Social Media integration into the Fashion Industry

"The Fashion Industry has adopted social media as a marketing platform to reach their customers online and reignite brand passion and customer loyalty." - Macala Wright Lee (CEO OF FashionablyMarketing.me)

With the growth of digital marketing, fashion brands have realised the potential of the industry and pouring its resources into looking at ways to connect with their customers online embracing social media and commerce. Online shopping has become a phenomenon. Social media has become a part of the marketing mix for many leading to a digital revolution. A huge number of brands have already adapted to social media and others are emerging to utilise Twitter and Facebook as well as mobile applications for customer service, sales and public relations.

Brands used Facebook for their engagements ads and also by creating a fan page, the target audience receive automatic updates on the brand including exclusive discounts and upcoming events. Advertisers can see how affective their ads are by monitoring using user activity data- page views, tab views, external referrers and media consumption.

Diane von Furstenberg (DVF) is very interactive in the social media world, her facebook page allows fans to communicate with employees for customer service, fans can post photos of themselves in DVF outfits, buy dresses from the 'wrap of the month' application (shopping can be added to your basket and then will be sent directly to DVF website to finalise the order.) DVF twitter has an amazing 309,059 followers currently- this shows her reputation as a powerful social influencer as well as fashion figure.

Louis Vuitton recently used Facebook to enable fans to see information about their official opening of it's Maison in London. The event to see the live online broadcast of its offical opening was created on Facebook and spread via Twitter, therefore fans globally could be a part of this exclusive experience. By doing this they created deeper connection and communication with their fans

Mobile commerce is becoming the next big thing, shopping on the go is convenient- image recognition (Google Goggles), barcode scanners (Amazon Barcode Scanner) and barcode apps (Red Laser) are making the shopping process even easier. Mobile applications help users keep up with the latest industry news, blog entries and new collections.

References and other interesting articles:

Louis Vuitton- Master the art of social media

Specialty brands with the highest digital IQ in social media

Fashions most influential

Maximising social media ROI

Burberry use of social media

Is social media is a must for every fashion brand? Do you use social media tools to keep up to date with fashion and your favourite brands?