Fashion brands and social media

By Chi Tola - Nigeria

(chitolaroberts@gmail.com)

By Chi Tola

Fashion brands are known for beauty, style and glamour, and social media provide a good platform to project these.

It is obvious that some brands are amazing at it, strategising and keeping their audience by giving them the information and content they want. Fashion brands should be great optimisers of social media.

As things are in this part of the world, fashion retailing is rarely done digitally (online) by many local brands unlike their foreign counterparts who are taking on all things social at a stimulating yet unprecedented stride.

They simultaneously use this to test their market and build brand loyalty, which of course, enables them to identify which styles are in-vogue and which other will soon fade out. They then use these feedbacks as critical information that guides their production and inventory managers.

On-the-go, you find pre-sales happening at the speed of light. Most of the known brands always have an initial launch online and this helps them not only to position their products but also target potential geographic markets for brick and mortar businesses.

Notwithstanding how winning your platform is, consumers are still desirous to experience the complete vibrancy of the sport called "fashion shopping" on the go.

In working your way to prominence with the social media for your fashion business, here are some pitfalls you should avoid:

Flashy object syndrome

Don't always follow the trend. The fact that there is one ongoing doesn't mean you should do yours that way. Always find what suits your brand and its customers. Before you jump in without a parachute, go back to your strategy. Ask the cardinal questions always. Does this fit your brand? Is it where your audiences are and engage? Will it help awareness and engagement (if these are your goals)?

Assessment

Don't let analytics scare you? Analytics for Twitter, Facebook, Google (referral traffic, etc), and the like are your best friend. They tell you when a campaign is successful, not so great, and when your audience is pumped about your content, or not. Shares and retweets are great high level actions of fans. In short don't forget to measure against your intent on a post or tweet. Just because you get a "share" doesn't mean it was successful - especially if the intent was to click through to a video.

What is for strategy?

Sadly to know that some brands just jump into social media - firstly by setting up a Facebook page and Twitter profile and begin to tweet and post without any method. This mars a brand more than it makes it. Take some time and put some ink to paper on what your brand's overall social strategy is. Then consider which channels to embark on first - and how to roll out your content. Bear in mind that without content (on a consistent basis), there is no social for your brand.

Adoring your brand

Honestly, yes, your brand is amazing, and factual you may have the coolest products and services to offer in your forte. However, you need to know if you're only talking about yourself and to yourself. Take some time out and assess the social environment on the channel to which you are distributing content. Does your audience want to hear about tips, get promos, or XYZ? If so, provide and answer questions, give input, and talk with your audience, rather than shun them. And it doesn't hurt to follow them back (for example, on Twitter).

Nowadays you need more than a website for your business. You have to go beyond the conventional, stand in your customers' faces creatively by going with them everywhere. Don't think that you are important as that won't be enough; you have to be relevant too.