How to Win at Social Media: A Glossier Case Study

2014 was a year of cultural shifts, two of them being the rise of social media branding and the “clean beauty” movement in the cosmetics space. A brand that successfully capitalized on both of these trends is Glossier. The skincare and makeup brand was founded by Emily Weiss, who also founded the well renowned beauty blog “Into the Gloss” in 2010. Glossier was born of Emily’s desire to create a simple, clean beauty line that spoke to the everyday woman, which contrasted greatly to the heavily done up beauty guru culture that existed at the time.

Eight years after its launch in 2014, Glosser is now considered a blueprint for social media and community driven marketing. Named by Forbes as the beauty brand for the generation instagram, Glossier currently has amassed a significant following of 2.6 million on the platform. The success of Glossier’s social media strategy is rooted in its distinct brand identity and a strong understanding of internet culture. Here’s a run down of how they achieved this.

A Distinct Consumer Persona With an Aesthetic to Match

The Glossier consumer knows exactly who she is. In a world full of harsh contours and heavy concealers (circa 2014–2016), the Glossier girl just wants to lay back and let her natural features do the talking. She likes products that are light, dewy and effortless to apply without the need of any professional techniques or tools.

The visuals of Glossier’s social media content captures this aura perfectly, using a soft muted pink (now coined the “glossier pink”) paired with simple fonts and product photography that feels fresh and natural. Glossier has expertly crafted an aesthetic that perfectly represents its brand essence (and stayed consistent with it). Its instagram feed feels almost like a mood board; acting as a source of inspiration while also allowing its product benefits to shine through.

User Generated Content and Meme Culture

Glossier aims to embody the concept of “Beauty in real life”. The brand does this through user-generated content, which helps to contextualize its products in everyday routines. Within the first 3–4 years of its launch, Glossier’s social media content focused heavily on reposts from its customers, helping to further solidify the “Glossier Girl” persona. Instagram content could range anywhere from product hauls, customers sporting a Glossier makeup look, or even make-up tutorials on instagram stories and IGTV.

Glossier also plays into meme culture in a tasteful way, incorporating gifs, funny pictures and twitter-style posts into their feed. This positioned Glossier not just as a cosmetics brand, but also as a social community. A funny tweet repost from a customer or a picture of a cute animal captioned “Happy Friday” provide a refreshing contrast from other beauty brands at the time who’s content was more product-focused.

Keeping things Authentic and Approachable

Glossier claims that its approach to beauty is about “fun and freedom and being okay with yourself today”. Instead of focusing on big name influencers and beauty gurus, glossier gives their spotlight to smaller creators and everyday women in general. These are women of diverse backgrounds and body types who embrace their natural beauty. They each have their own styles, but still embody the glossier persona in their own unique way. They succeed in capturing a very specific persona without appearing exclusive or unapproachable.

This is further exemplified in Glossier’s “Get Ready With Me” videos on Youtube, which were what first put me onto the brand back in 2018. The videos feature women from all walks of life, including fashion CEOs, models, artists and even staff members of Glossier. The videos mainly focused on the personalities and lifestyles of these women, as they talked the viewer through their morning routines. What I also found interesting about these videos was that glossier products were incorporated, but did not steal the spotlight as other products were also used. The videos are comforting, and almost feel like you’re watching a friend get ready for the day.

Conclusion

To summarize, here are some key takeaways from Glossier’s social media success;

• Develop a distinct brand identity and consumer persona.
• Consistently align your content with this persona, in terms of aesthetics and who represents your brand.
• Focus on creating a brand community that fosters engagement and user generated content.

Glossier has helped to usher in a new era in the beauty space. Its focus on “skin first” beauty and embracing one’s imperfections sends a powerful message that challenged many beauty norms that existed at the time of its launch.This message is more than skin deep (pun intended), and helped shape a cultural movement that founded many of the beauty trends we see even today. But what has truly driven Glossier’s success is not just the message, but the mode of communication. Consumers of of the social media ages are actively looking for a sense of community and something to be a part of. This is the very core of social media, and Glossier is a fantastic case study on how to achieve it.