Connecting, Creating, and Succeeding: Frownies' Journey to Social Media Triumph

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I'm sure you could all give a few examples of small businesses who blew up on social media and now have millions of followers. And you've probably thought, “good for them, but that'll never be me.” Well, I think you're wrong, and I'll show you why. This week, I had the privilege to sit down with Helen Morrison, one of the 5th generation female owners and face of Frownies. Their small business started posting on TikTok in late 2020 and has since amassed over 254,000 followers, with multiple videos being viewed over 1 million times. Helen's true passion, connecting with people, has taught her how to succeed on social media.

Having achieved recent social media notoriety, I bet you'd never guess that Frownies was actually invented in 1889 by Helen's great great grandmother, as a natural way to eliminate wrinkles. Their wrinkle patch is what they're best known for, but Frownies has now grown to include other beauty products such as eye patches, cleansers, and more. To this day the company is still family owned and operated. But for Helen, working for the family business was never the dream. She recalled to me that even though her first job at 14 was folding Frownies patches, her dream was to help people. Helen received her degree to be an elementary school teacher and taught special education for many years. On the side of her teaching career, she also grew her own fitness “side hustle” on Instagram where she got most of her experience on social media.

As the following for her fitness account grew, her family encouraged her to take over the Frownies social media. Although Helen would occasionally help out at trade shows, where she always secured sales, she still wasn't interested in working full time for the family business. But because of her consistent success on social media, her family continued to try and convince her to take over the brand's social media. She recalled, “I love the product, and this is how I talk about any product I love, doesn't mean I have to work for the family business.” However, sometimes fate intervenes with the best laid plans.

By pure chance, someone who followed Helen's personal account sent her a video she made organically on TikTok of her experience with Frownies. That video received over 2 million views, and the people who wanted to buy Frownies didn't have anywhere to go on TikTok. This was the final push Helen needed and she immediately started an account for Frownies. Their first video received over 60,000 views.

But as we know, virality on social media comes and goes if you don't have a strategy to capitalize on it. Before I jump into Frownies' strategy, I want to give some background to those who maybe aren't familiar with the nuances between TikTok and Instagram. Each platform has great value for a brand, but in practice are very different. TikTok is a reach platform, whereas Instagram is the community builder. On TikTok, around 98% of the views on one post are from the “For You” page, and 2% are from your followers. When you open TikTok it immediately shows you what the algorithm thinks you want to see, not who you follow. So, it's a great way to reach a lot of people with just one post. Instagram is the opposite. Most of the views you get on posts are from your followers, and when you open Instagram, you're automatically directed to engage with who you follow. Another important distinction is that TikTok's direct messaging is not as advanced as Instagram's, meaning you can't send photos, videos, or voice memos. On Instagram you can, and this is where the magic happens for Helen and Frownies.

Helen's strategy has always centered around authentic connections and great customer service, so Helen is “always directing new followers on TikTok to Instagram because we're heavy in the DMs. Content is just the first step in our process. DMs is where we bring you into the Frownies community.” Before I met Helen, I had organically purchased a pack of Frownies so I didn't have to get botox. (Yes, I'm only 27, but go to any dermatologist today and they'll try to sell you “preventative botox,” which just isn't for me.) Once I received and tried my Frownies for the first time, I had some questions about application, so I left a comment on one of her videos. Immediately I received a DM with a voice memo. It took me a second to realize, but I recognized the voice as the woman in the videos! I was so genuinely surprised not just by the personal touch, but by the kind and caring customer service that followed.

I experienced firsthand, just how impactful those voice notes are. When I told Helen this story she added, “leveraging the voice notes is great, one, because it's convenient for me to do on a walk, but it's also the personal touch. I don't get burnout as a creator and I know all the names of our customers. To this day we have never done a paid collaboration, it's been only organic customer content.” Let that sink in for a second. All brands include influencer paid partnerships as part of their marketing budget. But for Frownies, their strategy has allowed them to simply capitalize on the organic content made by enthusiastic customers, and in 2021, Frownies was #3 search term in the beauty category on Google.

Here's what Helen says to those who might still be on the fence about social media, “A lot of founders don't know social media well, but it's worth learning because this is the world now. You have this way of doing door-to-door sales, but you can reach 17 million doors in one day. Going out and building those relationships, connecting, being a real person is what it's all about.”

That's what it's always been about for Helen, connecting with people. She didn't think she wanted to go into business at all because she thought it would be boring. But when she realized that social media allowed her to connect with her customers, she now loves it. I was curious to know how this large following has changed Frownies. So many businesses fall into the trap where they grow so big they lose sight of their main purpose. “Even though we've grown so big in awareness and sales, we're still a small team.” Helen has just a couple team members that help her keep up with messages and comments, but it's still Helen who makes the content and responds to customers' questions.

At the end of the day, what sets Frownies apart from other brands is this authentic connection to the customer and to the product. I should also mention that they actually have a great product that works, without which they wouldn't have a mass of user generated content to play with. But, as a business “you have to be more than a product. Someone can come along and try and copy you, but you have to be different, for [Helen] it's the community and the connections.” I love that Frownies has never lost sight of what's important or taken their social media following for granted. They treat every customer and every success story like it's the first one, and express gratitude and genuine interest in their customers' experiences. No matter what day and age it is, that will always mean the most to consumers.

Every small business, actually, every business, should be taking notes on Frownies' success on social media, and the impact it's had on the company's bottom line. Helen is showing us that it's not that hard to succeed, as long as you're genuinely kind, caring, and proactive. Forget about the algorithm, because that's the real formula for success.

Check out Frownies on TikTok and Instagram, and if you're reading this, skip Sephora and snag some amazing skincare products from their website.

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