Josie Bunker

June 26th, 2022

COM 377

Social Audit

Alani Nutrition Social Audit: 2022

Introduction

“To help you succeed,” four simple words complete the Alani Nutrition mission. Alani

Nutrition or Alani Nu prides themselves on the wellness of their consumers and for them to

succeed (Alani Nu, 2022). As a company they have production in four different categories:

drink and snack, fitness, self, and brand merchandise. Energy drinks are the main products sold

within the brand (Alani Nu, 2022). The brand started in 2018, when fitness businesswoman and

social media influencer, Katy Hearn, established the company (Morgan, 2022). “It has since

grown to become one of the most well-known health and wellness brands on the market”

(Morgan, 2022). Alani Nutrition can thank their growth to social media.

Social media is the main communication channel for Alani. The use of social media gives

Alani the chance to expand their products and increase their brand’s voice. The brand uses social

media to increase the knowledge of their customers on their product. Analyst Nicole Cruz

explains “their goals for social appear to be brand awareness and brand loyalty within their target

audience” (Cruz, 2021). Social media has been key to the rapid growth of Alani Nu. In 2021,

Alani Nu had 730k followers on Instagram, 25.4k followers on Twitter, and 12.6k followers on

TikTok” (Cruz, 2021). It is clear Instagram is their most active form of social media. They are

dominating the wellness and fitness industry within their social media platforms. Their
competitors, such as Celsius, are present on Instagram as well. However, Celsius has only 279k

followers (Cruz, 2021), this shows the foundation Alani has made on Instagram over the last four

years.

When analyzing how popular Alani’s social media is, their public relations campaigns,

and their followers it is clear to see who their target audience is. The target audience in public

relations is the target public a company is mainly trying to reach when selling their product.

From looking within their socials, one can see the targeted demographic is young women. With

their trendy and feminine brand voice, it can be interpreted that their target audience is young

women between the ages 20-24 (KendallkayFollow, 2020). The company does not target a

certain race or ethnicity, they sell to all. A press release in, PR News Wire, briefly tells

individuals where Alani can be purchased. They state, “…can be found at Target, on Amazon, in

GNC, The Vitamin Shoppe and Kroger stores nationwide” (Nutrition, 2022). Though they are

only nationally sold in stores, a consumer can be ship product internationally. According to Alani

Nu when asked if they shipped internationally, they responded, “Yes! We cannot be responsible

for any customs restrictions, tariffs or other regulations that may apply in countries outside of the

United States” (Alani Nu, 2022). After seeing their Instagram imagery – they do seem to be

trying to be more representative of all races, though there is a lack of Asian faces that can be

noted.

The psychographics could vary by type of product being purchased by the consumer.

However, mostly it is a brand for wellness and fitness. According to PR News Wire, in 2020,

“Over the past two years, it has become one of the most trusted wellness brands on the market”

(Nu, 2020). Alani prides themselves on being a clean brand for wellness who women can count

on make the best products for their needs.

 With having such a broad target audience in a popular or upcoming industry, Alani Nu

has a few well-known competitors. Celsius also sells very well-known energy drinks to the same

target audience. Celsius has been around since 2004. Also written in Medium, Celsius has a

social media presence on Instagram with 279k followers, Twitter with 12.5k followers, and

TikTok with 74k followers” (Cruz, 2021). As it is shown, Celsius has a significant amount less

of followers on Instagram and Twitter than Alani Nu. Another one of their competitors is Bang

Energy. Bang has a huge following on their social media accounts. With “2.2 million followers

on Instagram, 1.4 million followers on Twitter, and 22.8K followers on Twitter” their in-your-

face branding is working for them (Cruz, 2021). Alani Nu and Celsius are similar in with what

they post. The two brands follow trends and target their specific audiences well, whereas Bang

does not join into the trends and tries to reach too many publics rather than just their target. It is

not clear or concise (Cruz, 2021).

Social Media Platforms

As previously stated, Alani Nu uses multiple social media platforms for their brand.

Specifically, they use, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook. Instagram has the highest

number of followers within all their social media accounts. Below is a table describing the way

each of their social media outlets are use.

Instagram TikTok Twitter Facebook

Name @alaninutrition @alaninutrition @AlaniNutrition Alani Nu
URL https:// https:// https:// https://
www.instagram.com/ www.tiktok.com/ twitter.com/ www.facebook.com/
alaninutrition/ @alaninutrition? alaninutrition? alaninutrition/
lang=en lang=en
Followers 826K 46.6K 26.6K 125K
Average # Posts at least 1-2 times Posts once a day At least one post One post a week
of Posts a week then may skip a few daily with some
Weekly days here and there retweets
Engagem On average: On average: On average: On average:
ent Likes: >15k with some Views: >10k <200k Likes: <100 Shares: < 200
even reaching over Likes: ranging Replies: <5 Likes: <1,000
200k and some only between 500 and Retweets: <10 Comments: <30
under 10k 3,000
Comments: 500 to 2k Comments: under
200
Purpose To share new products, Share trendy videos Share funny Share updates about
get ideas of flavors with their products, tweets trying to their brand and new
from consumers, reels recipes one can engage audience, flavors
of products giveaways, make with their posts gifs to make
and updates on products, behind the consumers laugh,
influencers scenes at share their deals
Headquarters and to and offers, engage
repost consumers audience with
TikToks engaging questions
followers.
Brand Professional yet Fun and upbeat Funny, trending Professional and
Voice feminine, flirty, and posts providing tweets trendy
trendy when sharing information in a
new posts trendy way
Success The amount of The number of More individuals Their imaging is great.
engagement received views received on a are tweeting at The content they post
on each post especially numerous amount of Alani with the is bright and trendy.
when posted about TikToks is great, chance of being
influencer: Addison along with the retweeted
Rae. Also, the increase people they have
in followers in the last reached
year
Uniquene The bright feed never The post content not How unserious the Not being consistent
ss has a dual moment. just of graphic and page is, this page on when they post on
The use of emojis and in office, but of is full of funny Facebook. Many
consumer engagement normal women in tweets to make the brands post more on
homes and their audience laugh Facebook than Alani
everyday lives has.
Challenge With needing to be The views Not many people Their engagement on
s trendy, it is hard to stay compared to links are engaging back this profile is week
completely up to date and comments are with them, and they are not
with the latest trends significantly compared to the reaching their target
different number of audience
followers
Ways to Improve on informing Alani needs to find Perhaps post more Maybe they need to
improve about their other a way to increase about products focus more of their
products as much as engagement with like on Instagram time on TikTok and
 their energy drinks their followers as and less funny Twitter to reach their
they view instead of tweets target public.
Use more racial just scrolling passed
representation, like the Using more real
Asian race content or items could
help improve their
At times the content engagement on
seems fake, so maybe TikTok
use less edits and it
will make it more real.

Best Post of the year (June 2021- June 2022)

Instagram:

The best Instagram post is from an announce of a new protein shake flavor, Cookies and

Cream. By the looks of the engagement many people loved this flavor and were super excited

about it. This post received 98,237 likes and over 200 comments which compared to other posts

is quite high. Other posts that seem to get high are the announcements of Addison Rae’s line.
Twitter:

The best Twitter post is also an announcement of a new flavor. In this case it is an energy

drink and preworkout flavor. This tweet only received 16 retweets, 1 quoted tweet, and 90 likes.

This low of engagement shows how low engagement is on Twitter for Alani.

TikTok:
 One of their most viewed TikTok is a video on what a typical day on the job is at Alani

Nu. This was a video of a photo shoot that would be used for a promotion post. This video

received 130.7K views along with almost 1,000 likes. However, this is only from the TikToks

posted directly from Alani’s page, this is not including all the PR influencer Addison Rae does

for them on her own page getting over a million of views and likes.

Facebook:
 Facebook’s best post was also a new flavor announcement of an energy drink. This flavor

excited many as the post received 1.2K reactions, 1.1K comments, almost 200 shares, and 21.2K

views. For the low exposure Facebook has on Alani’s targeted publics this amount of

engagement is huge.

Alani Nutrition uses its best content for Instagram. As stated in the table, Alani’s brand

voice on Instagram is trendy, bright, feminine, and professional. The impression they leave is so

upbeat and unique compared to other brands it easily leaves an imprint on its target audience.

This account on average gets somewhere between 15,000 and 200,000 likes. People repost,

comment, and like each post making it their best social media account they have. Here and there

Alani will reshare Instagram stories of their audience members they are tagged in to help involve

their audience. Another way Alani engages with their audience is giveaways for their followers,
like the one below (@alaninutrition, 2022). Doing this brings engagement and more views to

their profile as consumers repost and share their brand for a chance to win.

When talking about TikTok it is clear to see their purpose is to gain as much engagement

with their audience that they can. They make upbeat videos, that are great for interaction among

consumers. For this reason, they decided to have a partnership with Addison Rae. Founder of

Alani Nu, Katy Hearn says, “Partnering with Addison and Rae Family has been a dream….

These flavors are some of my all-time favorites and we love the energy and excitement that the

Rae’s bring to our Alani Nu family” (Nutrition, 2022). Overall, Hearn wants her company’s
image to be filled with energy and excitement which is the feeling they want their TikTok to

represent. (@alaninutrition, 2022).

On Twitter and Facebook content is different as you can see in the graph. For twitter it is

mostly jokes. One punch line after another using gifs and trending topics to relate to their brand

in hopes of engagement (@AlaniNutrition, 2022). When it comes to Facebook, it is not as upbeat

as their other outlets.

In comparison to each social media outlet, it is shown Instagram is their most effective

outlet to reach their target audience. Each post on each outlet is completely different. As you can

see from the chart above, each outlet has a different brand voice though similar. It is also shown

the difference in the levels on engagement of each outlet.

Competitors

Alani’s competitors are Bang Energy and Celsius Energy surprisingly do have some

similarities in their post as well. Celsius tries to keep up with the latest trends as well, but their

posts are more laid back and seem more like advertisements at a first glance, with more of a

basic way to showcase their product. You can see this in the post below from their Instagram:
Though, Bang Energy has a greater number of followers on their Instagram, it is mostly just

Reels and a hand holding their product. The brand appears to not be investing in the visual

experience the way Alani is, with limited creativity reflected in their posts. Below you can see a

post from their Instagram account:

 Alani is unique in making sure each post is targeting their specific audience making sure

it reaches them. One can tell their posts are for women and not targeted at men hence the bright

and feminine color palette the company uses. However, most colors used by each of these

companies are somewhat bright because brightness can reflect energy. Within an article

Easyship, “different colors trigger different feelings” (The Effect of Social Media Marketing:

Alani Nu & Celsius, 2022). If dull colors were used, each feed would not be as upbeat. One way

Alani is for sure unique is their Twitter. Neither Celsius nor Bang Energy posts as many joking

tweets as Alani Nu. Celsius’ twitter is more posting their product and Bang Energy is trying to

get more engagement.

Summary of How Social Media is Used

 Alani Nutrition launched their brand in January of 2018. When the brand started, all their

social medias dropped as well. Collectively, Alani Nu uses their social media accounts to

announce their products, reach out to their target audience, and entertain those who are watching.

Since launching in 2018 the company has begun posting a lot more as social media is evolving.

Alani Nu has seen that evolution and getting a jump start.

As technology and trends have changed, so has Alani. Before, a lot of their posts were

very dull, along with their packaging. As you can see from this Instagram and Facebook post

much has changed.

 Strategically, Alani Nutrition is correctly using their social media platforms.

Business.gov explains, “social media is online communication that allows you to interact with

your customers and share information in real time. You can use social media to reach your

customers better, create online networks, and sell and promote your products and services”

(Easyship, 2022). When Alani replies to a comment, shares a story or retweets a consumers tweet

it is starting a conversation between themselves and their customers. In doing this, it is also

increasing levels of awareness of their brand and driving people to interact with the company.
 One thing that could be different about their social media is, showing what they support.

Companies such as Nike are very good at showing their consumers things they support like the

Women Right’s Movement, PRIDE Movement, and the Black Lives Matter movement. This

could help bring a trust between the brand and its consumers as it would let them know more

about who the company, they are buying from represents. This would develop loyalty.

Alani Nu uses social media effectively. They are attracting customers, asking for

feedback, and developing their brand. All of these are things Business.gov says are important to

do within social media as a business (Social Media for Business, 2022).

Overall, through the four years Alani Nutrition has been a company, made an appearance

but it is nothing stellar. All their posts are safe and small, nothing above and beyond. The

company is not seen on PRWeek or Regan’s. Their posts can be recognized all over the world as

they are an international company. Through their posts the public can see the how big of an

impact social media has on this company. They thrive on using it to allow customers to gain

knowledge and give them a chance to engage. Like stated previously they evolved when their

presence on social media did.

SWOT Analysis:

Strengths:

Aspect Rationale Action

The amount of growth on
each social media platform
within 4 years
Using their voice to be
trendy, feminine, and
professional consistently.
Over the 4 years Alani, has
gained 825K followers on
their Instagram since 2018.
Alani’s brand voice is to be
feminine, trendy, and
professional to be able to
reach their target audience of
To continue their growth,
they should increase
highlights of their product
and audiences
Continue to relate to trending
topics, stay on top of current
societal trends, and social
media trends.

Conversing with consumers,
gaining feedback, and
answering questions.
Partnership with influencer,
Addison Rae.
Weaknesses:
Aspects:
Small presence on a few
accounts
Media content is not getting
enough engagement
Opportunities:
Aspects:
Targeting other generations
of women.
Growing their brand
Threats:
women from ages 20-24.
On their Instagram and
Twitter, Alani replies to a
numerous of comments and
asks for feedback on new
flavors.
This past year TikTok has
used Addison Rae to help
reach engagement levels on
their platforms. Especially
TikTok
Rationale:
Facebook and twitter have a
small presence compared to
other accounts
On Twitter not enough
important information is
being posted. Content is more
based on jokes
Rationale:
With only targeting young
women, the brand is limiting
themselves
Wellness and fitness industry
is growing rapidly, giving the
chance for the company to
grow
Increase who they reply to on
other social media accounts.
Use direct messenger,
perhaps direct someone to
that specific job.
Have her make posts that
provide words of engagement
not just adds
Action:
Post more content like the
content on Instagram
Change content based on
important news about
company.
Action
Create a flavor that was
popular during their prime.
Perhaps something that will
remind themselves of their
younger age or use someone
that is their age as an
influencer
Continue to increase flavors
and products
 Aspects: Rationale: Actions:

Companies like Bang Energy
taking their consumers
With the companies being so
alike it is hard to find ways to
get your company to stand
out or be different
Do something to set
yourselves aside, the way
your brand yourself, lower
the price a little to make
yourself different

Strategic Implications

Though Alani Nu, is such a strong company with many strengths they still have their

weaknesses. The brand needs to capitalize on their strengths and better their weaknesses.

Recognizing aspects in the SWOT analysis will help them better their brand.

Key Insights:

1. Alani is drawing their target audience in strictly by social media. They are following

trends, using graphics that draw attention to them making consumers want to purchase

them.

2. As social media is evolving and growing which will give the brand an opportunity to

grow with it.

3. Though the brand got popular quickly, not many older generations are consuming it, so

they are limiting themselves to a select group.

4. TikTok influencers like Addison Rae, have been a huge part of their public relations

brand. These influencers are constructing user generating content that is building trust

with their company without Alani having to do anything.

Goals:

1. Grow platforms even more by staying on top of trends.

 2. Increase followers on all social media platforms by 1,000 by 2023.

3. Grow target audience to other generations

4. Gain partnerships with more athletes or well-known people in fitness

References

Color psychology in marketing: Effect of colors: Easyship blog. Easyship. (n.d.). Retrieved June
25, 2022, from https://www.easyship.com/blog/color-psychology-in-marketing

Cruz, N. (2021, September 19). Energy Drink Companies & their Social Strategies. Medium.
Retrieved June 25, 2022, from https://medium.com/@nickyycruz/energy-drink-companies-
their-social-strategies-b4b2ec72a2fb

The effect of social media marketing: Alani NU & Celsius. Craig Stein Beverage. (2022, May
31). Retrieved June 25, 2022, from https://www.csbeverage.com/the-effect-of-social-
media-marketing-alani-nu-celsius/

KendallkayFollow this publisher - current follower count:0. (2020, December 13). Alani Nu

Project brief. Issuu. Retrieved June 25, 2022, from
https://issuu.com/kendallkay/docs/alani_conceptual_project_brief-1

Morgan, M. (2022, June 16). Alani Nu Pre workout reviews 2022: Is it safe? Healthcanal.com.

Retrieved June 25, 2022, from https://www.healthcanal.com/life-style-fitness/alani-nu-pre-
workout

Nu, A. (2020, November 9). Alani nu partners with target for national launch in over 1,800
stores. Alani Nu Partners With Target For National Launch in Over 1,800 Stores.
Retrieved June 25, 2022, from https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/alani-nu-
partners-with-target-for-national-launch-in-over-1-800-stores-301168307.html  

Nutrition, A. (2022, January 10). Alani nu announces exclusive collaboration with Tik Tok
Sensation Addison Rae and the Rae Family. ALANI NU ANNOUNCES EXCLUSIVE
COLLABORATION WITH TIK TOK SENSATION ADDISON RAE AND THE RAE
FAMILY. Retrieved June 25, 2022, from
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/alani-nu-announces-exclusive-collaboration-
with-tik-tok-sensation-addison-rae-and-the-rae-family-301456845.html

P-Themes. (n.d.). High-quality nutritional supplements. Alani Nu. Retrieved June 25, 2022, from
https://www.alaninu.com/  

Social Media for Business. Support for businesses in Australia. (n.d.). Retrieved June 25, 2022,
from https://business.gov.au/online/social-media-for-business