Personally I am a sucker for online competitions and games to win beauty products or a makeover and judging by the response these types of competitions get on Facebook and Twitter, I am not alone. Keeping your cosmetics case up to date can be pricey and with the current economic climate, not always achievable. Scraping together the pennies to buy the makeup you've been longing for, or the set you wanted but didn't get for Christmas can be difficult. This is why I have researched into how and why the Health and Beauty industry should look into digital promotions just a little bit more.

The beauty industry used to offer potential customers an opportunity to sample particular products before they commit to buying them. However, sampling has now become a thing of the past as new consumers are looking to social networking sites for prize draws, promotions and freebies. The cosmetics industry has become so varied and competitive that companies have to think of innovative promotional ideas to lure in the paying customers. Consumers are also looking for independent recommendations from more trust-worthy sources rather than spending their hard earned cash on something that may not live up to the hype, and their first port of call is usually social networking sites. As consumers' habits are changing drastically, the fastest in history in fact, businesses are struggling to keep up with it all and the beauty industry hasn't completely adapted to the digital world in terms of online promotions.

Social networking sites can help with the promotion of a cosmetic no end. Through digital promotions, beauty brands are able to target their desired audience and host product giveaways and competitions on social sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Brands can get customers to 'like' their page before they are allowed to enter a competition, giving them a larger following and social reach for any future promotions they may wish to roll out. Hosting promotions on social platforms also allows for a greater engagement with their audience as entrants are able to post comments onto their pages and brands can respond, whether it be accepting positive feedback or managing complaints.

A company who has seen how effective social media can be is L'oreal who has embraced digital promotions and hired their first digital director in luxury brands. L'oreal released this statement "Listening and engaging with our audience is crucial and we have embraced the opportunity digital media gives us to communicate with our customers".

Why should the Health & Beauty look into Digital promotions more?

• There has been a significant increase into internet users (1.3 billion users worldwide)
• Broadband made the world faster and more powerful
• With the Internet being faster and portable it then allowed it to become SOCIAL
• Word of mouth became something that can be done anywhere, anytime on any device.
• Create relationships and grow advocacy
• There are 95000 beauty blogs
• Women aged 35-49 are the fastest growing demographic on Facebook
• Over 50% of Women over 50 engage in social media more than girls 18 and under.
• Twitter has 50 million users
• The digital world affects all aspects of society
• It has the power of recommendation
• 78% of consumers trust peer recommendation which are now written online.
• Skincare delivers 31 million hits on Google a year.
• Demand for online Beauty advice, help, news, tips and knowledge is huge
• Beauty brands are now becoming involved with digital tools and gadgets.

Will some of our favourite beauty brands adapt to digital life in 2012? Only time will tell.