Organic Personal Care:

Social Media & KOLs

July 2016

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2016 SXL Research

www.sxlresearch.com

Social Media General Trends

Instagram
Highest brand post percentage rate at 4.21% relative to
Facebook (.07%) and Twitter (.03%) Forrester 2015
Of all brands engaging with customers, 60% of brands were
products
Per-Follower engagement rate is 58x higher than Facebook
and 120x higher than Twitter
Pictures generate 36% more likes than videos
Pictues with faces generate 38% more likes than those
without
Posts including another user handle in the caption generate
56% more engagement
Posts with 1 hashtag increased engagement by 12.6%
Posts tagged with location generate 79% higher
engagement
Social Media

Trend

All Social Media

Pictures; Keep it simple

Instagram

Pictures; Faces; User Handle; 13 hashtags; location tag

Facebook

Pictures; Under 250;

Emoticons; Contests; Coupons

Twitter

Pictures; Under 100 characters;

2 hashtags; mostly mobile
users; ask for RTs to get RTs

Twitter
Tweets with image links generate 2x the engagement
rate than those without
Tweets with less than 100 characters get 17% more
engagement
Tweets with hashtags generate 2x more engagement
66% of user-generated tweets mentioning brands come
from mobile users
Tweets have 12x higher chance of being retweeted if
the post asks for it and 23x higher if the post spells out
retweet
Tweets including links are 86% more likely to be
retweeted
Facebook
Pictures generate 39% more interaction
Posts below 250 characters generate 23% more
interaction
Using emoticons increases comments by 33%
35% of Facebook Fans like a page so they can
participate in contests
42% of Fans like a page to get a discount or coupon

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Source: https://blog.bufferapp.com/10-new-twitter-stats-twitter-statistics-to-help-you-reach-your-followers;
https://blog.bufferapp.com/7-facebook-stats-you-should-know-for-a-more-engaging-page; ForresterResearch.com

Social Media Organic Trends

Social Media Post Engagement Within 2 Days

0.46% engagement:
2,696 likes / 585,000
followers

0.01% engagement
94 reactions /
1,872,055 followers

0.01% engagement
13 likes (5 RT) /
98,400 followers

Key Findings
Organic personal care has relatively little consumer
engagement through social media across Instagram,
Twitter, and Facebook, but of the three Instagram
generates the most engagement
Contests generated the most significant engagement;
e.g. when the post was a contest, average Facebook
comments for Physicians Formula posts went from 20 to
1,300 and for Alima Pure went from 1 to 70 comments
Comments were quite uncommon (among all three
platforms), and typically occurred when they were
required as entries into contests, when the customer
has a bad experience, or when customers posted
pictures of products they used
Not all organic companies are active on social media
with postings varying from every day, to once a month,
to no social media presence
Most consumer exposure to their products come from
third party KOLs such as celebrities, pro-organic
organizations, and bloggers, rather than the companies
who create the brands themselves
Because one value of organic consumers is community
people tend to educate themselves on organic product
from within their social community rather than social
media from companies selling organic products
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Source: SXL Research and Analysis

Instagram Case Study

Engagement Overview
Engagement is highest among the selected social media, in
general, and has a 2.17% engagement rate among organic
cosmetic and baby product/clothing retailers.
Pictures
By far the most common type of post, feature the
products, models wearing the product, or lifestyle /
fun pictures unrelated to the product.
Videos
Videos are less common and have a much lower
reaction rate on average than pictures.
Contests / Sales
Almost always in the form of pictures and request
users to like and comment, allow for interaction and
usually involve giveaways or discounts for customers
using social media.
Inspirational
Lifestyle posts unrelated to the product, but meant to
appeal to the consumers lifestyles especially travel
and leisure along with celebrities and pop culture
Text Posts
Come in the form of pictures, not text. Instagram does
provide significant allowances for text to be written
with pictures and allows other users to be tagged
which can spur discussion and interaction with the
post.
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Source: SXL Research and Analysis

Facebook Case Study

Engagement Overview
Engagement is slightly better than Twitter, in general, and
much less than Instagram with an engagement rate of 1.1%
among organic cosmetic and baby product/clothing retailers.
Pictures
By far the most common type of post, often directly
pictures or links to Instagram pictures; feature the
products, models wearing the product, or lifestyle /
fun pictures unrelated to the product
Videos
Videos are less common and have a much lower
reaction rate on average than pictures.
Contests / Sales
Can be in the form of pictures or texts, allow for
interaction and usually involve giveaways or discounts
for customers using social media. Usually requires the
consumer to share, comment, or like the post which
acts an advertisement for the company
News Articles
Links to articles related to their products, other
companies mentioning them, or health and lifestyle
articles not necessarily related to their product
Inspirational
Lifestyle posts unrelated to the product, but meant to
appeal to the consumers lifestyles
Text Posts
Often announcing sales, mentioning specific people,
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or with links to their website or Instagram.

Source: SXL Research and Analysis

Twitter Case Study

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Engagement Overview
Engagement is typically very low at less than 0.2% within the
organic cosmetic and baby product/clothing retail industry
Pictures
By far the most common type of post, often directly
pictures or links to Instagram pictures; feature the
products, models with the product, or lifestyle / fun
pictures unrelated to the product
Contests / Sales
Can be in the form of pictures or texts, allow for
interaction and usually involve giveaways or discounts
for customers using social media
News Articles
Links to articles related to their products, other
companies mentioning them, or health and lifestyle
articles not necessarily related to their product
Social Issues (animal rights, LGBT, green)
Posts the Orland Shootings and support, posts about
green movement activity, and posts about animal
rights and charities
Inspirational
Lifestyle posts unrelated to the product, but meant to
appeal to the consumers lifestyles
Text Posts
Often announcing sales, mentioning specific people,
or with links to their website
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Source: SXL Research and Analysis

Key Opinion Leaders Celebrities

Overview
Health risks associated with artificial ingredients in nonorganics have become more heavily publicized in news
and social media.
As a result, more and more high profile celebrities have
been shopping, endorsing, and even creating new
organic brands.
Many celebrities supporting or promoting organic
cosmetics are actresses, actors, and models, likely due
to their professions based upon cosmetics and beauty

Source: SXL Research and Analysis

Campaigns, Brands, and Endorsements

Actor Woody Harrelson and a group of his colleagues,
launched the Sustainable Organic Living campaign, a
biking tour around the Pacific Coast, stopping at high
schools, colleges, and town halls to spread organic
health facts and life tips, focused on improving
individual health and the environment
Many of these celebrities have started their own
organic brands such as actress Jessica Albas The
Honest Company which makes organic products for
babies and children, or supermodel Miranda Kerrs
Kora Organics which creates organic skin and body
care products
Others endorse existing brands such as Sports
Illustrated model Julie Henderson endorsing organic
cosmetics brand Au Naturale, and creating her own
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product line

Key Opinion Leaders Organizations & Bloggers

Organizations
Certain large organizations are influential in the organic
community in campaigning for reforms in regulation,
and in educating the public on the benefits of organic
food, products, and lifestyle
Organic Trade Association lobbies to promote organic
agriculture and trade through legislative and regulatory
action. Membership is over 8,500 organic businesses.
Organic Consumers Association is an online and
grassroots non-profit public interest organization
campaigning for health, justice, and sustainability. It
deals with issues of food safety, industrial agriculture,
genetic engineering, children's health, corporate
accountability, Fair Trade, environmental sustainability
etc. Membership is over 2 million members including
several thousand business in the natural foods and
organic marketplace.
Blogs
While there are dozens of small organic personal care
blogs collectively they can shape organic consumers
opinions with product reviews, tips, and guides for what
to buy and how to use various products
Blogs such as popular pro-green and sustainability blog
Treehugger, organic beauty blogs EdibleFacial and
Organic Beauty Talk offer a personal appeal to organic
cosmetic consumers and a third-party view of organic
product
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Source: SXL Research and Analysis