Lush have announced that they will be closing their social media accounts as they are “tired of fighting with algorithms” and don’t want to “pay to appear” in newsfeeds. Lush seems to have become frustrated by the trend for social media platforms to limit the organic reach available to users. In order to encourage or to put it another way, force its users to pay to appear in people’s social feeds. Take Facebook, for example, if you run a Facebook business page and put out a post, you might quite reasonably assume that everyone that likes your page will see your post. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Your post will only be seen by a section of your followers because Facebook wants you to pay for greater reach.
This could be a publicity stunt, it has certainly garnered them headlines. However, some commentators have said that they suspect that Lush will be changing tactics and working more with social media influencers. Rather than abandoning social media altogether. This makes the most sense to me, rather than pay money to get your message out, why not pay influencers online to spread your message to their legions and devoted followers?
Whether they have really abandoned social media or not, it does highlight the problem of organic reach on social media and your mercy to whatever algorithms are introduced. That’s why it is as important as ever that businesses have their own website. Your website will only change when you decide to change it, allowing you to keep your messaging consistent and in line with your brand. That’s not to say that social media is dead, far from it. It can still be a powerful tool to help promote the website and ultimately your services. Especially when used in a digital strategy encompassing web, social media and newsletters.
