The Fashion and Cosmetic Industries are some of the most competitive industries out there. It’s becoming harder everyday to become trendy and even harder to stay relevant, as these industries are evolving and changing everyday. Social Media is full of influencers, bloggers, beginners seeking advice in fashion, makeup, fashionistas and models looking at new collections and trends. Viral product can become sold out in seconds. Companies are constantly competing and waiting to see who and what is going to be trending on social media platforms. So how can they keep up with it all? The answer might be their social media listening strategy.
What is Social Listening?
Social Media Listening is a concept that has been around for decades, but is constantly evolving. In today’s world, it’s possible to research and collect data on your target audience just by using hashtags, keywords or mentions on any social media platform related to the brand. Social media listening often provides enlightening information to marketing professionals that work in various fields and companies. Comments can be negative or positive but are mostly insightful due to the fact that customers are providing direct and candid feedback to a company’s products or services. This feedback is valuable because these customers are directly experiencing the brand or product from an end user’s perspective.
Social Listening in the Cosmetic Industry
Using social listening in the cosmetic industry is one of the best ways to create customer loyalty and promote a brand. Top cosmetic brands monitor their social media channels to help strengthen their social media presence. Understanding customers and keeping up with the industry trends will give the the social media insights a brand needs. Consumers are more likely to trust and relate to the content shared on social media that other customers or influencers review.
How to Implement social listening in your marketing:
- Know Your Customer Persona
- Define Your Social Media Listening Objective
- Understand and Prioritize Platforms
- Find the Right Social Listening Tool
- Select Keywords and Topics to Monitor
- Record Content and Keywords With the Most Attention
Engaging with your audience is a tool that is used continuously in social listening. For example, TikTok, one of the fastest growing social media platforms, is a great platform to engage with your brand audience and know what the consumers are saying about your products.
Few examples of Cosmetic brands interacting with their audience by using Social Listening:
First example is Milk Makeup which is a New York City based cosmetics and skin care company. The influencer used different hashtags to review their new products and Milk responded because they monitor their social media channels and interact with their audience. This is a great way to show customers that you are engaging and appreciating their reviews.
Another great example is Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez. Rare Beauty manages their social listening on a daily basis, especially on TikTok because this is where most of their products tend to go viral. They consistently reply to customers who are reviewing and trying out their products. Below is an example of Rare Beauty using Social Listening:
Fashion Brands Using Social Listening
In the fashion Industry, items such as clothes, shoes, and purses, can become trendy extremely quickly, largely on Instagram and Tiktok. Fashion brands constantly utilize social media platforms to listen and create what their target audiences are reviewing via mentions of their products and keywords related to their brand or competitors.
One of the latest trends on TikTok fashion has been “cargo pants” and where to buy them, driving endless reviews and mentions. #Cargopants on TikTok has 817.9M views from different consumers reviewing and suggesting where to purchase them. Directly before the trend of cargo pants became viral, Zara wide leg jeans were trending with over 164.5M views on TikTok as well.
An example of a brand that always tends to listen and follow what’s trending is the Chinese ultra-website Shein. #Shein has 41.5B views on TikTok, which makes them the #1 brand. A large number of TikTok users and different influencers use this hashtag to show what Shein is offering and how you can always find whatever you need on their website.
Brands Competing in Social Listening
Social listening plays a huge role in Shein’s marketing strategy. They are always quick to react to emerging viral trends and compete with higher-cost brands such as Zara by producing low-cost alternatives. Shein has become an outlet for consumers who simply cannot afford to buy something they want from Zara and other expensive retailers. Zara can be expensive for some consumers, compared to clothes that look identical and can be found on Shein for significantly less money. Shein tends to create clothes that mimic the designs and trends created by Zara. The quality will be different but that’s why they are intended to be called “Dupes”. In 2020, Shein launched 150,000 new items throughout the year, with an average of more than 10,000 new items per month. It has caught up with Zara’s annual new product volume in just one to two months.
Comparing Competitors
Hashtags are used by influencers and consumers on both Instagram and TikTok to compare clothes found on the Shein website to competing brands such as Zara. Zara and Shein are often compared due to their similarities in the fashion industry, but differing price points. These hashtags are intended to influence a consumers’ buying behavior by providing reasoning why one brand is superior to the other.
Some of the Hashtags are:
- #zaravsshein
- #zaraandshein
- #sheinvszara
- #zarashein
The following section examines various videos and photos from Instagram and Tiktok accounts that highlight nearly identical styles produced by Zara and Shein, but differ from a price point perspective.
Social media is a vital marketing channel, especially with a solid social listening strategy. By utilizing an effective social listening strategy, brands can use each social platform to learn how to adjust their marketing messaging, strengthen understanding of their target audience, identify user-generated content opportunities, and even repair potential PR disasters if they use the right social listening tools.
Teaching Social Media 