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August is using its social media prowess to talk about period care.<\/p>\n
Over the past two years, August \u2014 which sells organic period care products \u2014 has grown from an idea into a national brand selling at stores like Target. It has been able to grow that quickly in part because of its TikTok following. Co-founder Nadya Okamoto decided early on that she would grow August via TikTok and while she didn\u2019t have a following in 2021, today she has 4 million followers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was not on TikTok at all,\u201d she said. Okamoto was a featured speaker at the Modern Retail DTC Summit this week, and her interview is this week\u2019s Modern Retail Podcast.<\/p>\n
One of the big things she focuses on is making relatable content \u2014 and a lot of it. During the early days, \u201cfor like six months I posted 80 to 100 videos a day, personally,\u201d she said. This was both so that she could train herself to be a good TikTok personality \u2014 but also because audiences evolved and August wanted to be constantly testing and changing the content it produces. And the company has found that real, unvarnished content that talks about periods is what usually resonates the best.<\/p>\n
This strategy helped propel both Okamoto as an online personality, but also August as a brand \u2014 and she is quick to note that she built August so that its content and its branding would stand on its own. \u201cI don\u2019t want it to be Nadya equals August,\u201d she said. \u201cI wanted it to be like I am top-of-funnel \u2014 I\u2019m the August number-one fan.\u201d<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s another layer to August\u2019s digital strategy to goes beyond engaging millions of followers. The company has had an online community built on the platform Geneva since it started. This, according to Okamoto, was a way to grow its power users and make a space for the company to directly connect with customers. Today, the group has more than 5,000 members.<\/p>\n
One big thing she constantly keeps in mind is that even though her brand is very prevalent on social media, it needs to understand that the community aspect goes much deeper.<\/p>\n
\u201cSocial media is not community to us,\u201d she said. \u201c[It\u2019s] an audience.\u201d<\/p>\n
But for that audience, August is focused on making sure it is staying true to its authentic roots \u2014 talking plainly and openly about period care and menstrual issues. But that it isn\u2019t going too far.<\/p>\n
As Okomoto put it, it\u2019s about \u201cmaking sure that we\u2019re not provocative for the sake of being provocative.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here are a few highlights from the conversation, which have been lightly edited for clarity.<\/p>\n
On realizing TikTok was a brand building tool<\/strong> August\u2019s community strategy<\/strong> Finding the right balance with social media content<\/strong>
\u201cI think people see me now \u2014 and I have 4.1 million followers, the brand has like close to half a million across all socials \u2014 and I think that there\u2019s this assumption that I was a TikToker and then I created a brand. But it was actually quite the opposite. Like, we were going to start this brand, we raised about $2 million pre-revenue, pre-launch; we had quite a bit of pressure of like, \u2018Okay, we\u2019re gonna do this, this is going be a real company, we need to get to a point where we can get a seed round preempted or something like that.\u2019 So actually, I was not on TikTok at all [before August launched].\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is not to scale it crazily. These are our super fans. A lot of them, when we have events or otherwise, will encourage their circles to come in. But I would also say when a topic comes up [we talk about it]\u2026 Before we launched, when the presidential debates were happening, I was posting on social being: Does anybody want to live chat about this? And I think it kind of came at this perfect time where social media does feel very overwhelming. Also, a lot more social media platforms \u2014 TikTok and Instagram mainly \u2014 they\u2019re mostly based on looking at an explorer page. So it\u2019s not really cultivating relationships with people you directly follow.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing that we talk a lot about \u2014 especially as a brand that doesn\u2019t shy away from showing period blood or showing used products, because we want people to see how it works \u2014 is also making sure that we\u2019re not provocative for the sake of being provocative. We\u2019re thoughtful in wanting to start conversations. We talked a lot internally about how do we make sure we\u2019re not just edgy \u2014 but we\u2019re intentionally pushing the boundary. So I think that a lot of it is making sure that things that we do aren\u2019t just for the sake of going viral, but that they have an intent behind them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n