The Advantages of Having An Interactive Brand Representative

From the public relations advice guru DKNY-girl to the behind the scenes fashion insider OscarPRGirl, online brand representatives are not only driving company attention but also increasing sales. By looking at two huge digital presences, the women behind social media for fashion labels DKNY (Donna Karen New York) and Oscar de la Renta, it will become evident why every company needs an individual leading the company in the interactive world.

We have discussed the benefits of social media in previous posts: Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Blogger, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc. Your company may even have one of several of these accounts. However, the questions that must be asked is, are you properly utilizing each medium? Are they consistent? Additionally, who is handling these accounts? If the tone or voice on several of your mediums is different, then your message will be viewed differently on each forum. Think deep down into the core of your business, what are you trying to provide your consumer? What good or service sets you apart from the competition in your given industry? Once you decide what message you are trying to promote to your target market, one individual needs to spearhead the movement into the interactive world. What keeps a customer coming back to a particular brand? Dependability.

In terms of how you can have a strong social presence like DKNY and Oscar PR Girl. Cross promotion is the first step. The two individuals behind these two accounts are using various mediums to promote the same message. No matter where you turn, whether clicking on Facebook, Tumblr, or Twitter, each forum displays the same voice and the same words (perhaps in a different format). Fans of these brands can turn to their web-savvy girl for help and advice, especially because these sites allow for fan/account holder interaction. What drives the success of these brands is not only the stable message they provide but also the fact that they stand in as 24-7 customer service representatives. Knowing that one can contact a dependable and stable member of the company is not only empowering to the consumer, but it makes the brand seem more relatable and personable.

What can you do? Be sure that your social media, PR and marketing messages are consistent in both content and tone. If you don't have an in-house PR/marketing team that can take on this task, find an agency that understands both PR and is social media savvy, in order to portray your one message across all channels and manage how the online world perceives your brand. “Social media is an invaluable tool for fashion brands and retailers,” says Rachel Strugatz, the online editor for Women’s Wear Daily. “Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, blogs or branded editorial content, maintaining a dialogue with fans and consumers through authentic and engaging content is paramount in achieving success within the digital realm.” Over 1 billion of the world’s population is online, digital presence is serious so make your presence known!

Designers Blend Traditional Designs and Modern Technology: Social Media and the Fashion Industry

Various blog posts of ours dictated the way to create a fan base on Twitter and Facebook, Tumblr and Blogger. Usually, it helps to give step-by-step guides, telling each and every business owner the actions it takes to break into public relations, marketing, and social media. However, it also helps to learn from successful brands, ones that utilize the sources your company is trying to figure out. As such, we profile here two major fashion labels, Balenciaga and Alexander Wang, both of which are innovatively using social media to connect with their fan base and gain attention for their label.

Balenciaga is a company that dates back to 1914 Basque Country, Spain. How does a old-world brand merge into the 21st century? By infiltrating the social media market. For Balenciaga’s Fall/Winter 2011 campaign, the brand is paying homage to their heritage, hoping to fuse history and modernity. How is this possible? ”Some photos were shot in a Gothic Harlem church, with a futuristic world — the black and white tiles in a studio – that still showcases the iconic sense of what people have come to know with the Balenciaga brand.” But what makes it modern? Half of the campaign was shot in a bright, tiled studio set. This part of the campaign features “the same poncho-like dresses, with bright colors popping in a futuristic, 3D look due to the shiny, black-and-white tiled background.” You’re probably wondering what this has to do with your business. Well, this new campaign is showcasing the the brand’s effort to combine the classic with the modern as it takes its first leaps into the digital world. “Balenciaga’s new Web site is rumored to feature more than 200 video clips, 3,000 photos and an e-commerce section.” This shows you that it’s never to late to revamp your image, join the digital community and gain success and new customers/fans.

Other types of social media being utilized include building projections. Yes, you read that correctly, images and videos placed on stationary towers. Apparel and accessories designer  Alexander Wang decided to release his latest campaign video on the walls of New York buildings. ”The young designer deployed several vans on July 13 to project the Fall 2011 ready-to-wear video onto the walls of buildings throughout Manhattan. The new video features model Raquel Zimmermann and debuted globally on the branded Web site the following day.” The vans that displayed the videos were located in SoHo, Union Square, and the Meatpacking districts of Manhattan. From 9 p.m. to 3 a.m., the designer was tweeting about his video, providing his fans with the exact locations to see the campaign live. Alexander Wang diehards are wondering if this marketing approach will spread to other cities, and others in the industry are awe-stuck, noticing the sales-successes and attention this has created for the brand. One article claims, “Certainly, other brands will take a cue from [Mr. Wang's] playbook and start promoting in this way in other cities.”

This post shows us that there is not only one way to approach social media or that it is only suitable for more “modern” companies. Balenciaga, a company favored by an older demographic, unaccustomed to social media and technology ,is branching out, reaching a new  younger demographic and making a huge splash. Alexander Wang is trying things no other designer has before, but likely things every designer will try in the future.

Whether these case studies inspire you to create a new website, launch a new social media campaign, or simply reconsider your marketing; understanding--and, thus, implementing--a new approach via technology can increase your fan base, bring attention to your brand and, ultimately, lead to increased sales.

The Point of Pinternest

So maybe you've heard of the new creative site called Pinterest, or maybe you have been completely out of the loop. Either way, I'm here to break it down for you--because there is nothing more exciting then learning about new blogging platforms, right? (Well, there are probably more exciting things, but...) Pinterest is essentially a virtual pinboard. What do I mean by pinboard? Well, you know a bulletin board that you may have in your office place; a space where you can clip inspirational pictures, articles, phrases, etc.? This website is basically that concept, only an online version. You can create different boards which all feature collections of things you love. Additionally you can follow other boards--in some ways it is very similar to sites like Blogger, Tumblr, Facebook, and Twitter. On all four of these sites you can "follow" or "friend" other individuals whom have similar tastes, interests, and thoughts.

Why join? Well for starters it is a very new website that is gaining attention among the fashion and design-minded. Start up a Pinterest account, spread the word, and be the tech-savvy-expert amongst all your friends and colleagues! But besides being the cool guy/gal, chatting away about "pinning" this and "pinning" that--Pinterest is, more importantly, a great source for networking. Tons of bloggers, artists, and designers have accounts and the coolest thing about it is that, "When you follow a new person, you get to see all the things they find fascinating online and each new thing that catches your eye takes you to more boards that will continue to take you deeper and deeper down an Alice in Wonderland hole of amazing stuff," (read more here). From a designer/artist standpoint, Pinterest is a great tool for collecting/presenting/dreaming up potential collections and designs. Visualize a specific image, maybe it's the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the Statue of Liberty in New York City; you are inspired by the sculpture, the colors, the lines, the dimension. You decide that you want to design something around this particular object so you collect tons of patterns, color swatches, and ornaments that inspire you. Since you are able to create multiple boards on the site, create one for this project and share it with your design team and clients. By having every image located on this one board you are creating an organized space to share your vision.

Why is Pinterest so easy and convenient? Well for starters once you join Pinterest asks you if you have Facebook and/or Twitter accounts. If you do (which you should because they are great business tools to utilize!) then you can simply click a button, log into your accounts quickly via Pinterest and the site will find all of your followers/contacts/friends that have Pinterest accounts--could finding friends on a new website be any easier? I think not! Even better...all you need to do is install a special "Pin It" button to your browser bar (works on Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome) to "pin" things directly! After the button is bookmarked you can grab an image from any website and then add it to any one of your pin boards. The best part is that since you are pinning from a website, Pinternest grabs the source so you credit the original designer/creator of whatever you are "PINNING." So what do you think? Are you going to start "pinning"? Do you need my help? Check out my Pinterest account here (I just started one too!).

Blogger and Tumblr and Pinterest, OH MY!

Lions, and tigers and bears, oh my! In more recent and tech-savvy times, the fashion- and style-minded should really say, Blogger and Tumblr and Pinterest, oh my! All these blogging platforms are entering our lives at a staggering rate. From the pink-walled bedroom of a 12-year old budding fashionista to the busy showroom of a prominent design house, blogging has changed how we view, communicate and express our ideas.

So what to choose...Should we enter long and thoughtful posts on Blogger? Maybe start tumbling photos and quotes on Tumblr? How about pin things to a virtual pin board on Pinterest? There are so many options; it's hard not to get lost in the dynamic and altering digital world. Is it just me, or does it feel as if things change on a daily basis? There is always a new version of iTunes to download, a Blackberry software update to complete, or a new Macbook to buy... So, how do we figure out the best tools to help market our business?

At Miamore, we're constantly researching in order to communicate to our clients which new (or old) social media strategy to implement. Maybe that means tumbling once a day, posting a diary entry, or pinningsomething to our virtual inspiration board. Or maybe we should stay focused on only one platform and master its ins and outs. Each company has different needs, but not participating is not an option. The upside for luxury, fashion and design firms: freedom of expression and the promotion of creative ideas are at the forefront of the digital movement. We LOVE it!

So for the sake of avoiding technology overload, let's first discuss Tumblr. What is it? Well, technically, it is platform for micro-blogging, a.k.a sharing post text, photos, quotes, links, music, videos. The New York Times has stated that Tumblr makes, "blogging blissfully easy" and Fast Company feels that, "it's blogging, the way blogging was meant to be." So what does this mean for you and your business? Well it can mean a few things...maybe it can be a way for you to connect with your clients--updating them on trends in your given industry, providing information about changes in your company, introducing new projects and collaborations, displaying new projects--the options are endless.

“A picture says a thousand words.” It’s a saying that we have heard all our lives, right? So why not apply this to your business? Our culture is so face-paced and glancing at a picture or a short quote is a lot easier than reading long, detailed posts…thus Tumblr’s visual appeal for businesses based in fashion and design. It allows you to illustrate your ideas, your lifestyles, your products and, most importantly, your brand, through a simple image. Jump on board because this is a movement… Not only do high-profile brands like Kate Spade and Oscar de la Renta have Tumblr sites, but their Twitter and Tumblr sites work simultaneously by continually updating each other. Yes, aother benefit of Tumblr is its ease of connecting with other social media tools like Facebook and Twitter.

An easy illustration of Tumblr’s appeal: Have you ever traveled on a business trip and saw something inspirational that you WISH you could instantly share with your customers? Maybe it's a pattern for a new dress you are inspired to create; maybe it is a city skyline reminding you of NY Fashion Week; or maybe it is just a pretty little doo-dah image that reminds you of (and leads you to thank) your clients. Despite what you post, when you post it or why you do post, all posts will be shared with the entire Tumbling network and the interactive community--that's a lot of eyes on you. There are over 14,891,884 Tumblr accounts! (If you can’t tell, we’re big fans. Personally, the Miamore Communications Tumblr is my new obsession!)

So let's continue to navigate through this little (okay, it's pretty big, but not necessarily intimidating) social media/BLOG movement together... Stay tuned. Our next stop: Blogger. Until then, please feel free to comment and ask questions about Tumblr (or any other blogging tools)… we’d love to help!