Did 2020 force you to rethink your social media strategies?
The most significant impact on our overarching social media strategies was adjusting our content focus to reflect the current world we were living in. Priorities shifted, and our images and captions needed to reflect that.
Which social media tools does the company find most useful? Why?
We love tools that help us schedule and organize our content and provide key performance indicators (KPIs) as to how our assets perform so we can further optimize our strategies moving forward and give our followers more of what they are engaging with.
What is Arbonne doing to enhance the customer journey on social media?
In May of this year, Arbonne went through an exciting digital transformation with the launch of our new website, which provides an elevated user journey. Now more than ever, it is critical that we align our social media focus with our website messaging to ensure a streamlined digital experience between the two platforms. What you see on our Instagram should align with what you see on our homepage and vice versa. We make sure to keep social media shops on Facebook and Instagram updated, and we tag products on posts so people can easily go to the website to learn more and shop seamlessly. In addition, we have found great value through captions and content, educating our customers about our products.
What drives your decisions on what to share on social media?
We always want to keep our products at the forefront. We take great pride in our product development, sourcing, and ingredients, and we love to highlight that on our channels. It’s important for us to highlight the growing Arbonne community we have built over the last forty-plus years. Ultimately, our goal is to keep our content relatable, engaging, and worth sharing.
What are you doing to identify improper usage of social media among the field?
We have standard operating procedures set in place to maintain a healthy social platform. Our community manager scans posts and content daily and handles reports coming in from users on social media who find potential issues in the field. The community manager and the BEST (Business Ethics and Sustainability Team) team partner to investigate these cases and take appropriate action when needed.
Some people believe the entire customer journey will take place within social selling over the next few years. Do you agree with that and, if so, is Arbonne moving toward making that a reality anytime soon?
Arbonne continues to innovate the way our customers and consultants interact with the brand. Our new website launch features a mobile-first design with best-in-class shopping features. In addition, the online system offers personalized product recommendations, creating a more cohesive user journey. Our goals in the advancement of our technology will evolve as new trends emerge.
The use of video on social media has expanded greatly. Did Arbonne participate much in live streaming in the past year, or does the company plan to do so in the coming year?
In June of this year, Arbonne hosted our first-ever Instagram Live series. Arbonne’s Director of Field Training and some of our top consultants answered commonly asked questions about our best-selling set, 30 Days to Healthy Living. This was well-
received by our community, and we plan to incorporate more live streaming on our platforms. In April, we successfully transitioned our global training conference from an in-person experience to a virtual platform via live stream for the second consecutive year. We continue to grow and evolve from each new digital experience and use those findings to improve the next event.
What is your social media content mainly composed of? Product information? CSR? Salesforce achievements?
First and foremost, product—always. Educating our audience on new and core SKUs and showing them new ways of incorporating Arbonne products into their everyday lives is a vital part of our business. We also use our social channels to communicate all the good we are doing for the world, from our contributions to achieving and maintaining our B Corp status to our commitments to the Flourish Arbonne Foundation to how we ensure our products and promotions support our sustainability initiatives. Our social channels also provide a space for recognition and highlight our field for their amazing work.
What role do you see virtual selling and social media playing in the future? Social selling is the evolution of e-commerce, and with our consultants and consumers having a strong online presence, we want to amplify our role online as much as possible. The goal is for our consultants to reach further into their networks on social media to sell virtually. Our consultants can meet the customer where they are and then provide them with tools like our Recommended Cart and Personal Shopper through social media.
What social media trends are you most excited about?
We are excited to explore trends and developments around video content that will allow us to display products, like Reels. We can easily demonstrate the power of our skin-care and the ease of our nutrition products through this medium. We engage our audience in a way they respond positively to and easily share.
*Contributor-submitted article. Articles submitted by contributors and published in Direct Selling Journal do not necessarily represent a DSA endorsement nor do opinions expressed therein necessarily represent those of DSA.