There have been two major shifts in social media in recent years: The move from a social focus to content and the transition to commerce. It is the rise of TikTok especially – and attempts from rivals Instagram and Youtube to compete by imitating it – that has seen the shift to content. “[What this] means is that any content is discoverable and any content can go viral. And that has totally changed the game for beauty brands, and all CPG brands. In the past five years, any new brand that has a good product and a good story on social can go viral, and suddenly that is starting to drive sales,” comments Eva Horowitz, CEO of Movers+Shakers.
This has helped independent beauty brands gain awareness. “The reason that we’ve seen such a proliferation of indie upstart brands in the last five years is due to the shift from a social-based algorithm to a content-based algorithm. That’s why big brands are really scared and why the big retailers are now for the first time calling a lot of these viral TikTok brands and inviting them to merchandise on their shelves, which is such a change in the industry,” Horowitz adds.
Influencer’s Influence
The growing importance of influencers has amplified this trend. In the past, it was relatively difficult for influencers to be discovered with social media algorithms, and users had to proactively find and follow them; however, this has changed. Horowitz says: “All of a sudden, you have this new category of influencers who are coming up, and they are really influencing purchase.”
Read full article here (pg 88-90).