Cosmetics industry is best defined as a preparation for external application on the human body and as a modification of the physical look and conservation for beauty usage (Chile, February 2012). Cosmetics industry has been controlled by a handful of multinational corporations in early 20^th century. The dominated world largest cosmetics companies are The L’Oreal Group, The Procter& Gamble Company, Shiseido Company, and Estee Lauder companies.

According to the article written by Perry, the Cosmetics industry is composed of five product segments with market share in the following

§ Skin care 27%: Skin care makes up about 27% of the cosmetic industry, including facial cleansers, skin moisturizers, essence, eye cream, whiting products, body lotion, anti acne products and anti-aging products.

§ Make-up 20%: This segment has vast sub-segment lines. It prefer to coloring products intended to enhance people’s appearance. The categories are the following: primer, foundation, eye shadow, eye liner, eye pencil, mascara and powder.

§ Hair care 20%: The majority products in this segment are shampoo, conditioners, styling products, hair color and relaxer.

§ Fragrance 10%: It is the highest profit segment of the cosmetic industry, which occupies 10% of the market share.

§ Others 30%: This segment is made up of products like toothpaste, deodorants, sunscreens and other personal care products.

The Role of Social Media in Cosmetic Industry

Social media has revolutionized the way that cosmetic companies connect and communicate with customers worldwide. According to Sean Singleton, group managing director of Skive Group, discussed about social media impacts on cosmetic show in Milan last year. He presented some statistics about how powerful social media has changed the cosmetic industry. For example, 200 million blogs and 95,000 beauty blog has been posted and discussed among the age of 35 to 49 years old women. So, Let us find out how the power of the social media can influence on Cosmetic Industry.

High Customer Involvement and Engagement

Compared to the traditional media, social media is a two-way line communication between target audience and the cosmetic companies. Social media provides high customer engagement and enhance the communication with their customers. The cosmetic companies are able to generate customer feedbacks via different online presences. Additionally, cosmetic companies are able to use social media to better target and approach their own customers and listen to different voices from them.

High Brand Loyalty

Social Media has been successfully used by beauty and cosmetic industries as a way to maintain and build brands. Several social media platforms such as Tumbler, Pinterest and Instagram have been utilized popularly by cosmetic companies to present new products and gain brand loyalty from customers. In addition, social media offers phenomenal cost-effective opportunities for the cosmetic industry to build their brands."At least half of Twitter and Facebook users said they had become more likely to talk about, recommend or purchase a company's products after they began following the company on social media," according to eMarketer (The Atlantic, 2011)

Generate Sales

Social media is transforming the way that cosmetic companies generate the sales. Cosmetic companies use the power of world-of-mouth on social media to double their sales. According to the Kingaby research, 79% of customers, who have online shopping experience of cosmetics and beauty products, make their decisions and purchase the products before researching and reviewing the comments from the company’s Facebook and Twitter (Marks, 2012).

Suggested Social Media Platforms on Cosmetic Industry

Facebook-Estee Lauder-Your Face, You Style, Your Profile

As a prestigious and global skin care and cosmetic company, Estee Lauder captured an opportunity on Facebook to create an event called “Your Face. Your Style. Your Profile”. It was an even hold in June 5^th 2010 that invited consumers who were 35 to 55 years old to have their make-up done and a professional photo taken for them. After this evens started on the Facebook, Beth Zurn, senior vice-president of global education and special events, said “there were approximately 6200 customers in North America participated in this event.” (Cosmetic World.com, 2012)

The purpose of this Facebook event for Esteer Lauder is to connect with customers and provide the right and the best profile photo for them with professional advices. As a result, Estee Lauder has received extensive coverage in blogs as well as attracting more young women to buy the products (Lee, 2011).

YouTube-Lancome-Famous Makeup Artist Michelle Phan

It is evident that the significance of YouTube has dramatically increased in the cosmetic industry year over year in video views. The best example to illustrate is the official video makeup artist Michelle Phan who is authorized from Lancome. Michelle Phan is top one most popular makeup artist on YouTube and she has more than 3.2 million subscribers on her channel. In February 2010, Lancome discovered the power of the Michelle Phan on YouTube and authorized her as the brand’s first ever video makeup artists. Michelle Phan has created many special makeup videos tutorials by using Lancome cosmetics and having Lancome products giveaway to customers.

In January 2012, Lancome launched the limited edition cosmetic products line called Michelle’s Glamour Eyes Kits exclusively available online and Sephore, a French cosmetics retail store. Lancome has successfully used the influence of YouTuber to advertise their products and build the trust with customers.

Twitter-Bobbi Brown

When I consider which company benefits the most from twitter in the cosmetic industry is Bobbi Brown, a makeup line led by Estee Lauder. In the past two years, Bobbie Brown has implemented a comprehensive social media strategy, resulting in a 177% growth in Facebook fans and a 243% increase of Twitter followers, as well as launching of the brand’s Pinterest page (Cosmetic World, 2012). Instead of promoting products on twitter, Bobbi Brown uses twitter to provide beauty tips and advices to customers. The success of the Bobbi Brown is that they know what customers’ needs on social platforms and how to engage with them on twitter.

Pinterest-Sephora-Sephora Color Wash

Pinterest is a pinboard style photo sharing website that allows users to share and collect photos of their favorite events, interest and hobbies. Pinterest has become the third largest social media platforms; its main target audience is women (Mashable, 2013). Sephora, a popular French chain of cosmetic retail store, mainly sell beauty products. On their Pinterest website, they provide fashion tips, images from Instagram, products demonstration, and discuss about beauty trends with customers.

In April 2012, Sephora created a new competition on Pinterest called “Sephora Color wash”. It was an event that encouraged users to create new board titled “Sephora Color Wash” in hair and beauty category and pin the competition page on their board pinning five images featuring their favorite color (Simple Zesty, 2012). It would offer users a chance to win $250 Sephora gift card. In this successful Pinterest campaign, Sephora got an extremely high exposure for their brand among consumers.