ForumCon: Top 5 Forum Insights that Changed our Business, Crista Bailey

Top 5 Forum Insights That
Changed Our Business

TEXTUREMEDIA
2.7M
Unique visitors a month
25M
Unique visits in 2013
500K+ Loyal email subs
$1B+
Spend annually on hair
care products
Source: Google Analytics
THE LARGEST SOCIAL PLATFORM THAT ACTIVELY EMPOWERS AND ENGAGES A
DIVERSE COMMUNITY OF FEMALE INFLUENCERS IN HAIR CARE

TEXTUREMEDIA
2.75M
Average FB Post Reach
11M+ MONTHLY INFLUENCER REACH
200
Pieces of content
8M
Emails sent
4.5M
YouTube
Source: Facebook, YouTube, Instagram
1.1M
Instagram

1998 – 1 Little v-Bulletin Forum "
NaturallyCurly.com Launched a Movement
•  2 curly journalists
•  Multiple mimosas
•  One 12-year-old web
designer
•  $300 investment
•  1 big idea
•  Passion/”Concern”
TMI$%$Top$Forum$Insights$that$Changed$our$Business$
1980s curly
“helmet” hair

2014 – Forum & App

2014"
Articles"
Videos"
Styles"
Reviews"
Tutorials"
DIY Recipes"
Giveaways"
Q&A

2014 – Commerce

2014 – Stylist Community

2014 – Life & Hair Blog

So, how did we go from there…

MEDIA & COMMERCE$
MARKET INSIGHTS & DATA$
Social, mobile, video, email, photo, Q&A, sampling
30,000+ UGC product review database
Consumer data & market insights
{
{
… to here?

Top 5 Forum Insights "
That Changed Our Business
“Worry about content… content is king… unless
your content is engaging, there’s no community
to monetize on.”
#ForumCon — Caroline Abellar (@thinkcaroline)
June 13, 2013

1. Stay true to the community language
Even if the market doesn’t consider it, it
eventually will.

“Every organization willing to radically reconceive itself for
the Web should look at NaturallyCurly.com”

--April 2010 NY Times Sunday Magazine
I$get$it!$
I$don’t$get$it?$

Our language = hair type

Products can transcend "
hair type & skin color

2011/2012"
Target’s Beauty & Hair Care Aisle

2013/2014"
Target’s Hair
Care Aisle

--April 2014

2. Give community tools to "
create beyond the forum "
Create more meaningful and shareable
content in and outside the forum

Growing database
of 30,000 product
reviews for 10,000
products

Reviews drive product purchase
56% increase in
orders when a beauty
product’s # of reviews
went from 1 to 15, and
rating went from 3.5 to
4.5 stars
Source: Bazaarvoice

Same goes for stylist review db

Productize community passion for product + your
expertise = shareable seals

2013/2014"
Target’s Hair
Care Aisle
“Hey, NaturallyCurly,
can we use your seal
to sell more
product?”

3. Leverage community
conversations to capture insights

Introduc;on$
Key$Objec;ves$
Methodology$
Study$Highlights$and$Implica;ons$
Detailed$Findings$
Appendix$
Cosme&cs,)Skin)Care)&)Fragrances)
Living)with)Natural)Hair)
Hair)Care)and)Styling)Overview)
Shampoo)Usage)&)Spend)
Condi&oner)Usage)&)Spend)
Finishing)Product)Usage)&)Spend)
Oil)Product)Usage)&)Spend)
Brand)Loyalty)
Hair)Product)Retailer)U&liza&on)
Chemical)Services)and)Treatments)
Tools)and)Accessories)
TextureTrends Table of Contents
Styling)Product)Usage)&)Spend)

TextureTrends further positions us as
thought leaders in our space

4. Identify the rising stars

Identiﬁed a rising star that now
represents 25% of our trafﬁc

Rising stars can mean products too

5. Carry the conversation other
places. It’s OK.

8% of
monthly visits
sourced from
social 
Gain 50K new
social
followers
each month

Break out the tissue, and the analytics

As social followers grow…

… so does our reach
0$$
20,000$$
40,000$$
60,000$$
80,000$$
100,000$$
120,000$$
140,000$$
160,000$$
180,000$$
200,000$$
Uniques)2014)

Top 5 Forum Insights That Changed
Our Business
1.  Stay true to the language
2.  More tools in community hands
3.  Leverage community to build insights
4.  Identify and support the rising stars
5.  Be open and social: carry the conversation
other places

You are the expert in “_______”
•  You’ve got community to back you up
•  And more content than community
•  Go build relationships with much bigger fish
•  And with smaller fish, because they will
become big fish, and they are all part of your
ecosystem, and as we know
•  Community talks
•  You, listen and lead for them.

PS: You haven’t lived until you’ve
attended a hair & beauty show

ForumCon: Top 5 Forum Insights that Changed our Business, Crista Bailey

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ForumCon: Top 5 Forum Insights that Changed our Business, Crista Bailey