One of the factors behind the success of homeopathy in mass retail is social media, both by way of Facebook and mommy bloggers.
“We’ve always relied on word-of-mouth,” noted Alissa Gould, Boiron public relations manager. The average Oscillococcinum user told nine friends. “Now social media exponentially increases that word of mouth,” Gould said. Boiron recently has launched Facebook pages across its brand portfolio.
Mommy bloggers especially have played a key role in driving awareness around popular homeopathy brands for a simple reason — parents trust them. According to the Technorati 2011 State of the Blogosphere Report, 71% of bloggers only write about brands they think are reputable. Of mommy bloggers, 92% use Facebook to promote their blog and 75% use Twitter. As many as 55% follow those brands they blog about on social media sites like Facebook, and half say a brand’s reputation influences their decision to write about it.
Facebook currently boasts more than 800 million active users, and more than 50% log on to their pages every day. As of June, a total 106 million users on Twitter are now averaging 200 million tweets per day.
The article above is part of the DSN Category Review Series. For the complete Homeopathy Buy-In Report, including extensive charts, data and more analysis, click here.