The second week of April 2019 saw Lush Stores announce their intention to close and stop using their social media accounts, including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, across which they have amassed a whopping 1.2 million followers. The move, potentially another controversial action for the store after their “anti-police” store campaign last year, is an interesting one, justified with the message, “[they] are tired of fighting with algorithms, and [they] do not want to pay to appear in your newsfeed.”
We're switching up social.
— LUSH UK (@LushLtd) April 8, 2019
Increasingly, social media is making it harder and harder for us to talk to each other directly. We are tired of fighting with algorithms, and we do not want to pay to appear in your newsfeed. pic.twitter.com/nJUzG0lham
Instead, the brand hopes to encourage customers to use the website’s live chat feature, drop Lush an email or get in touch through traditional means, by calling their local store or the head office. However, many social media gurus are leaving their thoughts on the matter, with many saying this is a backwards move by the company.
Making it harder for customers to start a meaningful conversation has the potential to create distrust between existing Lush customers and the stores. Included in the account closure is the main Lush UK account and all other Lush network accounts including Lush Kitchen, Lush Times, Lush Life, Gorilla and Soapbox.
While it’s difficult to say how closing their social media accounts will affect Lush in the long run, it is not the ideal course of action when wanting to “switch up your social media”. Rather than removing their presence altogether, the brand could have reduced the number of accounts managed to a more reasonable number. This would have allowed focus to be on just one or two areas, making it easier to keep a consistent tone and push for greater customer engagement.
It can also be considered quite telling that Lush announced their social media account closure via social media. If this is their go-to platform for sharing “in the moment” news, they have already shot themselves in the foot by intending to remove a vital method of communication.
While there is no right or wrong way to use social media, there are certain guidelines that can increase engagement and make sure your posts and accounts are seen by the right people. For example, take Lush’s quote regarding “not paying to feature in your feed”. Social media advertisement, particularly across Facebook and Instagram, is considered one of the most targeted advertisement types available. It’s not simply a case of paying to appear in a thousand feeds for a period of time. Instead, businesses using this type of targeted marketing can build their own audiences, finding customers who have already shopped at Lush or aiming to target people who actively shop at a competitor.
Looking back at the Lush social media account network, their engagement certainly wasn’t awful and their use of hashtags appeared to be strong, however, it seems that they didn’t carry conversations very well with engaged users and didn’t support their customers posting about their products through sharing and retweets. There was certainly room for improvement which could have been planned and focused on instead of simply closing the door and walking away.
Social media differs between industries and the best way to plan a strong, efficient social media campaign is to look at your competitors or other businesses in the industry, considering you will share target audiences and potential customers as well. See what is working for these accounts, where they have failed to deliver, the posts that get a high engagement and the posts that don’t work as well. It’s also important to take note of what day and time the posts are made to see when audiences are most active.
Alternatively, turn to a trusted agency! At i3MEDIA, we can take care of your social media accounts, building social media campaigns, strategising, and planning your social media advertisements to help you get the most out of your impressions. Get in touch with our sales team today and let us know how we can help - we look forward to building a fantastic social presence together.