Guest post by Courtney Gerring, Digital PR at Fashionbi. Fashionbi is the world leader in Business Intelligence for the Fashion industry. Fashionbi enables smart decisions about the marketing of Fashion and Luxury brands by forecasting, analysing and reporting in 90 countries their performances and clients perceptions.
The need and importance to be active on social media is nothing new, but is there an art to being active on social media? Perhaps. Or maybe it is just a process of understanding and analyzing the importance of your data.
Of course you can just make a post, but more importantly what should that post say? How can you create engagement with your posts?
Let’s get down to the basics of analyzing and understanding social media efforts for your fashion brand.
Translate your Social Media Efforts
For most fashion brands the idea that just tracking and monitoring the number of likes, comments, and new fans or followers obtained is the best way to measure social media success, but that’s actually not the accurate.
It is absolutely imperative to start translating your social media efforts, and not just look at the number of likes that a photo received. Social media is now used as one of the main communication methods between a fashion brand and consumers.
So in order to ensure that your efforts are targeting the right consumers and that you are not wasting your time, we recommend to start looking behind your data. There are platforms out there, Fashionbi being one of them, that allow you to start to see what is behind your social media efforts and you can even plan and execute your social media posts.
Create the Right Content
One of the most important elements to key social media communication is creating the right content, at the right time and across the right platforms. One of the most unique opportunities that social media presents is the opportunity to engage with customers.
As a fashion brand it is important to maximize social media as a platform to share news, updates, and exciting launches with your community of followers.
Posts pertaining to the latest store openings, and or events and news updates frequently generate the most engagement and interaction. A constant and consistent push of content is critical across Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Google+ is one important social media platform not to be missed, as it carries a significant weight in terms of SEO and organic search visibility. So start hashtagging your latest news and don’t forget to place it on Google+.
Consistency is key and it doesn’t just come from the constant update of content. It is important to upload Facebook photo albums, new images of products, merchandising displays, etc. Fashionbi reported that one of Rag & Bone’s recent photo albums generated an impact of over 1,300, while a video only generated a small engagement of 52. We are not saying that a video is a bad choice to upload but what we are emphasizing is the importance of diversity within your content. Diversity and Consistency are key.
Since the introduction of Instagram, this has given fashion brands a completely new look into the style of content that they can create. To start, if you are a fashion brand you should absolutely maximize the potential of Instagram. But don’t save all of your photos for Instagram, balance your social media channels with a mix of content, visuals, and interactive posts. Never be boring, and never be afraid to do something new and different with your content creation.
Generate Engagement from your Posts
The content you publish should be interactive, engaging and interesting to the follower. Facebook fans may be looking more for information or inspiration from a brand and or a way to engage on a question, or share a thought. Don’t be afraid to ask open-ended questions and as a fashion brand you should always be responsive and take this opportunity as a key communication tool with the consumer.
Twitter can be a genius spot to start engaging with everyone from potential customers to potential stockists for your brand and or retail shops or wholesale locations. On the Twitter network don’t be afraid to Tweet a must read article, an inspirational advertising campaign, or simply re-Tweet some of your favorite Tweets.
Twitter is a brilliant way to find must-read content, get inspired by like-minded professionals and engage professionally. And it is one of the easiest networks to share your brand quickly and receive engagement. It is simple to start an impromptu conversation on Twitter, which can lead to some of the best engagement. So don’t try too hard, just be natural with your posts, and share what inspires and motivates you.
Don’t forget ask open-ended questions, participate in discussions across social media networks and not only engage across your own platforms with your own followers and fans, start engaging inside of Google+ groups. You never know who will come across your fashion brand, name or company.
Taking the Lead from the Consumer- What to Look At and What it Means
It is important when you look across your social media platforms that you start to look at your potential customers engaging with and or on your brand’s page. You can easily take note of when they are engaging and target posts according to the most popular day of the week and time of the day. Of course there are key engagement times to engage with your consumers, and you should maximize those times.
It is also very important to see behind your data and to understand what it means when someone favorites your Tweet, or starts to follow you on Instagram. Acknowledge your followers, fans, customers and any potential brand ambassador.
You can easily make a new connection, find a star employee, start a conversation with a potential stockist, or find your super brand ambassador. But always remember that to engage with those who have already found you, it means they are interested in what you have to say, so give them more of what interests them.
Understand that social media activity doesn’t just mean a post or a quick Tweet. It actually translates to an ongoing digital campaign that is constantly evolving and changing.
As the young grow older, digital engagement, feedback and connection will become stronger. A brand’s social media content, engagement and efforts to understand their consumers is daily, it just takes a bit of effort. You need to ensure that you can invest in this effort because this is the most efficient and pro-active way to engage.