"Here Comes the Makeup Tutorial You Asked For!": Exploring Communication Strategies and Viewer Engagement in Beauty Videos on Rednote

TL;DR

This study analyzes communication strategies in beauty videos on Rednote and examines how these strategies influence viewer engagement, providing a taxonomy and computational classification of comments to understand viewer responses.

Contribution

It offers a comprehensive taxonomy of communication strategies in beauty videos and analyzes their impact on viewer engagement using computational methods.

Findings

Using call-to-action increases viewer comments and debates.

Certain background choices correlate with higher engagement.

Communication strategies significantly influence viewer interaction.

Abstract

More and more people, especially females, create and view beauty videos covering topics like makeup tutorials and vlogs on social media platforms. Understanding the communication strategies that creators use in these videos and how they affect viewers' engagement can help spread beauty knowledge. By coding 352 beauty videos in Rednote, this study presents a comprehensive taxonomy of communication strategies used by the creators, such as using home as the video background and displaying makeup effects when starting the narrative at the beginning. We further label and computationally classify six categories of comments that reveal viewers' engagement with beauty videos. The regression analyses reveal the effects of beauty video communication strategies on viewers' engagement; for example, calling viewers to take action at the end tends to attract more comments that debate the product's efficacy. We discuss insights into fostering the creation of beauty videos and the communication of beauty knowledge.