ARCHITECTS OF BEAUTY: FRANK BODY TALK THE POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE BEAUTY BUSINESS

 

Hard work, relationships, and a little bit of luck.

 

We launched frank body in 2013 at the right time, and at the right place, before many other brands were jumping onto social media.

 

We had an aggressive social media strategy, in which the cheeky tone of voice and visual aesthetic of ‘frank’ certainly spoke to women in a way they had not been addressed by a brand before.

 

We also utilised user generated content to spread awareness of both the brand personality and the product itself; educating customers on what coffee based skincare was, in particular our original coffee scrub. To date we have over 150,000 tagged images under #thefrankeffect and #letsbefrank

 

Our second Instagram page, @frankfeedback has allowed us to seperate frank body reviews and testimonials, for customers using our naturally derived skincare products to treat skin conditions like cellulite, stretch marks, psoriasis, and acne to name a few. These before and after images still blow us away today, and the feedback from our customers has been incredibly humbling.

 

Being a brand that is only sold online, how important has social media been to FRANK Body?

 

Initially it was the backbone of our business, whereas today, three years on it represents but one of many assets of the brand that contribute to its success. For us it’s about a 360 approach, having consistent and engaging comms across the board that continue to take risks and get the attention of existing and new customers each day.

 

It’s such a fun brand – how have you encouraged people to get involved and share their photos?

 

It all started with Bree, Jess, and myself taking photos of ourselves covered in the original coffee scrub. We had to show people what a coffee scrub was – as three years ago it existed only as a natural, DIY recipe. This initiated the call for consumers to have their 15 minutes of fame on frank body’s Instagram, paired with his flirty captions/commentary on each user’s life.

 

To incentivise this further, with every product that went out to a customer, a flyer was also sent out encouraging them to share the product on social with their friends – in frank’s tone of voice.

 

Since then we’ve continued to come up with different ways for people to share our products online in different ways, from our snapchat: frankbod to different hashtags on Instagram including: #frankcoffeeart https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/frankcoffeeart/, #averyfrankadventure https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/averyfrankadventure/, and #getdirtyforcleanwater https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/getdirtyforcleanwater/

What are your top tips for using social media – whether it’s for your own brand or for work?

 

If it were that easy we’d probably be out of a job, but here goes:

 

#1 Find your voice. Not someone else’s. Tell a story with multiple content themes and if you don’t find it interesting, don’t post it.

#2 Find your version of #thefrankeffect: a way for users to take photos of your product that feels natural and not cliche. Make your hashtag an extension of one’s conversation, not something overly long or clunky, or hard to remember.

#3 Keep the aesthetic consistent. Don’t post content that doesn’t look great, for the sake of posting content. You know what that means.

#4 Social media is just that, social. So have a conversation; stir debate. Support your customers https://www.facebook.com/frankskincare/?ref=bookmarks and be a little cheeky a long the way. Unless you have to be serious, then be serious, of course.

 

Architects of Beauty