Lush UK quits social media: Are they bowing out or leaping ahead?

Cosmetics company Lush received a brief flurry of attention on traditional media and social media when they announced the shutdown of their social media accounts. Is this a sign of retreat from social media, or just a shift in marketing tactics.

Many companies are becoming increasingly cautious about their approach to social media. The rise of social media has offered new and unique marketing tactics and strategies, along with easy, direct access to audiences. Yet, the experience has not been positive or effective for all marketing campaigns.

The growth of the social media companies like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have also created new challenges. As the companies running these platforms have become more influential, it has become more challenging and more expensive for marketing teams to get their products on customer’s newsfeeds and timelines. Some have suggested that social media is completely oversaturated with advertisements and promoted content, and it is therefore no longer cost-effective for advertisers. This can be especially true for small- or medium-sized businesses with limited advertising budgets.

The benefits of social media

It is important to remember that social media companies are a business, not a public service. Social media companies rely on their users to provide data, activity and a captive audience for advertising. Businesses, too, can take advantage of these platforms and their large number of users.

There are advantages for businesses on social media, but remember the social media platform always takes the lion shares of the benefits. Business users get a small snapshot of the customer data that the social media platform is collecting. Businesses get some of the benefits of encouraging their customers to interact with them on social media, but the social media company gets even more.

Is the trade-off worth it? It often is, but sometimes a business needs to rethink how they are using a social media platform.

Shifting tactics

Closing one, or a few, business accounts is not the same from disengaging completely from social media. Some companies find that having one or a few centralised social media accounts can create problems. When accounts become more popular or prominent, it can draw in negative behaviour online. The company becomes responsible for managing the content on their social media page, but has no control over the guidelines or rules of the larger social media platform.

As with any business activity, if the tactics are not working to meet the business’s strategic objective, its time to shift the tactics. If your company’s social media presence is not getting the desired results, it may be time to look at different approaches.

Alternative approaches

There are many different tactics that can have varying degrees of success on social media. Creating company profiles are a traditional approach to increasing a business’s presence online. Another useful tactic is to target social media campaigns related to specific products, events or locations. These do not need to be paid advertisements, it can be a discussion between the business and its’ customers online. This approach can be particularly useful to connect niche groups with specific products or services.

Other campaigns encourage social media users to take photos or create posts with a company’s products (this can partially be blamed for the annoying trend of large numbers of social media users taking photos of their food). There are many tactics that do not require a company to have a dedicated social media page, and it is often more useful to direct users to your own company website than to a social media site.

The paradox of quitting social media

As Lush demonstrated, quitting social media is actually an increasingly common tactic that can gain a lot of attention on both traditional and social media. It’s a bit ironic that a large company “quitting” social media will get it trending on Twitter, and become a national news story.

That’s not to say this is a cynical ploy, but it certainly is a clever way of shifting marketing tactics. When that announcement receives a great deal of attention, it gets the desired effect.

Social media is constantly changing, and is still a valuable tool for businesses. But the platforms continue to change, as does the behaviour of their users. This is why it is so important to continually evaluate tactics, and to try new tactics when they are needed to meet business objectives.

Learn from the successes and mistakes of other businesses, and keep an eye on the trends.

Ian MacRae is a business psychologist, author of Myths of Work: The stereotypes and assumptions holding your organisation back. His upcoming book, Myths of Social Media will be published in March 2020.

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