Opinions Wanted: BIC Posts

[KatieBT]

Hi BIC!

I know that we have a lot going on here in the Community – from holiday sneak peeks to challenges to live chats! We want to keep things fresh and fun so are opening up this thread to get your feedback on the different posts we’ve created. 2019 is almost here and we want to start planning our posts and sharing information that will be exciting and relevant to you.

To help us out, please be honest and let us know the following:

1. What type of content to you love?
2. What types of posts could you do without?
3. Which brands do you want to hear about?
4. Which categories do you want to hear more about? (Makeup, Fragrance, Hair, Wellness/supplements, skin, tools, etc.)
5. Any themes or trends we should be paying special attention to? (This is broad so anything including beauty trends, specific beauty gurus, vegan beauty, specific ingredients, etc.)
6. What do you want to see from us? Feel free to share more than one idea.

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

Team BIC

[Qteepiec]

@KatieBT My favorite posts involve GWP, sales and freebies. Also new must have items. I get a rush trying something on that’s new and free! Love this community and how much each member shares their love of beauty.

[DianaHuynh]

@KatieBT Any promotions or events! like sales or things that are happening in-stores. New products to match the season. (More skincareduring winter, summer more haircare, etc). I think Sephora use to post a list of trending items for the season. That was nice. I noticed an increase in 'Clean' products, thats nice and I hope Sephora continues to carry more.

[KatieBT]

@DianaHuynh  thanks for sharing! What's your go-to Sephora store/area? 

[DianaHuynh]

St Catharines - Pen Centre (while off at uni) really nice location. Its small but usually has the items I want in stock. Employees there are also really nice. Usually there isn't any store events other than ones that all stores get. The sephora in my hometown is alot bigger so I usually go there when they have store events running.

Mostly online now for the free samples 😅

[Brutalitops]

@KatieBT A content idea I think would be fun (but not necessarily easy or super feasible) would be like a sephora favorites collection launch full of items voted favorites by the BIC community after a survey/open suggestions thread.

A separate but related idea would be some sort of sample pack available only to BIC members for some small buy-in with a challenge attached like "use all of these blush samples (any way you want, no wrong answers-get creative), share your experience and pictures, vote for your favorite of the pack. There could be some recognition type prizes like most creative, most consistent poster, most popular posts, most different looks with one product, etc.

[eshoe]

Thank you for asking, @KatieBT!

1. What type of content to you love? Challenges and empties are my favorites. I find the sense of camaraderie in these to be so much fun, and it motivates me to try out new things (like my growing sample stash, new releases) as well as use up what I already have. Also, brand specific threads are fantastic and extremely helpful.
2. What types of posts could you do without? Everything has been said on this already.
3. Which brands do you want to hear about? Clean brands! Also smaller boutique brands would be fun to see/hear about here.
4. Which categories do you want to hear more about? (Makeup, Fragrance, Hair, Wellness/supplements, skin, tools, etc.) Tools, specifically brushes. Also skincare - love hearing about new products/techniques. More masks, as well as masking tools. Tatcha has a beautiful bowl/brush set as an example. 
5. Any themes or trends we should be paying special attention to? (This is broad so anything including beauty trends, specific beauty gurus, vegan beauty, specific ingredients, etc.) Global trends in skincare would be great. I don’t watch YT for beauty videos, but there are plenty of things I would be interested in if it were coming from a beauty director or mod here. 
6. What do you want to see from us? Feel free to share more than one idea. Please, if there is any way to create a better search engine, it would be incredibly helpful. We were keeping a spreadsheet for awhile of masks on the Mask of the Week thread for references, but the redundancy made it difficult to keep up. Many, many times when I am looking for a mask (or any other product to buy) I try a search here, but nothing relevant shows up. I trust the opinions of other BIC’ers; it would be so helpful to figure out a way to make this possible. Someone else mentioned more involvement from the mods/beauty director(s), and I agree.  A year ago I wasn’t as involved with BIC, so I don’t have that frame of reference. But I’m always curious as to what the mods are using/wearing/trying out. It makes the whole experience more fun. Thanks again for asking and listening!

[scott1201]

YES to the search function. I find the thread search function to be overall unhelpful anyway, but it would be great if we could search within a thread for specific posts. @eshoe

[MCSSavvy]

1. What type of content to you love? Weekly Wow and other discount/event discussions/notifications, discussions regarding new or upcoming releases, application techniques, swatches, brand info, mask of the week or other type challenges
2. What types of posts could you do without?  Spam, duplicate posts by the same poster across the groups as they all show up in the newsfeed at the same time, random posts about a product (did you try it? - what color match am I in xyz brand).  Not interested in the influencer or youtuber posts. It would be nice if we had common threads like we did when it was BT as some posts seem fairly random and do not garner discussion.  Also, I find the gallery looks popping up in the newsfeed annoying.  
3. Which brands do you want to hear about?  Biossance, Drunk Elephant, Hourglass, CoverFx, ABH, Bite Beauty, and new new brands that are fragrance free, paraben-free, sulfate free, etc.
4. Which categories do you want to hear more about? (Makeup, Fragrance, Hair, Wellness/supplements, skin, tools, etc.) Skincare, makeup and tools.  
5. Any themes or trends we should be paying special attention to? (This is broad so anything including beauty trends, specific beauty gurus, vegan  beauty, specific ingredients, etc.) -- Not interested in influencer, youtuber or beauty gurus.  Vegan / cruelty-free skincare and make-up as well as other clean products 
6. What do you want to see from us? Feel free to share more than one idea.  I miss the feel of the BT board.  It's hard to find links to threads and it can be hard to engage in discussion.  In terms of product reviews, I would like to be able to read reviews posted by "verified purchasers."  Also, a separate want/love list would be useful.  I'd like to see more clean, fragrance free sample options from the brands if at all possible.  
   Thanks.

[fatimamummy]

@KatieBT I went through the thread and see you are given a lot of great suggestions. I don’t have much to add in terms of posts but for the last point WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SEE FROM US? 

I miss the times when there was more interaction between MODs and community members. Personally I want BIC team to be more responsive to the community members. For instance the current cyber week deals thread is a great idea but then completely disappearing from the post when people have questions about those deals doesn’t seem great. Lately it has become a common practice. Community memeber ask a question and even tag one or more Mods but still more than often the questions are ignored. This kind of kills the purpose of this community. 

I didn’t mean to make it a complaint post but I wasn’t sure where else should I post it so  it doesn’t get lost in the comments and posts.

[melissapurple22]

1. The content I love to see is challenges, promos and what I am wearing today.  I also love seeing what everyone has gotten or thinking to buy and I absolutely love the beauty news with what is coming out.

2. I am not a big fan of the negative posts.  I feel there is place for that but it's more of a customer service issue that something everyone needs to read. 

3. I love to hear about new brands coming to Sephora but also like hearing about ones you already carry like Fenty and Fresh. Like hearing what new things they are coming out with and new way to use older products. 

4.  Categories I would like to see more about are  more makeup how too's and hair ones. Find there is not a lot of hair trends on the site. Also would like more face and body be it great new creams or  techniques to use. 

5. I think beauty trends are important to pay attention too. I know inner beauty is popular right now and I feel that is well covered to me    But actually trends in beauty I only see on YouTube videos.  

6. I would love more of the Sephora pro beauty  Directors too do more things on the site. I have loved it when they have attributed too the site in the past like @DavidPRO and @JeffreyPRO. They bring great advice and  humour and knowledge to a topic. 

Thanks @KatieBT for listening to our ldeas! Can't wait to see what changes come 💜

[cianni]

@melissapurple22 Ohhh yes a thread or group work tutorials or how/to’s would be soooo good! I always have to go to YouTube to see how people use something, and that usually helps influence my buying. Great idea!

[Tamara76]

Thank you for giving us the chance to share our feedback, @KatieBT! ❤️

1. What type of content to you love? I love monthly hauls, subscription box and unicorn mail posts the most.  I also love sneak peeks and when y'all or other users challenge us to come up with lists, like holiday gift lists, hits & misses, desert island lists, etc... I also love sneak peaks, brand threads hosted by the brands and  Weekly Wows - for example, I loved @DavidBD's recent YSL Lippie thread!  

2. What types of posts could you do without? I wholeheartedly agree with the others about spam posts and brands posing as community members without disclosing they are from the brand.

I agree that Influenster posts are annoying, but in the posters' defense, when Influenster asks you to post a review on Sephora.com to earn your badge, they either link you to the Gallery or to the Conversations instead of to the product pages.  I get the impression that Influenster doesn't understand how BIC works.  Since they require you to upload a screenshot of your review, I just post it in the review section on the product page, regardless of where their link drops me.  Perhaps there is an opportunity to educate Influenster??? 

Sidenote:  I also find it bizarre when people post overly positive Influenster reviews  - I post totally honest feedback on Influenster and have given many 1 star reviews for products that did not work for me and they still send me products, so it confounds me why people think they have to post 5 star reviews even when they don't like a product.

3. Which brands do you want to hear about? I love hearing about new releases from any brands tbh.  I also love learning about new brands coming to Sephora.

4. Which categories do you want to hear more about? (Makeup, Fragrance, Hair, Wellness/supplements, skin, tools, etc.) All of the above!  I honestly don't use the groups on BIC, but may drop into any category when I'm on the site as I have many interests here.  I also agree with @gonerogue - I can't get enough glitter!!!!

5. Any themes or trends we should be paying special attention to? (This is broad so anything including beauty trends, specific beauty gurus, vegan beauty, specific ingredients, etc.) I come to BIC to learn more about the latest trends, so as long as y'all are in the know and start threads for us to share our thoughts, I love to participate! ❤️

6. What do you want to see from us? Feel free to share more than one idea. 

I really love the increased Mod and Admin participation on the threads - Y'all are fun to chat with! ❤️

I also love when brands interact with us in our threads or start threads or live chats and actually talk to us (as long as they identify themselves as representing the brand) like people instead of making the thread look like an ad.  Please encourage them to keep engaging on a personal level - It's a win win!!!! ❤️

 I think it is also important to continue to let some popular threads continue organically and allow community members to keep hosting them (i.e. monthly hauls, unicorn mail, etc...), but please pop in from time to time to chat.  I'd love to see the mods and admins post their hauls, too!!!! ❤️

I also agree with @gonerogue about Community Events and Meet Ups - I'd love to see more of them in different locations in the coming year.  Since community is the heart of BIC, it is so cool to actually meet the mods, admins and our friends in person.  Sephoria was an absolutely amazing event for me and my daughter, but the most special part was meeting the amazing women whom I became friends with on BT years ago!  

ETA:  Not really a thread suggestions, but I agree with some of the others here that I wish that the BIC portion of the app were optimized for an easier user experience - Unless I'm replying to someone quickly, I prefer to add my longer posts on my computer.  I'm also still dying to see emojis and sephojis on the desktop version of BIC.  And Boomerang videos!!!! ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ 

[darlyndar]

@Tamara76 I joined influencer a few years back and did everything to receive a badge on my first VoxBox. It was a Marc Jacobs Palette. Honestly, I don’t even go on the site or do anything to get badges and I still get VoxBoxes! I get one every 2/3 months. My most recent one is the Nivea Cream which I’ve actually been using a lot. I thinks it’s impossible to check every single post and I’m living proof that they really don’t. Lol

[gonerogue]

1. What type of content to you love? I love challenges, user event experience posts, gratis posts (for swatches and reviews), sneak peeks, Weekly Wows. 
2. What types of posts could you do without? SPAM. I single handedly mark AT LEAST 10 spam posts a day throughout the day. Influencer posts....I don't take them seriously and don't think anyone in the community does either. There should be a ban on those kind of posts- they are not genuine and serve no purpose for anyone.
3. Which brands do you want to hear about? I love a lot of brands so this is a hard question for me to answer but in general just hearing from brands about new releases always excites me. Anything Natasha Denona, Pat McGrath, Sephora Collection, Fenty, and Anastasia BH excites me as well 🙂
4. Which categories do you want to hear more about? (Makeup, Fragrance, Hair, Wellness/supplements, skin, tools, etc.) All of the above! Anything innovative is always great. I also love glitter so bring on more talk about glitter!
5. Any themes or trends we should be paying special attention to? (This is broad so anything including beauty trends, specific beauty gurus, vegan beauty, specific ingredients, etc.) I'm all for following and trying the newest beauty trends as long as they don't seem excessive for me. I think beauty gurus that are not YouTube influencers are popular on BIC- so more of them.
6. What do you want to see from us? Feel free to share more than one idea. 

-More regulation on spam posts and filtering of posts like BT used to have.

-More Community interactive events like a giant meet up at big cities and focus groups for improving all things Sephora (from service to BIC).

-Meet up with mods! I said it before and I'll say it again! Even if it's just informal- it would be nice to spend some time with the awesome mods that help make our BIC experiences worthwhile.

[sockmagnet]

The threads I check and enjoy the most tend to be the ones with a lot of activity or that are informative:

Current monthly hauls

Empties
The No-buy, low-buy, budget-buy accountability and support thread

Show me your storage
Pan it!

Use your foil samples challenge

Subscription central

I also like to read about K-beauty, J-beauty, cruelty-free, sensitive skin, deals, previews of upcoming releases, etc. 

The most annoying thing is the number of posts that are basically the same thing over and over again so then people get bored of responding and it just clutters up your feed, so maybe some of those should be pinned threads or something? Mostly these seem to be people asking for recommendations for specific skin concerns, so the information could be provided and added to in pinned threads which would lead to more interaction from the community.

It would also be nice to have an option in the side bar to just look at the threads that you have subscribed to instead of having to wade through everything else every time. Also agree with other comments that threads should be archivable rather than showing up in searches when there is a newer version of the thread.

[CheerMomma]

I’d like to see a board for ‘influenster’ posts so they can all be coralled somewhere. 

It it would be fab if when typing, depending on the keywords it could suggest the board it should be posted to. “Looks like you are unhappy, please post this to customer service” “this seems to be an influenster review, please post to the influenster board”

[fieldsofclover]

I'd love to see mods take a stronger hand in moving discussions into the appropriate groups.

The Customer Support group isn't readily apparent to people who don't know their way around the boards, so it's understandable that complaints or account queries end up in insiders/VIB/Rouge (also, a lot of people are comfortable randomly shouting into the void). But a policy that adds a "thank you for your post! I've moved this discussion into the Customer Support group" type of response in addition to the way those are currently handled would keep the boards and feed tidier and more positive-feeling.

The Influenster post swarming, and spammy posts from people trying to level up, were the major reasons I've been participating less but I don't really have constructive suggestions for those issues.

[veronika23]

@fieldsofclover   I agree about the posts being moved. That used to get done all the time in BT. All those spam, unclear or influenster type posts also weren't allowed and got deleted... unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. I miss the BT days so much... it was much more organized... most of my frustrations come from the chaos that is the main feed.

[PrettyPaint]

1. I like hearing about early/new releases, new products, new brands, etc. 

2. Like others, the thing that has turned me off the most is all the spam. If I check BIC in the morning, I swear the first page is loaded up entirely with sketchy, spam links.

3. I have truly been enjoying all the clean category products, so I hope that continues. I also love Natasha Denona, Pat McGrath, etc.

4-5. I want more of the “clean” skincare and fragrance and hair categories if possible! 

[cianni]

I feel like I’ve posted 100 times on this thread but once I started thinking about the questions I just couldn’t stop 😂

this would either go under 1 or 4, but maybe a thread or group dedicated to products that are (actually) limited edition or are being discontinued and some potential dupes or alternatives! I hate to finish something only to realize it’s been discontinued and then I’ve run out and I can’t figure out what would be comparable 🙄. I ran into this issue when that MUFE lipstick that came in every GWP, I think Copper no. 9? Something like that. Anyways, it was my moms go-to color, but when she finally ran out of all my trial sizes, it was discontinued and I couldn’t find it anywhere! I had to bring the tiniest little stub of a lipstick to compare swatches for the longest time 😂 A thread or group of discontinued items and dupes would have been a godsend because I would have stocked up or at least saved time with matching it myself!