"The future of social looks like intimacy at scale"
A conversation with Lara Adekola, Senior Social Media and Community Manager at Glossier.
Good morning! Before we get into today’s newsletter, I have a request. Link in Bio is building a resource with the top-performing posts from brands in 2025. This is not a ranking! I’m gathering, analyzing, and sharing data on what “worked” this year. What percentage of top posts were videos? Did carousels break through? What type of content gets shared the most? I need a peek into your analytics to make it happen. Fill out the very short survey here.
Speaking of data, earlier this year, I asked Link in Bio subscribers to share one brand account that exemplifies “great social”. I compiled all 348 accounts here. Glossier was in the top ten most-mentioned brands. It’s remarkable how the beauty company has steadily been seen as best-in-class social essentially since they launched in 2014.
For today’s newsletter, I asked Lara Adekola, Senior Social Media and Community Manager at Glossier, to reflect on 2025. We talk about the brand’s most-viewed sponsored post (over 10M and counting), how they are embracing new social tools (“TikTok Shop tightened the gap between discovery and conversion”), and what’s on the horizon for 2026 (“The future of social looks like intimacy at scale”).
Rachel Karten: If Glossier’s social in 2025 was a movie, what would the 1–2 sentence synopsis be?
Lara Adekola: A story about a main character rediscovering her rhythm—experimenting, evolving, and refining the signature charm everyone remembers her for. It’s the prelude to her next era.
RK: What was the most engaging post of the year?
LA: Our most engaging post of the year came from our Get Ready With Me collaboration with KATSEYE. GRWMs are such a core part of Glossier’s DNA going back to our Into the Gloss roots, so bringing back that format with a rising global girl group felt both nostalgic and fresh. The collab post on Instagram reached over 4M views, and using Instagram’s Collab feature helped us tap into their incredibly active fandom and introduce Glossier to a whole new audience.
The GRWM itself felt refreshingly authentic: the girls walked through their real routines, mixing Glossier with their personal staples, which made the content feel intimate and lo-fi in the best way. We also drove viewers to YouTube to watch the full video, which has earned over 4.6M views to date—creating a true cross-platform moment and re-energizing our community around this kind of storytelling. It ultimately became a catalyst for a new wave of engagement and a reminder of how powerful simple, authentic beauty content still is.
This partnership also felt special because KATSEYE has a deeply passionate global fanbase, but they hadn’t been tapped in the beauty space yet. Collaborating with cultural voices outside the traditional beauty creator universe—especially artists on the cusp of superstardom—has always been a core Glossier pillar, and seeing their momentum skyrocket since has made this moment feel even more meaningful.
RK: Most-viewed sponsored post?
LA: Our most viewed sponsored post this year came from Tyrell Hampton, a lifestyle creator and photographer known for his bike rides across the Brooklyn Bridge. We partnered with him to promote Glossier Doux, and the beauty of it was how organic it felt—he wasn’t “selling,” he was just being himself. In the video, he’s biking at night in his fur coat, laughing and completely free, biting off the top of the fragrance, spraying himself mid-ride, and lifting it into the air in this spontaneous, liberating moment. The joy is palpable—it genuinely feels like what wearing Glossier feels like. The video earned over 10M views and showed how powerful creator-led storytelling is when it perfectly matches brand energy.
RK: One trend or style of post that really worked this year?
LA: One trend that worked incredibly well this year was sensory storytelling: texture, sound, ASMR, oddly-satisfying moments, and anything that made the product feel almost tangible through the screen. There’s been a noticeable shift away from overly edited visuals toward immediacy and realness, and audiences consistently responded to content that felt tactile and human.
Another style that continues to perform—and something Glossier has leaned into for years—is world-building. Creating a cohesive visual and emotional universe around a product or collection helps anchor it in culture and gives the community something to participate in. It’s been exciting to see that approach resonate even more broadly this year as more brands experiment with it.
RK: What role did TikTok Shop play in your ecosystem?
LA: TikTok Shop tightened the gap between discovery and conversion. Even though we only joined in mid-2025, we’ve already seen how it creates a new behavioral loop: people don’t just want to see Glossier content—they want to experience the product immediately. It’s encouraged us to think more modularly about how we structure content, and it’s also opened the door to new types of creators who introduce Glossier to audiences outside our traditional ecosystem. For us, TikTok Shop is becoming another meaningful entry point for discovery and a way to meet people exactly where they already are.
RK: Biggest insight you got from listening to your community?
LA: That people want to feel seen by the brand, not just marketed to. Our community is incredibly vocal and thoughtful—they tell us what’s working, what’s not, and what they want more of. A great example is our Ultralip extension launch this year: people loved the formula but kept telling us the caps weren’t secure enough. So when we redesigned the packaging with lock-in-place caps, we made sure to acknowledge that feedback right in our launch content. It was a small moment that demonstrated something bigger: when they speak, we listen.
RK: Favorite campaign you worked on?
LA: My favorite campaign this year was Cloud Paint Plush Blush. It felt like a true evolution of an iconic Glossier product—expanding the world of the original Cloud Paint into something fresh, sensorial, and innovative. The blush has this cushiony, pillow-soft matte finish and a dual-ended brush that immediately signaled a new level of pigment and artistry for the brand. We built a whole universe around it: memory-foam–inspired teases, macro sensorial videos and an ASMR moment (both of which went viral, driving over 2M views collectively), brush-focused posts, and creators across a wide range of skin tones showing off the color payoff. The community response was incredible, people were genuinely surprised by the pigment and kept saying, “Glossier is so back.”
We rounded it out with a Brooklyn pop-up, in-store illustrations with a local artist XOBexStudio, a puffy Cloud Paint Plush bag that became a fan favorite, and a mailer that sparked tons of unboxings. In a year crowded with blush launches, this one felt immersive, playful, and fresh.
RK: One thing you’re focusing on in 2026?
LA: One of our biggest focuses for 2026 is deepening the connection between our digital and IRL worlds. Experiential retail has always been at the core of Glossier and people are craving in-person connection more than ever. We see that firsthand through our influencer events, store pop-ups, and community-driven moments across the country with the lines of people waiting to experience Glossier in new ways. Social will always be a core touchpoint, but translating that energy into physical experiences, and then bringing those experiences back online feels like the next evolution of how we show up for our community.
We also want to build a more expansive creative universe that feels personal, immersive, and unmistakably Glossier, supported by richer storytelling and POV-driven creator partnerships. It’s about creating meaningful touchpoints across both digital and physical spaces, all grounded in what our community tells us they want.
RK: What does the future of social media look like?
LA: The future of social looks like intimacy at scale. People want smaller, more authentic digital experiences even as platforms grow more transactional. The brands that win will blend utility, creativity, emotion, and cultural awareness—and will feel human, adaptable, and creatively brave.
We’re entering an era where episodic content becomes increasingly important. Audiences want formats they can follow, not just posts they scroll past, almost like brands creating their own mini TV shows. We’re already seeing smart executions, like InStyle’s The Intern, which proves that audiences gravitate toward serialized storytelling, recurring characters, and formats with built-in anticipation.
Another shift I’m noticing is the move beyond niche-specific creators. People are tired of the same talking-head product demos. Tapping creators outside of beauty (lifestyle, comedy, artistry, even unexpected left-field voices) often feels more refreshing and cuts through the noise in a way hyper-niche content no longer does. It expands a brand’s world and taps into broader cultural currents.
The brands that can combine deep community connection + repeatable, ownable formats + unexpected creator POVs will be the ones that stand out in the next phase of social.
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This was great. The thought of “intimacy at scale” has definitely piqued my interest. I’m very curious to see how that happens without losing authenticity.
I filled out the survey 🥳 I can’t wait to see the results!!!