Dove — Real Beauty Social Media
*Final Assignment*
When tasked with critically analyzing how a specific personality/brand/ organization use social media, I chose Dove as it not only has a brilliant social media strategy but also truly strives to make women feel more confident about themselves. The company’s twitter bio states that “Dove is committed to helping women realize their beauty potential by creating products that deliver real care.” This ultimately isn’t just a tagline to boost sales and overall revenue but a pledge to create content specific to the insecurities women face everyday. Ever since Dove began their real beauty campaign they have used their social media platforms not only to sell and advertise their products but to change how society talks and views beauty, aligning themselves as a body positive brand that wants women to feel good about themselves. Even though their products are incorporated into their social media, they never feel like a blatant ad or completely forced. They have found a way to add their products in a way that stays true to their overall goal of female empowerment. So much so that in 2014 they were voted number one on Hootsuite’s Love List which highlights the brands who received the most love from its consumers. The metrics used were sentiment scores based on how many times the word love was used in a message on any social media platform and the overall number of social media mentions. The reason Dove has been so successful in their use of social media, has of course been taking a stance on issues that have been ingrained in our society for decades. Though more subtly its also makes us feel like we aren’t alone on my planet hurdling through space and that others go through the same issues we do. They remind us that we are our own worst critic and that we can band together to make a real change for everyone. They do this with their social media platforms by always engaging in two-way conversations making them authentic and gaining the loyalty of their consumers. Their authenticity also lies with how they differentiate themselves from their competitors. Dove makes it their priority to research beauty trends that are happening currently on social media and in our society. They use this data to their advantage by creating campaigns that actually mean something to women and tackles issues that everyone generally people have accepted as the norm. This is why I want to analyze Dove as a successful brand on social media as they get people talking about more than just the current infotainment out there but real issues that women face. To better understand Dove as a brand on social media and how they continue to be successful I will breakdown how they connect with their audience on their various platforms. They are a successful brand on social media and create unity with their hashtag and campaigns, but some campaigns perform better on certain social media platforms. The platforms discussed will be YouTube and Twitter.
On YouTube Dove has a massed a following of over 91 thousand subscribers, and even if you aren’t a subscriber I’m sure you’ve seen one of their beauty campaign videos that have gone viral in the past few years. These short videos begin the conversation between women and society to point out what people think beauty is today. One of their most successful campaign videos has a three minute version and a six minute version titled Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches which a group of women participated twice. The first part of the video had each woman describe their features to a forensic sketch artist who sat behind a screen only going off the description the women have of themselves. The second part of the video has the same women who described themselves describe one of the other women in the group to the same forensic sketch artist. The end result was highly emotional as the two portraits were put side by side to highlight just how much we are our own worst critic. Every woman there saw the negative characteristics they described within the first picture only to realize that the flaws they thought they possessed were seen in fact seen as beautiful and coveted by the other ladies. This video represents Dove’s mission to empower women to see the beauty in themselves and change how we rationalize beauty in today's society. I saw this campaign video for the first time this year and it really had an emotional affect on me, I’m guilty of picking on every single imperfection I find and continue to have that voice at the back of my head all day. This video really highlighted how much we criticize ourselves and really ingrain these beliefs as the truth. I find it shocking how almost every single day I have a negative thought about my appearance but then turn around and see the beauty in everyone else. Through this video, Dove really uses the power of YouTube to reach a global audience and empower women to see the beauty in themselves the way they see it in others. Some other campaign videos that are worth mentioning are Dove Selfie where women take selfies of themselves and other women write positive feedback and Dove Choose Beautiful in which women must choose between walking through a door labelled beautiful or average. Dove’s success on YouTube derives from its ability to create a meaningful dialogue between themselves and their audience and really pushing them to see just how beautiful they really are despite what they may think.
Dove joined twitter in November 2009 and has gained over 192 thousand followers and has curated a consistent timeline in terms of their content always relating to the campaigns they are currently promoting. They also seem to reply to any tweets they receive in quite a timely manner really showcasing how important they believe two way communication really is and their goal to engage more people in their discussions. One campaign that really sticks out when analyzing Dove’s success on Twitter is their #speakbeautiful campaign in which they partnered with Twitter to identify negative tweets about body image. Once a tweet was flagged Dove would send out a personalized message from one of their experts either giving out advice or just a positive message. This in my opinion is a brilliant way of utilizing twitter as the tool necessary to expand their overall mission in creating a dialogue between other women and people in society in general. This campaign also aimed at highlighting the negative lens we have grown accustom to viewing beauty and body image standards. Dove’s campaign makes a real effort to reduce the amount of negative body image messages spread online and changing the narrative on inner beauty and the beauty of others in general. There campaigns really do succeed on Twitter as they feel like a real person is talking to them rather than a marketing team thinking they know exactly what consumers want to hear. Between authentic campaigns and their timely responses Dove uses Twitter as a way to showcase their true intentions. Granted yes, they are a company and a brand that focuses on selling products to their consumers and making a profit but with that influence they can also make a real change in the world. To create this change they use their social media platforms to inspire people to talk about these issues and recognize that everyone has their own story to tell. That even the word beauty has been morphed into something unrecognizable and used purely for profit. Dove aims to create a new realm in which beauty can exist, one in which everyone sees themselves as beautiful. In today's society, they have managed to capture the interest of the public through platforms that already take up most of their day.
In a world where everyone uses social media regardless of who they are Dove has found a way to harness the power it holds over everyone and use it as a platform for enacting real change. Their successful use of social media has allowed them the ability to fight against the ingrained norm of beauty and self-confidence. They are a brand that ultimately sells products to consumers but they have made it their mission to give a voice to those who feel they are alone with their issues and highlight exactly how beautiful they are to others and to themselves. Through campaign targeted videos and their connection to consumers on Twitter, Dove has really succeeded in using social media to their advantage to push their mission forward. Their authenticity allows for their content to be well received around the world, making their goal of inner beauty and self-confidence a reality. In 2017, nobody trusts anything without doing their research and without a brand gaining their loyalty. Through their research of beauty trends and societal norms at the moment, Dove’s social media presence has gained the respect and trust of the newer generations. They will stand behind and fight with Dove as they take on the idea of what it means to be beautiful.
