My thoughts on Lush quitting social media

Welcome back,

You have probably heard this week that something significant has happened in the marketing world; Lush has quit social media in the UK. This is a massive step for a brand to make and since I am a marketer I thought I would give you my thoughts.

(Source) Lush Instagram

Lush is a cosmetics company known for producing fresh handmade cosmetics ranging from bath bombs to shampoo bars. They are well-known for their vegetarian, vegan and cruelty-free products. Lush have a campaign called "Fighting against animal testing" which is well-respected across the brand and is heavily promoted amongst stores and social media.

"As a marketer I cannot fathom what has gone through the marketing directors mind at Lush for them to agree to shutting down their instagram account and say good bye to 568k followers! 📷 Madness" - @devoted2pink Twitter

It was announced just two days ago that Lush is "Switching up social", in an announcement across social media (ironic?) that they have "decided it's time to bid farewell to some of our social channels and open up the conversation between you and us instead" (source).

Lush was describing how "We are tired of fighting with algorithms, and we do not want to pay to appear in your newsfeed" (source), in replacement of using social media as a direct form of contact Lush has put in place a way of customers to speak to customer service via live chat on the website, by email or telephone, and relays to customers to use the hashtag #lushcommunity to see content regarding the brand.

"For such a big company with a massive presence on social to completely “give up” on those trying to reach them via these channels just because you feel overwhelmed is sad. Hire the right people. If you value community like you say, you’ll get it done." - @TylerNarducci_ Twitter

When I first heard about this new step Lush were taking I couldn't quite believe it, especially from a marketing perspective social media is a great platform to allow brands to conveniently keep in contact with customers, and to keep a high level of customer relationship management (CRM). Social media is a excellent way for brands to promote new product launches, reviews and demonstrations on products which is what the brand socials were heavily focused on, even though they are a well-loved brand this is still paramount for any company regardless of the size.

Across Instagram alone Lush UK accumulated 569,000 followers, 202,000 on Twitter and 423,000 likes on Facebook (source)... this is a lot of people to leave in the dark without any direct contact. On their announcement they also mentioned how "This isn’t the end, it’s just the start of something new.⁣" (source) so I will be very intrigued to see where this goes, and if it bridges that gap between customer and brand. From a personal perspective if I need to contact a brand for a particular reason especially in a customer service perceptive, I always head to social media as that's the quickest way to get a response, where they are focusing on 24 hour live chat systems, this could hinder how customers decide to purchase and interact with the brand.

In my opinion, I don't think this is the smartest move a brand with as big of a presence such as Lush has made. Social media is such a critical part to a brands image and interaction with customers, but on the other hand, I can see the impact this could have on getting your brand out there, but then you just have to work harder at producing more engaging content, algorithms is a thing everyone is having to deal with so it's not like it's just singling out one brand. Lush focuses heavily on social media, as they don't advertise across TV, radio or print, so I am intrigued to see how they plan to promote and reach a wider audience with this lack of engagement. We will have to see what they have up there sleeve!

What are your thoughts on Lush quitting social media?