Best methods of blogging and tweeting on social media

The Social Media landscape has proven successful and growing exponentially globally to access followers, visitors and users to a common area of interest. Two of the most active and effective way to navigate and become an active participant within this landscape is blogging and tweeting.

To a blogger a blog could be a hobby, a way to connect to others with similar interests or a fulltime career. Whatever your reasoning for blogging, it creates a platform to share your thoughts within a technological arena and socialize with others with similar interests. It also allows for engagement with visitors to hear and understand their perspectives and thoughts about your blog. This can be a benefit to you as a writer and lead to feedback and growth as a blogger. You’ll learn the views of your followers.

With access to a global environment of followers, you want to practice the best blogging techniques and methods. Writer Belle Cooper points out several methods and practices for blogging. Whether you are new to blogging or a regularly consistent blogger, suggestions like understanding your audience and being true to your voice are successful practices for better blogging.

Another SEO contributor Stephanie Ling suggests focusing on quality over quantity and having the correct keywords. In SEO Starter Guide: 10 Blogging Best Practices, she mentions, having a clean site with quality content that visitors want to see and easily search. Keeping your visitor’s experience on your site a quality experience, they will enjoy it more. Links on your site should lead to concise information and the information that the visitor was looking for. This will build a more trusting relationship with your followers and those you engage with while blogging.

As I was researching this topic, I found multiple mentions for best blogging practices to include the posting of quality content, understanding and engaging with your audience and to always have a call to action which allows your followers to share their thoughts, feelings and experiences on your selected topic of discussion.

For Twitter posting, there were different suggestions and recommendations of the best practices for tweeting. This is a 140 character message of sharing thoughts, links and information quickly across the web. For Twitter posting, there were different suggestions and recommendations of the best practices for tweeting. This is a 140 character message of sharing thoughts, links and information quickly across the web. Authors of the Groundswell, Charlene Li and Josh Bernhoff noted “people with large twitter followings typically feel a sense of responsibility to entertain their followers and become influencers.” This makes Twitter a very powerful stage to engage with people in a social terrain.  Some of the best practices for tweeting include tweeting several times throughout the day, tweeting at the right time to access more people, using hashtags and links and promoting yourself and/or your products or service offering. Lauren Keating wrote an article in Tech Times and suggests tweeting about celebrities and people with large Twitter followings. When you do this, their followers can see your posts about them and may take an interest in following you.

The fashion industry uses many of these methods in the social media landscape. Brands have people they incorporate to blog about their products and events. They have products advertised on bloggers pages with larger followings. Many brands are also active on Twitter. Fashion brands understand that visual is always an attraction to their audience. Therefore blogs and now Twitter displays beautiful, high quality content photos and images. This attracts attention and engagement from followers even if they only comment on the visual imagery – they are engaging.

What methods have you seen fashion brands display on Twitter or blogging? Do you think this has helped their social media presence as a business entity? How? I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

The state of fashion in social media

Fashion brands has been very active in participating in social media since consume presence on a daily basis grew exponentially since the creation of Twitter and social landscapes like Facebook and Instagram. Nordstrom specialty retailer began its relationship on Twitter in 2008. It currently has over 600K followers. Prestigious luxury London label Burberry joined Twitter in June of 2009. To date they have over 5 Million followers on Twitter. This is interesting considering they are both known retailers of high end fashions worldwide. However Burberry joined almost a year after Nordstrom on Twitter and has an astoundingly larger amount of followers and over 190K tweets posted. Burberry has a bit over 9K tweets they’ve posted. So what makes the difference why one fashion retailer has so many more followers than another when they’ve posted in a much fewer amount of tweets than another brand? You could speculate it to their branding, popularity and that has a powerful influence. However, in the social media realm, branding is important but quality of content and the social relationship with your consumers is even more important. Burberry has proven this year after year within the social media environment. Burberry is very connected and engaged with its social media audience. They share video, up and coming artist, attend music festivals and events, they promote technologically engagement at their actual runway fashion shows worldwide from their consumers. They are one of the most digitally engaged with its audience fashion labels. The followers that have grown and continue grow shows they are doing it right. Their audience enjoys it, constantly shares their content and keeps up with what the brand is doing. Even the Burberry Instagram presence has well over 5 million followers keeping up with the brands visual posting.

The current state of social media in fashion is influential, vast and constantly growing. There’s always room for improvement to respond more quickly to consumer posting and questions. Writer Alexandra Ilyashov had plenty to say about particular luxury fashion brands that are incorrectly operating in the social media landscape as well as pointing out the brands doing it better than their competitors. Their followers are active participants mentioning the brands, the ads they see celebrities in supporting the brands as well how they feel about the brand. These active relationships aid in conversion rates for product sales and consumers have been known to express loyalty or even a buzz of buying and conversation when a favorite celebrity is wearing and discussing the brand and its products.

Tools the fashion industry uses in social media

The fashion industry uses every resource at their disposable when it comes to social media.They still utilize traditional marketing tools like editorial campaigns, magazine and billboard ads, along with digital runway shows and interaction from their audience while shows are airing during varying global locations for fashion weeks. Instagram is a favorite as it displays pictures and impactful visual imagery. Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are all favorites of fashion brands as tools to market and promote their brands and access their consumers because they want to know what consumers are saying about them, sharing about them or even disliking about them. When this information is relayed in real time it gives fashion labels the opportunity to address product development and product issues or even corporate issues within their company structure.

How they improve their social media standings

Luxury brands are getting more attention than non luxury brands to improve their social media standings. Many brands are over 100 year old luxury houses that have dressed sovereigns, royalty and celebrities over the years. They like the exclusivity and it has worked well for them over the years. However with the onslaught and aggressive and expansive growth of social media to the global consumers, luxury brands may want to reconsider their marketing strategies and engagement with consumers and future targeted consumers.

What tools do you think apparel brands should use to improve their social media standings? Are there any brands that you personally feel connected to and are happy with your experience with them in the social network landscape? I’d love to hear from you.

Fashionably Social

Fashion Industry and Social Media

Since the influx of the digital arena has taken over many forms of how business is done- this includes sales, advertising, marketing and branding promotion, The fashion industry has always been on alert and prides itself on setting trends being the first to advocate promote or have exposure to what happening. Having a strong presence in the social Media landscape is imperative for success to a fashion brand, Millennials, being one of the most powerful and influential demographics of shoppers, fashion brands fight amongst severe competition to retain the interest of this group of consumers and their spending dollars, connections and friends as well. From budget and cost friendly apparel brands to the high-end luxury couture brands, social media is the current place where every brand should have a presence.

Challenges faced by taking the brand social

Even though a fashion brand desires to be active and have a strong presence within the social media arena, there are challenges that brands face by delving into this area of communication.The speed at which social media moves comes in direct contrast with luxury brands who are slow to adopt to anything that could impact the communication and experiences with their consumer base associated with and integrity of their brand

Limited space availability for advertising can put pressure on brands and legal challenges are brought to the forefront. Social media works well for fashion brands and luxury fashion lines. Smartphones allow buyer more power in their purchasing decisions. It allows for more freedom to shop whenever and wherever for the consumers. Luxury fashion brands like Burberry, Fendi, Gucci and Saint Laurent for example pride themselves on exclusivity however social media doesn’t really allow or promote exclusiveness. Its core essence is social communication and involvement with people, businesses and communities with as many people as possible.

Risks to avoid by not taking the brand social

Fashion and luxury brands have detailed intricate stories about the brands, its origins, the original designer and creative innovators of the brand. They have longer histories and stories of dressing royalty and celebrities while creating the trending fashions and silhouettes that they people have worn over time. This gives them exclusivity with elaborate , high quality and very pricey fashion pieces. Kathryn Minckler, Chairman of  The Luxury Marketing Council of Connecticut-Hudson Valley recently shared with writer Kyle-Beth Hilfner some of her thoughts that luxury brands face when diving into the social media landscape.

By not exposing your fashion brand to the social media landscape you will miss out on access to over 100 million people who access these venues each day. Can your business or brand stand to be ignored or be an unknown to this large amount of users and potential customers? Some of the people in this terrain may be promoters of your brand simply by sharing your information with their circle of friends and colleagues that you would have otherwise had no access to. Some of these participants in the social media realm are consumers who haven’t learned of your product yet.

Should fashion brands take a more aggressive approach to opt in to the social media frenzy? Does it make a difference to  a luxury fashion brands image or sales of its products? We’d like to hear from you.

Mobile Social Media Application in Fashion

As a petite women myself, I find that stores place petite clothing as an afterthought. I’ve found that clothing for petite women from trending fast growing apparel chains to department stores and boutiques more often than not place the petite section in the back of the store or another level of the store and out of the way. The range of selection is limited and are often simply a few refitted garments from the main apparel line to fit smaller sized women. Nothing more frustrating than finding a gorgeous pair of pants, dress or suit that is not available in petite or that I’d have to pay additional monies outside of the higher end pricing to have it altered. Let’s not forget having to wait on the alterations to finish and pray they get it correct. What am I paying all this extra for? Why aren’t there as many options available for me as taller women?
There is soon to be an answer to this concern if this affects you too…stay tuned…….
Now on to this week’s topic…. Net-a-Porter.
Net-a-Porter is a designer and luxury online fashion site. If you haven’t heard of it what rock have you been under and please come out from under it! It achieved much of its growth during the recession as consumers wanted luxury items but admitted not wanting to be exposed to judgmental stares while shopping in stores while others weren’t fairing well financially during the recession of 2008 -2010. Its success is housed online and supported by its large consumer following and online shoppers.
Every purchase comes dressed as a gift – that’s the secret of the success of Net-a-Porter, the luxury fashion site currently valued at £350m has online consumers that run to the site which is presented as a hybrid between a fashion magazine and a store. The Net-a-Porter site has fresh ideas, bold and graphic colors and headlines along with apparel suggestions, scrolls of the most coveted seasonal items to buy and those items that are trending now. It adds a personal touch for shoppers and lets them know how many other shoppers are online with them shopping as they are. There is a subscription to Porter magazine which was launched by the beloved site to continue the love of fashion magazines for tear outs and up and have an up close and personal experience of designer and luxury fashion collections and pieces while flipping through a beautiful magazine layout.
“I hadn’t walked away from being editor-in-chief of a magazine – I’d just created a magazine for the 21st century instead, a hybrid between a store and a magazine that was delivered digitally.”
Based on Clare O’Connor, a Forbes staff member, Natalie Massenet … watched mobile sales climb to a staggering 40% of all purchases on her pioneering fashion site Net-a-Porter, she’s been trying to combine the ease and convenience of online shopping with the pleasurable aspects of brick-and-mortar buying. The Net –a-Porter site is a site that drives consumers to its products and service offerings. AS I walk throughout Manhattan I see the Net-a-porter delivery service shuttles buzzing throughout the city to deliver ”gifts” to consumers. It was a great idea and timed perfectly for its target consumer segmentation. It all came together well. Writer Peter Finocchiaro noted in an article how Net-a-Porter launched a social media page and an iPad application along with its mobile application to stay in the mind and presence of their consumers. For many businesses nowadays, this is the smart move to make.
Social Media marketing is the public outreach and marketing of your brand and product through social networking sites, and it is surging in popularity. Companies are seeking technologically involved consumers. Where on a daily basis hundreds of millions of people worldwide are communicating, promoting and discussing what products and service offerings they like and dislike, this is the targeted place for businesses to be. As business are learning to take full advantage of this so should apparel businesses pay attention to the petite market in fashion.
The petite industry is no different. As an attention growing apparel industry is coming to the forefront, apparel companies need to start paying closer attention. Many of today’s celebrity artists are petite. Stars like Nicole Richie, Kim Kardashian West and Kourtney Kardashian, Jada Pinkett Smith, Toni Braxton, Reese Witherspoon and Vanessa Hudgens to name a few. As attention getters on the red carpet, televisions and silver screen shouldn’t we pay attention as fashion creators for these women? Beautiful and powerful women come in petite packaging as well and should be given as many options for stylish, contemporary, luxurious and well fitting apparel to choose from as any other woman.
What are your thoughts on the petite fashion market today for women? Do you think they are given as much attention or significance and designer clothing options as what’s considered average in height 5’5” and above? Would love to hear from you.

Being Petite Online

As a new blogger I’m learning there are tons of rules and dos and dont’s when it comes to the social media terrain. My thoughts are to share information and content as well as obtain information of the petite female experience in the apparel industry. This includes shopping, fits and options available to petite women in the world. As I begin to blog I’ve done some searching and learned about a few tools used to help engage with followers, monitor your followers and learn about your followers in several social media platforms. Bit.ly, Buffer and Social Rank came up several times as social media tools to use during my search. They seem to be popular in the digital arena.

Bit.ly is a social media tool used by marketers to maintain Twitter accounts. A free Bit.ly sets you up with a dashboard where you can share links to several Twitter accounts. Blogger Kristin Hines gave great suggestions for tools to consider using. This tool allows for sharing and statistics of shared links to be monitored on your dashboard. It also allows you to create a short domain name to match your brand. This helps to strengthen and build your brand as well.

Buffer is another social media tool used by marketers to grow their businesses and traffic to their online presence and content. Buffer has the ability to generate a posting schedule for multiple social media platforms at the same time. You can schedule postings for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest all on the same dashboard. Buffer allows you to schedule and share posts simultaneously in different social media platforms. You can decide what day and what time you want your posting to go live in one place. This can save a lot of time for marketers and bloggers alike. I find it a bit intriguing and may check it out. Then I can decide if it’s a tools that works for me and my social media goals.

Social Rank is a tool used to group your followers. You want to be fully aware understand and learn about your followers This social media tool groups those that are most active, followers that engage and shows you  your valued followers. Your Social Rank groups your best followers, most engaged and most valuable. Learn more about social media tools.

What tools do you use to promote your social media presence? Any thoughts of social media’s tools to use and those to avoid would be appreciated. I’d like to hear from you!