Demystifying the Community Rank System

[TeamBIC]

UPDATE 10/19: We're excited to announce that these rank updates here in the Beauty Insider Community are officially LIVE! 😊🎉 Please join us in the celebration by hitting "Reply" and sharing your rank. Whether you're rocking a brand new rank icon badge, or parading the same rank icon badge with pride, all are welcome to the rank party. 🥳

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In the coming months, we’ll be making some further tweaks to our Community, including expanding and evolving the Community rank system. With more changes on the horizon, now seemed like an excellent opportunity to answer some common questions we’ve seen in the Forum.

What is a Community rank?

A rank is a visual representation of your level in the Community, earned through your Community contributions. The more you’ve been involved in helping others and engaging in Community, the higher your rank is likely to be (more on this in a second).

Your rank is visible in two places – on your profile in the form of a rank badge and next to your nickname in the Community Forum and Gallery.

Is my Community rank the same as my Beauty Insider Loyalty status?

Community ranks are specific to your Community contributions. Your Loyalty status is not connected to your Community rank. For example, you may be a Boss III in the Beauty Insider Community and a VIB Loyalty member. Or a Rising Star I in the Community and a Rouge Loyalty member.

What changes can I expect?

When the Beauty Insider Community started, we could only guess at how we’d grow. With over a decade since our first launch as Beauty Talk, and more than five years since the Beauty Insider Community relaunch, now it’s time to rework and expand the available ranks to match the growth of our community.

In an effort to make sure that everyone is recognized for their contributions, the rank system will be expanded from 12 ranks across 4 categories to 40 ranks across 8 categories. We want the community as a whole – from the community newbies to our community leaders – to be included and rewarded.

How do I move up the ranks?

The short answer is by helping and inspiring other members of the community. Do what you would normally do – share, connect, and appreciate others – and the rank ups will follow. Naturally, we can’t share the secret sauce, but we can offer some guiding principles:

• Post content with our BIC guidelines in mind. Reactions to your contributions are really important. So post the good stuff – threads and replies that are helpful, funny, fabulous, and inspire your fellow Community members to engage.

• React to others’ great contributions. If you see a post you like, be sure to give it a heart and tell your fellow members how much you appreciate it. Everyone loves a little love. This helps to bubble up the best posts and makes Community a really welcoming place to be.

• Show up in all your glory. Who are you? We’d all love to know who is behind all those awesome posts. Make sure you’ve completed your profile. This is an easy way to get started in Community and connect with fellow enthusiasts. It’s never too late to complete your profile for a little boost if you haven’t already.

• Contribute good photos and reviews. Not everyone is born to be an author in the Forum – we love photos and reviews too. Show us what you’ve got! Thoughtful reviews and great photos (either as part of your review or on our Gallery) can be really helpful to other members. Photos don’t need to be of your face if you’re feeling camera shy. We love seeing swatches, hauls, shelfies, and routines as well.

• Ask for advice and dole some out. This community is the best place to ask your burning questions, get recommendations and opinions, and share your own. You can feel secure knowing you’re surrounded by fellow beauty enthusiasts. Ask for advice or opinions in both the Forum and on the Questions & Answers area on product pages. 

• Operate with integrity. The backbone of our community is trust – without trust, it doesn’t work. Trying to game the system and move up the ranks will be noticed by the community admins and moderators. If you have questions, our community guidelines (linked here) are clear about what is and isn’t acceptable behavior.

What about the Community Ambassadors? Is that a rank?

In short, “Community Ambassador” is a designation as part of an official recognition program. It’s not specifically tied to rank but those individuals with a higher rank are more likely to be considered.

Sephora Beauty Insider Community Ambassadors (or Sephora Community Ambassadors) are highly engaged Community members across all areas of Community (Forum, Gallery, Reviews, and Questions & Answers). These members regularly help other members by sharing their favorite products and beauty routines, posting honest reviews, and uploading looks or “shelfies.” To recognize them, we created the annual Sephora Beauty Insider Community Ambassador program and invited them to participate. All opinions expressed by the Community Ambassadors are theirs alone.  

Community Ambassadors help curate the content that you see within the main feed on the Community Forum and they can be identified by their “Community Ambassador” badge.

Edited 7/28/2022

Will my rank reset once the changes are made? 

No! 😊 Your rank will not reset, and no one is starting over. All the contributions you’ve made since the 2017 relaunch of the Beauty Insider Community will contribute to your new rank. 

We hope this helps to answer any questions you have had about the Beauty Insider Community rank system. Stay tuned for when the changes are planned to go into effect! 🤩💖🙏🏻✨🦙

[sarahrehman]

Do we get free products to test if our rank increases? I would only contribute more if I would be getting free products lol. Or discounts ! I stopped posting reviews on Sephora because there is no incentive. I post detailed reviews on Influenster because there is an incentive. If Sephora wants more reviews there should be incentives for us here too. 

[Harobedb]

What a strange attitude. I rely on reviews - REAL reviews - when purchasing products. I also leave reviews for items that were very good or very bad, and I hope they help someone, the way reviews from someone's personal experience help me. Do you buy beauty items from Sephora? If you do, don't you rely on the reviews when making a purchasing decision?

I don't expect anyone to "pay" me when I write reviews. I consider it to be a karma thing; I'm just paying back fellow beauty enthusiasts in gratitude for the ones who left good reviews I relied on.

I hope to God a lot of people don't think the way you do. That'd be sad beyond belief.

[WickedGenius]

Based on @danielledanielle 's reply, Sephora is thinking it's a privilege for you to provide free marketing labor with nothing in return but the "good vibes" of participating. Sephora does not understand the word "incentive". Look at their BI program. Thank you for mentioning influenster. I had forgotten about them and will check them out.

[danielledanielle]

@WickedGenius , that's a weird response to what I said.  Well, not weird, but odd because it's as if you had a preconceived notion that reviewing is labor and you should be compensated for it.  Again, many retail sites ask for reviews and there are some programs that exchange your reviews for items, no doubt.  But, there are also people that review freely, and others (like me) who find it helpful.  I kind of look for verified purchases and non-incentivized reviews anyhow because someone that's getting an item for free, that's used it 1-2 days with a two line review...isn't super helpful to me.  But, to each its own.

Also, besides influenster, there are brands that also periodically ask for testers, so keep looking, and you'll find what you want.  You're always welcome to post here, but keep in mind the privilege is being a part of a community.

[danielledanielle]

@sarahrehman , the ranking is about participation in the Beauty Insider Community.  "Gaming the system" isn't the best idea, but you are more than welcome to join the chatter on the boards in general. 

Also,  reviews are just a part of participation, and the idea of reviewing a product is to give perspective.

[MommaKikibear]

Thank you for this information @TeamBIC !  I'm relatively new to Sephora and the community here, although I'm not young in age (38 in July) or to all things beauty. It was confusing seeing the icons and titles.

So far, the little I've perused, I can say I really appreciate and enjoy it here. 😊 

[SarahK0731]

How do you become an ambassador?

[SportyGirly125]

@SarahK0731 You have to be chosen by TeamBIC.  

[BaseballJen]

@SarahK0731 There's a post on this page that addresses Community Ambassador status! It doesn't give a lot of detail but there are some suggestions on the best way to put yourself in a position to be invited. Hope that helps! 😊 

[quspork]

@SarahK0731 The Sephora community mods choose the Ambassadors based on their helpful contributions to the community. 🙂

[thereallnautica]

SO HAPPY 😉

[veronika23]

@TeamBIC   "No! 😊 Your rank will not reset, and no one is starting over. All the contributions you’ve made since the 2017 relaunch of the Beauty Insider Community will contribute to your new rank. "  - Ok so why am I no longer a top tier hall of famer? This is just another huge slap in the face. sigh.

[sister13]

Oh V! Miss you! I wish they would have grand-mothered you in to the tippy-top HOF status (and all of us who were HOF before, tbh), but you are still higher than most if not all. Not sure how they have weighted things in the new algorithm, you have so much activity over time, it’s hard to believe it doesn’t put you at the topmost level! I have been at Boss I/II for an eternity, not sure how I will ever move up, lol. @veronika23 

[heartsmyface]

@veronika23  You’re one of the highest to the utmost top still!   I’m still a Baby Boss (I think?)   You’re definitely a legendary top tier Hall Of Famer to the majority of us:). 

[veronika23]

@heartsmyface  uh aren't you a community ambassador.... which is the top of the top?...

[heartsmyface]

@veronika23  I suppose but that’s temporary.  We still level up the same as everyone else.  Our tiered title remains and continues to advance during an ambassadorship even though our level ups are not visible to either ourselves or anyone else during that time.  When an Ambassadorship ends we resume at whichever level we’ve earned  (it was BossII for me at the switchover so my status will be a complete surprise at the end of the Ambassador program) 

[veronika23]

@heartsmyface  aww ok... seems to me it's the same people...

[minimalistnude]

I think this post confused me even more than I already was about the community ranking system. #gettingtooold #im26

[BaseballJen]

Be super happy you're not 40! #im41! LOL! Tbh, I don't feel all that different. I feel like 30-35! Enjoy being - 27 or 28? - by now that Im leaving a comment! 🙂

[MissyLee5]

Newcomer II. I'll need to be much more active. What happens when you gain levels, are there some type of perks?