Séverine Boutry, Le Nouvel Appartement

Premium Beauty News - Why are social networks a key lever for the BtoB sector today?

Séverine Boutry - It is true that recent figures on the staggering growth of Internet traffic are quite enough to make the head of B2B players spin. In one minute in the world, Google processes over 3.5 million search queries; Facebook records 900,000 connections; Youtube broadcasts 4.1 million videos; Twitter 452,000 tweets and SnapChat 1.8 million new images! And when companies are not trying to reach their end consumer, but instead their corporate clients, journalists, distributors, trend firms... they are also all very active on all networks. Not using social networks would be like putting a black curtain on its shop window! When you look at it, the web has offered a mouthpiece to everyone, and it’s a shame not to care for its "owned-media" and its "shared-media" represented by one’s website, newsletters and social networks. It is the image and reputation of the company that can benefit from it in the medium term, and even in the short term, ROI can be immediate: a press article triggered by a properly devised tweet, a new distributor contacted via LinkedIn, a partner won over by an event pushed on Instagram...

Premium Beauty News - So, for example, what is your assessment of the recent MakeUp in New York trade show?

Séverine Boutry - For MakeUp in New York, we chose to work on the four traditional networks (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram) and to stick to the timetable of newsletters sent by the show organisers. Upstream, the recruitment of visitors was pushed on LinkedIn and Twitter, with excellent reach on LinkedIn in particular.

During the show, Twitter and Instagram were used for their very "hot now" side, which enabled to put forward exhibitors, teams, partners... and after the show had closed its doors, we continued to send thanks and review the outcome, to prepare MakeUp in Los Angeles next February! Twitter is the key to touch reporters, LinkedIn is perfect to maintain ties with clients and nurture the hiring brand and Instagram to touch the beauty sphere, while Facebook, by nature, is more BtoC but so powerful...

Overall, results are real: on Twitter more than 29,000 impressions, with + 113% on profile visitors and + 280% on mentions, on LinkedIn more than 15,000 impressions for the period, on Instagram + 36% subscribers and on Facebook the scope of publications increased by 29% and commitments by 110%... I believe the show achieved its goals, a success "in real life" and on social networks too!

Premium Beauty News - What would be you recommendations for BtoB brands wanting to stand out on social networks?

Séverine Boutry - The first basic rule is to be true and generous! Because on social networks, you must give to receive. Don’t hesitate to follow and congratulate your competitors, and avoid inflating your figures by "buying" fans and likes. It’s better to be followed by a small community of true fans, instead of robots in Thailand! Then find your narrative territory and don’t only talk about yourself, it’s like during a first date, if you only talk about yourself at the first diner, there will not be others!

And finally, our philosophy for each product content is the "3 S" for Surprise, Service, Social. Indeed, you must be able to surprise to catch attention, be helpful by being pedagogical, funny or useful, and finally stimulate the desire to share to push virality... and – Google recently announced it–, without forgetting to propose a responsive and pleasant website on mobiles, because mobile search has now exceeded in France computer searches...