- Our recent beauty blogger event
The social network has fallen a little out of fashion lately. If you ask anyone about Facebook, they either love it or loathe it, rarely anything in-between. Those who ‘dislike’ often cite the popular view among academics and thought leaders including Zadie Smith (Generation Why?), that the social network is actually causing us to become more anti-social. With constant comments or likes, expressing brief interest, there’s little reason to pick up the phone anymore. And when you know everything about everyone all the time, why make plans to meet in real life, when living in a virtual one is just so easy?
In contrast, blogs are more popular than ever. Interesting, because the most successful blogs – by nature – are similar to a Facebook profile. Honesty and openness are commonly regarded by social media experts as key to a blog’s success as much as content. Blogs with the largest followings are ones where you know most about the author, so you feel as though you can identify with them personally, as much as their subject matter. This is important because the followers you attract are total strangers and, once you have them, they are likely to remain loyal.
Focus PR clients Elegant Touch and Eylure recently held a joint blogger evening to showcase new products. This is now common and crucial PR practice because beauty bloggers are widely regarded as the new beauty editors; their unbiased views and opinions mean they are trusted more by the public. But what was so fascinating about the blogger evening to us was the sheer number who made it to the event, travelling from all over the UK and Scotland, and that they knew each other so well. The beauty blogger network is often described as a ‘community’ and the success of the evening certainly confirmed this, disregarding any theories of an anti-social, social network. The fact is, beauty bloggers are social because they have a desire to share information with openness to discussion. So you can be sure that if one praises your product, fellow bloggers and followers will take note. Which ultimately takes us back to the original intention of a social network that beauty bloggers use so well. They are simply women socialising with women who have a mutual passion for beauty. The ‘network’ part, purely a platform.
Beauty blogger glossary of terms
More than just a community, there is also a language among beauty bloggers which can seem alien to the uninitiated. Here’s our quick guide to the most commonly-used terms:
FOTD or ‘photo of the day’ – a beauty blogger will take a photo of themselves and list the makeup they are wearing so others can see how it looks.
Dupe – an exact or similar replica, usually a cheaper version of a more expensive brand.
Haul – a beauty shopping splurge, the bloggers reveal what they bought and talk about them.
HG ‘holy grail’ – a product that is perfect and an essential. Not surprisingly, this is the highest accolade a beauty product can get in the blogosphere.
NW20, NC20 – these are MAC foundation shades, of which MAC does a huge range, and bloggers will compare any other shade of foundation to a MAC one.
