribution of Posts in Time

Lush Cosmetics North America

3 www.warc.com

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Get Creative with Brand-specific Twitter Hashtags

Although the North American Beauty profiles experienced a significant decline across all the metrics

on Twitter in 2016, LUSH was doing well on the platform. The company was adding 3,000 new

Followers to its 320,000 community and generating nearly 15,000 Interactions every month. This

was a result of LUSH’s effective Twitter strategy built around a variety of creative hashtags, ranging

from brand-specific like #Lushlife to seasonal hashtag such as #Lushoween.

The informal tone of the hashtags encouraged LUSH’s followers to use them in Tweets, which helped

to increase the company’s organic reach. As a result, between June and December 2016, LUSH was

mentioned on Twitter over 70,500 times - that’s 49% more than L’Oreal Paris USA, Dove, and Nivea USA

combined! By involving the company designated hashtags in nearly each of their 92 monthly Tweets, LUSH

made searching for their products easier, increased engagement rates, and stood out from the competition.

Create brand-specific hashtags to encourage your followers to interact with your company. Don’t forget to make sure they’re in your audience’s tone of voice!TIP!

17,5k

15,0k

12,5k

10,0k

7,5k

5,0k

2,5k

0kJun 2016 Jul 2016 Aug 2016 Sep 2016 Oct 2016 Nov 2016 Dec 2016

Sum of Mentions

70,5kMax Mentions on

14,9kDec 2016

Average Mentions

10,1k

LUSH - Number of Twitter Mentions June 1 - December 31, 2016

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Beauty Brands Generated a Major Share of Instagram Engagement

We analyzed over 10,000 company Instagram pages between May and October 2016, and

found that two of the most engaging Instagram profiles belonged to North American Beauty

companies. This is not surprising, as the Beauty industry in North America is becoming

increasingly more engaging on Instagram - between Q3 2015 and Q3 2016, its engagement

rate grew by 56%. Beauty companies also generated 18% of Instagram’s total interactions

from May to October 2016, which accounts for the second largest share of engagement

on the platform.

Between June and December, LUSH generated over 15 million interactions on Instagram.

Although it seems to be a high number, the company’s sum of Interactions per 1,000

Followers reached 4,900, which was relatively low compared to the industry’s most

engaging Beauty profiles. For example, Kylie Cosmetics garnered 28,600 Interactions

per 1,000 Followers, while Anastasia Beverly Hills earned 17,100. This means that LUSH

can still improve in terms of Instagram engagement, which should be an easy task, given

their creative strategy for the platform.

Fashion 39%

18%

10%

8%

7%

5%

4%

9%

Beauty

Auto

Sporting Goods

Retail

Ecommerce

Electronics

Other

May - October, 2016Instagram Interactions Distribution by Industry

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Leverage User-generated Content and Appoint Brand Advocates

Since 2012, LUSH has grown an impressive Instagram audience of over 3.5 million Followers. With

Socialbakers Analytics, we discovered that this number keeps increasing, as the company gains

nearly 100,000 new Followers every month. Such significant growth is likely a result of LUSH’s

outstanding customer-oriented approach on the platform. On their official Instagram profile, the

company frequently features photos taken by their customers, thus encouraging people to follow

the LUSH page and submit their own images. What’s more, the company appointed brand advocates

who manage a number of LUSH-related Instagram profiles. Each of them has a LUSH-related

name (e.g. @sailor_lush, @lemonylush) and features photos of the advocates’ experiences with the

company’s cosmetics. By highlighting the authentic usage of their products, LUSH personifies their

image and builds close customer relationships.

TIP!See how AMAZON gave their company a human voice by leveraging humor and personality, which helped them to become one of the most engaging brands in the industry!

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LUSH is an exceptionally customer-oriented company, whose social media strategy involves building authentic relationships with their audiences. On Facebook, LUSH accomplishes this by posting photos of upcoming products as well as videos offering a behind-the-scenes look at how their cosmetics are manufactured. This strategy enables their audiences to learn more about the company. What’s more, they provide excellent customer care by giving valuable responses to user questions. LUSH engages in conversations with their audience also on Twitter, where they use a variety of fun brand-specific hashtags, which are frequently picked up by their followers. In the case of Instagram, the company focuses on leveraging user-generated content. They also appoint brand advocates sharing their experiences of using LUSH cosmetics. Without a doubt, LUSH’s strategy is highly effective, and is reflected in the significant size of their audience and high engagement. The company’s key content tactics, such as representing a customer-first approach or delivering high-quality content, can be successfully applied to any company looking to improve its social media performance.

Conclusion

12Socialbakers a.s. has no affiliation whatsoever with the presented brand and is only processing and analyzing publicly available data from social media platforms concerning the brand. This document is based on publicly available data only.

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