New dosage forms drive supplements growth but is social media helping?

Traditional food supplement forms are getting a makeover as manufacturing advances permit ever greater possibilities says Jeff Hilton, co-founder of US consultancy the Integrated Marketing Group (IMG). But is your social media strategy helping?

“It’s an evolution on the consumer side that is being met by manufacturers and that is a broadening of the dosage forms available for supplementation,” Hilton observed. “So what was traditionally a pills world – tablets and capsules is giving way to other diverse forms like liquids and gums and shots and chewables.”

But if companies have innovations to market, are they getting their social media strategy right?

“Social media is changing the way companies should be doing marketing. It needs to be integrated into everybody’s strategy but I think the problem in the industry is that a lot of companies think a Facebook page is doing social media as opposed to having a social media strategy.”