Social Media Audit: Merit Beauty

I decided to analyze Merit Beauty because of their unique social media presence, and sustainable approach to their product. I first found out about this brand on TikTok and was immediately drawn to the company and their mission of taking a holistic approach to “clean”- creating products that are safe for the body, skin, and planet. Yes, there are plenty of clean beauty brands out there, but they truly care about the ingredients they are using and have a genuine care for the footprint they are leaving behind. They are a vegan and cruelty free company, and aim to eliminate as much virgin plastics as possible- from their products to their operations. According to Allure, “In the US alone, almost 7.9 billion units of rigid plastic waste were accounted for in beauty and personal care products.” I am glad to analyze a brand that cares so much about our planet. Additionally, they had unique marketing techniques, they included a free corduroy makeup bag with first purchases, and this went viral across the TikTok platform. I liked how they targeted their audience, and campaigned through platforms that would allow them to reach the most people. I kept seeing more and more people purchase from this company, and ultimately decided to try it out for myself.

Merit has a presence on most social media platforms: Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and LinkedIn.

They are a startup company so I was not expecting them to have a large following, but I was surprised to see some of these numbers. They have the most followers on IG, and about 2,000 on the rest of the platforms. I also thought they would have a Twitter page, but it does not look like they have created one thus far. Twitter will be a good thing for them to look at in the near future in order to engage with their consumers more, and utilize the platform for customer service as well. I think it is good to have a presence on all of the platforms above, but I also think they need to be utilizing some of these platforms more frequently in order to really engage with their audience and increase brand awareness.

I would say they have a simplistic and minimal voice and aesthetic. All of their postings are very uniform and cohesive. They do a great job of promoting their product in an organic way- like mentioned, I found out about their products through TikTok and assume that they spend a lot of their budget on influencer partnerships. Every time the brand came up in my for you page, it was always some sort of review of the product, and the influencer giving a “clean girl look” tutorial with the makeup products. Merit took advantage of this “clean girl look” trend, and decided to market their product in this way. With the influencers that they do partner with, they all tend to be diverse individuals and many different groups are represented. I think this is important, especially with beauty brands because they need to be targeting a large range of people, and need to be aware of the importance of inclusivity. Having this representation on their social media pages is great for how the company is perceived, especially if they are trying to be a company for “all.”

Merit has a pretty consistent posting cadence on Instagram. Since the start of this company in 2021- it looks like they are starting to develop their social media strategy. They did a clean wipe of their page in February of 2022, and it looks like they are adopting a new look and feel. When looking at their most recent posts, they have postings everyday from the past week- sometimes multiple times in one day. They post in the mornings and evenings, this way they capture the most people because it is before the work hours when people are usually checking their socials. They also do a great job of utilizing their IG story- and have highlights for their company story, and each product they currently have available, with different individuals trying out the product. I think this offers a great way for people to really see the type of product it is, and how it would look on various skin tones. Their method of storytelling through their products is very genuine and authentic, making me even more attracted to the brand. Instagram is the only platform they are consistently posting on. On TikTok, they have influencers making the product prominent, LinkedIn is mostly used for job opportunities, and it seems like their Facebook is only designed to reach the older audiences- they just link out to their website and have about four general images.

They don’t hold any contests across their platforms, but they stay engaged with their audience in other ways. Like mentioned above, they have a unique storytelling aspect to their brand. Everything was created with intention and they craft their posts with meaning. A lot of their posts describe where they gather inspiration from. As the brand grows, I think they should look into the idea of holding contests in order to gain a larger following and increase engagement. Overall, I think they do a great job on their social media but I think they need to have a dedicated person/strategist to really grow their following and presence. For their LinkedIn, I recommend they add a couple of more tabs to their company profile, such as a “Our Story” tab, “Life at Merit” tab, and an “Our Mission” tab. Having more information out there about the brand and who they are will only help them- right now there is very minimal information. For Facebook, I think they should emulate what they are doing on Instagram in order to reach a larger range of people. Merit is doing a great job, but definitely have a lot of growing to do. See below for some examples of good and bad content.

This post is good, because it is describing where they gather inspiration- while also promoting their products.

Another great post, with a diverse model. They do a great job of showing their products on various skin tones.

The content above is bad because it is not directly associated with their brand. I also don't know if Kourtney Kardashian is someone they want to be affiliated with, as a brand who is all about clean and sustainable beauty. This post just felt a little random to me.