Top 4 Best Practices of Blogging and Tweeting

When it comes to blogging the fashion industry leads in this area.  Personally I never really paid much attention to blogging and probably wouldn’t have ever had much interest in it if it wasn’t for the fashion industry.  Although now there are blogs for many areas and interest, which is great.  

BE CONSISTENT

When it comes to blogging and tweeting some of the best practices is to be consistent.  What do I mean by this? Well, let’s say you are just starting out and you begin posting something every Monday and then all of sudden you go a few weeks without posting anything.  Your readers won’t know what to expect from you.  Being consistent is the key in blogosphere.  The best way to keep on task is to create a content or editorial calendar.  The content calendar will serve as a great tool to keep you on task and stay committed.  

“A social media content calendar should organize the way you curate and create content, and help develop your editorial strategy. A social media calendar cuts extra time out of your content marketing strategy and helps you allocate your resources wisely, to help ensure your brand consistently publishes high-quality, well-written, high-performing content pieces (Sorokina, 2014)”.

If you’re not sure how to create one, check out this article: How to Create an Editorial Calendar Using Google Calendar

KEEP IT SHORT AND SIMPLE

Another great practice is keep it short and simple.  Every post is going to be different but they don’t have to be long. If you find a post is growing in length, split it up into a series or find a great end point and say, to be continued.  Depending on the time of day you publish your post, the majority of people are busy.  A great post should be about 5 minutes long or short enough that someone can read while enjoying a cup of coffee.  In addition, the post or tweet should be meaningful, “Providing interesting content is the way to “earn” your audience (Schaefer).”

SELECT A NICHE

As I mentioned there are some many things to blog about and everyone has different interest. So selecting a niche is important, this way readers know what topic(s) you are focusing on. Also, this is where you can be creative and showcase what you do or how you do something.

BE AUTHENTIC

Regardless of what platform one may use to the engage their audience the key is to be authentic.  Mark W. Schaefer said in his book, The Tao of Twitter, “When somebody does something great–provides an interesting blog post, an exceptional insight, a helpful solution–I try to make an effort to compliment the person publicly on Twitter (Schaefer).” We get it there isn’t enough time in a week to respond to every re-tweet or comment especially for those with a large audience.  However, I think sometimes with social media people forget that socializing is apart of the formula.  I should also add here that not everyone is on social media for the same reasons, some use it solely for business while others use it to connect with friends and family.  

The bottom line is that there are so many wonderful opportunities that can be developed through social media and keeping up to date is essential.  Social media is continually growing and according to some statistics presented in the video I have shared below, “Social media has become the #1 activity on the web.”

The suggested practices are only a few of many but these the ones that I believe will help you gain a good start.  Do you have any practices that you find useful with blogging or tweeting?

Share and comment below

References

Calanderpedia. (n.d.). Blank calendar-template 1. Retrieved from http://www.calendarpedia.com/blank-calendar-excel-templates.html

Qualman, E. (2012, October 7). Social Media 2013 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXD-Uqx6_Wk

Schaefer, M. (2014). The Tao of Twitter: Changing your life and business 140 characters at a time. McGraw Hill.

Sorokina, O. (2014, November 6). Why You Need A Social Media Content Calendar For Your Business. Retrieved from https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-to-create-a-social-media-content-calendar/

Wainwright, C. (2016, February 2). How to Create an Editorial Calendar Using Google Calendar. Retrieved from http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/create-robust-editorial-calendar-ht#sm.001pp59dt1c4ed9az6127a6y0tltl

To Go Social or Not? Risk and Challenges Faced When Taking Your Fashion Brand Social

Social media has served as more of an advantage than a disadvantage within in the fashion industry.  As we are aware social media is all about connecting and has many great tools to market and bring awareness to consumers.  Although when deciding to take a brand social that may come with some risk and challenges.

Some of the obvious risk are according to Jessica Ulrich of Social Media today are, “illegitimate pages and pornographic avatars to brand attacks of a political nature (Ullrich, 2014).”  Depending on how large the company is these examples could damage a brands reputation. The one pitfall with social media is that it is an open space and for most brands keeping accounts public is how they reach consumers.  If an account cannot be accessed or is limited this may turn people away.

Some other risk are not having control over how or what content is being shared.  While the key here to employ a responsible individual to handle social media marketing, there have been numerous examples where users in companies have mistakenly sent offensive content that had nothing to do with the brand.

Another risk is you decide to roll out a huge social media campaign and you don’t receive the return you anticipated.  While social media may come easy to some it does take time to create campaigns and you can easily run the risk of not being noticed on social media.

While there may be many other risk, the last risk I will mention is competition following and emulating everything your brand does.  It was Oscar Wilde that said, “Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery”.

Some challenges that a brand may face on social media is a lack of consumer engagement.  It would be ideal to have a large organic following that tweets and shares information about your brand this may not always be the case especially for brands just starting out.  

Another challenge is deciding which social media platforms to implement.  In the fashion industry as I have mentioned previously choosing a platform isn’t as complicated because almost all of the major applications are fitting.  Although, it may be wise to pick one at first if you are starting out and gain a following first before joining multiple platforms.  This may not be much of a concern to larger companies because they most likely already have a steady consumers and a fan base.

Overall, if you decide to go social the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages.  The important factor is to have a plan first and to be aware that challenges will occur but being prepared is what will set you apart from the competition.

References

Ullrich, J. (2014, October 30). Risk Management: Protecting Your Brand on Social Media | Social Media Today. Retrieved from http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/risk-management-protecting-your-brand-social-media

Twitter Meets Fashion on the Catwalk and Is A Success

As I mentioned in my previous post, Let’s Talks About Social Media and the Fashion Industry, that in the fashion industry choosing which social media platform to use, isn’t as complicated as almost all of the top platforms are fitting.  The reason why is the fashion industry has, “…so much more colour, shapes, and glamour to work with than other industries (KeyHole Blog, 2015).”

Since there are so many social media applications that can be used to drive business services or products to consumers, I would like to focus on Twitter and how this tool has been such a great success for businesses and individuals within the fashion industry.  

Twitter which is one of the most popular social media applications allows users to connect with friends, colleagues, and new people through simple post or tweets.  “Tweets may contain photos, videos, links and up to 140 characters of text. These messages are posted to your profile, sent to your followers, and are searchable on Twitter search (Twitter).”

One example of how Twitter has been a success is it allows users to tweet in real-time.  This works especially well for fashion shows or anything that is a trending topic.  If businesses or individuals want to create traffic they can start a Twitter campaign and link that to a simple hashtag.  As I noted in a previous post, hashtags are neat because you can create your own for your brand as there aren’t any specific guidelines. I would recommend keeping them relevant, short, and memorable.

A twitter campaign can work in many ways the simplest way for someone starting out is to decide what you are basing your campaign around and then create a hashtag. You can let your followers know in advance or if it’s a live event you can announce it before the event so guest know how they can connect with each other and your brand during or after the event.

A great example of this is Topshop, a multinational fashion retailer and Twitter teaming up during London Fashion Week in 2015.  The companies joined forces and created a campaign known as #livetrends that allowed customers to shop trends as they were coming down the runway.  They achieved this by, “…analysing real-time data on Twitter and picking out the trends as they happen on the catwalks (Independent, 2015).”  Once the trends were picked they beamed directly to digital billboards that were stationed near select Topshop stores in major cities in the UK.

Picture Courtesy of: Independent

According to some data collected by KeyHole Blog, “3.8 + million customers engaged using the hashtag #livetrends; 75% sales uplift on the featured product; and 11:1 return on its investment (KeyHole Blog, 2015)”.  In my opinion, the numbers speak for itself and it appears this single campaign was a great success.

While this is only one example, Twitter is definitely an excellent tool to leverage relationships and to create something new.  Have you used Twitter to create a campaign? If not, do you think it can be beneficial?

Share your comments below

References

Akbareian, E. (2015, February 18). Topshop and Twitter team up to allow users to shop London Fashion Week trends live. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/news/topshop-and-twitter-team-up-to-allow-users-to-shop-london-fashion-week-trends-live-10054032.html

KeyHole Blog. (2015, December 14). 10 Best Fashion Social Media Campaigns – The Keyhole Blog. Retrieved from http://keyhole.co/blog/10-best-fashion-social-media-campaigns/

Twitter. (n.d.). New user FAQs. Retrieved from https://support.twitter.com/articles/13920

Let’s Talks About Social Media and the Fashion Industry

I want to take a gamble and say we can all agree that there are so many social media applications and choosing which one to use for your business or industry can be somewhat complicated.  The goal in making your selection should be to choose one that is suitable for your business and accessible to those in your market. Fortunately, in the fashion industry, the struggle isn’t as complicated as almost all of the top platforms are fitting.

In the fashion industry Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Google+ are the tools of choice.  From top fashion houses like Gucci to celebrity fashion stylist like June Ambrose, many of these platforms are the tools of choice.

The wonderful thing about all the platforms that I have mentioned is they all allow the user to post pictures or video footage seamlessly.  This is perfect for posting different looks or designs.  The video capability is great for showing clips of fashion shows perhaps the big ones that take place during NYFW.  

Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and Facebook may be the simplest in terms of posting a quick thought or picture.  YouTube which is a video sharing tool is better if you have time to record and  upload the video. Although, not necessary as it is user-friendly having some basic technical skills may be helpful when using YouTube.

Take a look at this short video clip on the basics of creating a good quality video for YouTube:

The one hiccup that some may face within the fashion industry due to social media is that it is becoming over saturated.  If you have a camera and can post pictures quickly you can become sought after overnight to cover shows and sit front row at major shows.  Depending on what side of the table you are sitting on this may be fantastic.  While there is room for everyone and enough to go round the concern within the industry is that the professionals are getting kicked to the curb due to social media.  With the rise of social media, it races to see who can post the quickest and get the story out first, which is a big leap from how it once was.

Since social media and technology is the wave of the future and it doesn’t appear that we will be going back in time anytime soon.  Professionals should jump on the bandwagon and decide which platforms will work best for them.  Twitter and Instagram are always a good start as they are integrated.

Whether you are in the fashion industry or not, the key is to select a platform that will work well with your business and that are accessible to your target market.  So, choose wisely.

Leave a comment below.

Reference

Social Blade. (2015, February 5). How to Make a Good Quality YouTube Video 101, Episode 4[Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O-HTnNArDA?rel=0&w=560&h=315

 

Periscope and Instagram Tools for the Artist in You

Deciding which social media tool to use can be a big step especially for well-established brands or even ones just starting out. Why may you ask? Because you want to be sure to pick the tool that will enhance and compliment your business. You don’t, however, want to jump on every new social media bandwagon because it may not do any justice to your brand at all. For now, let’s take a look at Periscope and Instagram two of the hottest tools around right now.

Instagram allows users to share and to connect instantly with friends, family, and brands through a quick post of a picture. The reach on Instagram is incredible, and it seems as if almost every major brand has an account. The beautiful thing about this tool is that you can be as creative as you wish. Posting pictures are the main feature of the company; you can adjust the filters, brightness, contrast, color, and more. It’s perfect for professionals if they are familiar with these types of editing tools.

Image courtesy of Instagram

The video is another excellent feature of this application. Sometime after the company had launched it introduced video capability. At first, they only allotted 15 seconds for a video post, but it recently expanded to 30 seconds giving people, even more, time to share their stories or messages.

Hashtags make it easy to connect on Instagram if you don’t know the purpose of hashtags is follow, find, or even contribute to a conversation. For example, when the Grammy’s are on to see who is talking about the award show you can enter #grammys and all of the discussions revolving around the show will pop up. Hashtags are neat because you can create your own for your brand as there aren’t any specific guidelines. I would recommend keeping them relevant, short, and memorable.

Periscope a live video streaming application is the new kid on the block so to speak. It’s owned by Twitter and was launched a little over a year ago. The tool is fantastic especially for brands that are more visual or may need to provide tutorials or anything related to speaking or showing. This tool is a mobile application that allows you to broadcast videos live from wherever you are. With a few clicks you can connect with people in almost any part of the world. Once you start a live broadcast it is entirely interactive, viewers can comment and ask questions.; this is an excellent way to engage with your audience and even meet others within your industry.

Image Courtesy of Periscope

Well, back to my thoughts on the showing and telling part of this application. I think this tool would be useful for someone in the fashion industry, who perhaps wants to show an audience how to style an outfit or even an artist who wants to display their work. The great thing about this tool is that there isn’t a time limit on how long the videos needs to be like on Instagram. Although I would suggest keeping them under 1 hour to 45 minutes or perhaps even shorter, the goal is to get people to view your content and listen in. If the video is too long, I am confident you will lose them. Also, keep in mind even though the application is available on the desktop the majority of users are probably viewing from their phone. So, instead, consider doing short 15-minute video series and break them up over a course of a week.

Another great thing with Periscope is that you have the option to allow your videos to be viewed a minimum of 24 hours after you post or you can keep it up indefinitely. If you decide to take the route of creating a mini-series, your audience can always go back and view the missed videos at their convenience.

One last difference is unlike Instagram where you will have to build your audience from scratch; Periscope is amazing because if you have a Twitter account, you can instantly connect with your Twitter followers that already have an account. If you are familiar with the application and have been a little hesitant to try it, you may want to note that you no longer need a Twitter account to open an account to broadcast from Periscope.

Social media has to be one of the greatest tools ever invented for connecting with people and business. With a simple a click of a few buttons, people can share thoughts and comments, short video clips, pictures, i.e. It is a great tool for branding and getting your message across to potential clients and business partners. While Periscope and Instagram have the same concept which is connecting people, they do vary in how content is shared and the time it takes to create a post. If you don’t have an account for either of the application or are still on the fence, you can click the links below to learn more and to download.

Share your comments below.

 

*I do not own or claim to own the images share in this post.