Lush decides to quit social media
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Lush is “tired of fighting with algorithms”. The British cosmetics retailer announced on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram that it prefers to leave social media platforms entirely than to pay for posts to appear on followers’ newsfeeds.
“Increasingly, social media is making it harder and harder for us to talk to each other directly”, wrote the brand. “So we’ve decided it’s time to bid farewell to some of our social channels and open up the conversation between you and us instead”.
Lush noted that its customer care team will continue to reply to questions and comments made via social media over the next week. After that, customers can get in touch with the company through its website, email or phone.
“This isn’t the end, it’s just the start of something new”, stated the retailer, who has over one million followers across Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
While the decision has been deemed risky by marketers across the board, Lush does have a point. It’s becoming increasingly difficult for brands to rely on organic reach alone on social media. A recent Ogilvy study revealed brands’ Facebook posts are delivered to only 2 percent of their followers. Since Facebook owns Instagram -- and changed its algorithm in 2016 so that users’ feeds don’t show up chronologically but rather based on the likelihood that they’ll be interested in the content -- many suspect the same is happening or will soon happen on Instagram.
The big question is: will other brands follow suit?