As has been the case with every industry, Home Furnishing brands have been dramatically impacted by the pandemic, and with people staying home more around social distancing, Home Furnishing products are even more front and center in people’s lives.
In that context, many Home Furnishing have actually increased the amount of posts they’re sharing, for instance in April 2020, 11 Home Furnishing Brands shared at least 75% more posts on social media compared to March 2020. That includes Ralph Lauren Home sharing in 21 social media posts in April and Beautyrest shared 7 posts, which in both cases was a +600% increase from the volume of posts they shared in March. Sleep Country Canada, LoveSac, Zara Home, Walmart, Burrow, Arhuas, The Container Store, AptDeco, and Feather are the other Home Furnishing brands that increased the volume of their social media posts by at least 75% in April.
However, since an uptick in New Posts is generally met with an increase in Engagement, looking at Overall Engagement is not going to be an effective KPI to understanding which Home Furnishing brands are having the most success with their social strategy. Instead, we’re going to measure success on Average Response per post and answer the question, “What creative sparked more interest among users?”
Looking at the 157 Home Furnishing brands ListenFirst is tracking, only 5 of these brands saw an increase in Average Responses per post in April compared to March.
Home Furnishing Brands That Saw The Biggest Increase In Responses Per Post I April 2020 compared to March 2020
| Rank | Brand | Average Responses/Post | % Change |
| 1 | Beautyrest | 174 | +168% |
| 2 | Burrow | 120 | +157% |
| 3 | Feather | 146 | +66% |
| 4 | AptDeco | 134 | +59% |
| 5 | Zara Home | 9,725 | +4% |
| 6 | The Container Store | 679 | -16% |
| 7 | Arhaus | 1,753 | -23% |
| 8 | Walmart | 4,003 | -35% |
| 9 | Lovesac | 870 | -40% |
| 10 | Ralph Lauren Home | 4,291 | -41% |
| 11 | Sleep Country Canada | 222 | -69% |
With that in mind, there what each of those 5 brands did to increase the amount of engagement around their social media posts:
BEAUTYREST
Especially in an environment with so much economic uncertainty, offering the chance to win free stuff proved a winning formula for Beautyrest. They stood out around a campaign asking people to join their “First Class Sleepers sampling program” where in exchange for posting honest reviews, that would enter you into the chance to win free products including a mattress.
BURROW
Proving there’s more than one way to run a Home Furnishing promotion, Burrow saw an uptick in engagement with a slightly different strategy than Beautyrest where they offered users a chance to win $600 worth of goods. In a post that generated 591 responses on Instagram, Burrow asked users to keep the conversation on social by commenting and mentioning a friend as opposed to signing up for a program linked out to their website. Burrow also turned to man’s best friend to showcase the upside of being stuck at home, generating 379 responses around two Instagram posts reminding people that sheltering in place means quality time with your dogs.
FEATHER
Given everyone’s hope for this temporary way of living in quarantine paired with FEATHER’s business model of renting furniture, FEATHER saw an uptick in responses this month. The brand focused on Instagram, sharing nearly quadruple the amount of posts to this channel and halted posts published to Facebook – driving their +66% uptick in average responses. FEATHER oftentimes referenced the current public health crisis in the copy of some of their most engaging posts like, “Working from home? Get a setup that supports you.” and “This is not your office”
APTDECO
The world outside might not be funny right now but AptDeco still is. The brand earned their engagement lift in April with a more irrelevant take, for instance they received 761 responses on an Instagram post referencing Tiger King, asking if Carol Baskin killed her husband or not. Meanwhile a cartoon drawing, joking about how working from home is slowly driving people nuts earned 288 responses for AptDeco. If your brand’s tone was more comedic before pandemic started, that’s the tone that self selecting social media followers will still be expecting going forward.
ZARA HOME
With the audience not allowed to visit people in person because of social distancing, Zara Home got an engagement lift by letting people be virtual house guests. They generated 38,535 responses around an invitation on Instagram to view a breakfast with the Campbell-Rey design team on Instagram Live. The audience still craves group events and in the short term, using social media to create virtual events is in many cases the best option available for the audience to scratch that itch.
Conclusion
If it’s through creating contests, directly addressing ways to get through working from home, using humor as a way to release stress or creating virtual events, there are a number of ways that Home Furnishing brands are successfully connecting with the social media audience during the age of the coronavirus. By working with a social media analytics platform able to provide insights across the entire Home Furnishing ecosystem, brands will gain a better understanding of what social tactics are working, and what will be most effective for your brand specifically around outreach.
To learn more, download ListenFirst’s Home Furnishings Industry Special Report: Social Media in the Time of Coronavirus
