The fashion industry, specifically luxury brands, which once steered clear of social media involvement due to fears of brand deterioration are now recognizing and harnessing the power of social media.
Why now?
Social media has matured enough and is no longer an ‘experimental’ segment. Pre-2010 fears of social media backlash have subsided and brands are seeing the possibilities of leveraging social. User-generated content has a unique ability to reach highly-targeted consumers in a more affordable, and more importantly, more trusted manner.
How is Fashion getting involved?
With Fashion Week kicking off tomorrow (Thursday, February 10, 2011), fashion and social are coming together to bring Fashion Week to the masses in a big way. Here are a couple of examples:
Tumblr: Making the biggest splash is Tumblr securing two dozen tickets to Fashion Week and bringing out the top fashion bloggers on Tumblr to the show. This is giving an inside look to the thousands of followers each ‘Tumblr’ has as well as promoting those bloggers, Tumblr as a company, and of course the labels on exhibition at Fashion Week.
Polyvore: Polyvore is a site that allows users to compile magazine-style collage outfits from online stores. The trend-starting site was approached by Bergdorf Goodman, which asked users to style an outfit for it’s fashion direct to wear to fashion week. Winners received $2500 in Nieman Marcus cash and be flown out to Fashion Week.
The bottom line
Social media is changing the way consumers shop online and off, and even the way they find and start trends. Retailers and brands are beginning to recognize this and coming to the realization that they need to change the way they approach customers. Whether social media engagement, crowdsourcing, or leveraging social media for market research, social media is a must-do for all business.
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