Social Media and its Impact on the Fashion Industry

Social media is changing the way the world does business, specifically in the fashion industry. Aside from the obvious, where we can buy an adorable pair of boots in our pajamas from home, its impact has a HUGE reach and impact on the consumer and industry today. 

In today's tech-age, designers have a huge advantage with social media to communicate with their target customers. Whether it's a quick Facebook post, or a tweet to massive amounts of followers, the impact is astounding! For the public, customers also love being able to see their favorite designers' new line as soon as it is out, something that couldn't be done before. From browsing through their website, to seeing their designs on Vogue.com, or their favorite fashion blog, the customer can give the designer immediate feedback through their social media outlets. What's great about social media, is instead of a top down society like what use to dominate the fashion industry, the average fashion blogger can now influence a designer, as much as his own team using through the simple use of social media outlets.

Another great aspect of social media, is designers can utilize the tool as a polling medium. Never before, designers can now get realtime feedback on their newest designs. This includes, but is not limited to pulling inspiration from customer feedback, street style, and bloggers. With the addition of visual sites like Facebook and Pinterest, inspiration is literally just a click away!

Another new trend is the impact that social media has on Fashion Week. By creating an open conversation online with designers and the public, this creates community involvement from celebrities to the cashier at the grocery store. Customers can see all the greatest designs straight from the runway through various mediums including bloggers and celebrities posting their favorite looks on their social media pages. New to the scene, even Snapchat stories. This popular medium even has a specific feed for fashion week coverage! 

In addition, to the typical social mediums, every fashion show during Fashion Week is also recorded and posted online. Many times these shows are also fed live and streamed into the designers' stores as the shows are happening!

With the world of technology constantly changing, social media will constantly be changing as well. This innovative industry goes hand-in-hand with the world of fashion, a fast forward, fast moving innovative industry in its own right. What better way to share that message then with an outlet that is just as innovative as the industry itself?!

Written by Sarah Orlando of Rebecca Adele PR & Events

Social Media Advertising and its Positive Impact on Businesses and Users

Social media has taken the world by storm and has drastically changed the way businesses go about planning their advertising strategies. With each social media outlet, a door opens for businesses to directly communicate and advertise to social media users. Social media advertising on mobile phones is a relatively new trend for different businesses and came about right after the decline of the banner ad. We have closed our computers and have turned to our smartphones for social interaction and entertainment.

We live in a social world where apps on our smartphones are much more attractive and useful compared to websites. Instead of having banner ads track your movements across the web, businesses are advertising on social media outlets to find new clients based on the shared and personal information of users. Social media allows businesses to spot potential new customers by targeting individuals based on their self-reported interests, location, occupation, skills and more. However, social media advertising varies for each different platform. Let’s take a closer look at each platform and the advertising opportunities the outlet holds.

Facebook: Facebook allows businesses to perform keyword searches to examine the self-reported information provided by different users. Businesses can also create landing pages for advertisements, unique advertisements for each specific audience and calculate audience insights.

Instagram: With the option of a 30-second video or landscape picture, Instagram recently introduced their advertising option for businesses. Businesses can create sponsored advertisements in order to get in touch with Instagram users.

Twitter: Promotional tweets allow businesses to boost brand conversation while creating a lasting impression on followers. This type of tweet opens the doors of communication between the customer and business.

Snapchat: Similar to Twitter, Snapchat has recently started integrating sponsored advertisements into Snapchat stories. An advertisement within a story connects with users on a more intimate level and is a great way to reach both young and old audiences.

So, how is this impacting you, the user? Well, it’s working in the both user’s favor and the business’s favor. Social media advertising creates a two-way street where customers can provide feedback and businesses can tailor their messages to meet their customer’s needs. Advertising on social media is one of the easiest, cheapest and most effective ways for businesses to build and strengthen relationships with customers. By getting in touch with potential customers in a more personal way, relationships are being built on trust and credibility. Customers want to feel valued and businesses want to increase their profits. Advertising on social media provides this type of opportunity where both parties are receiving benefits and positive effects. This is the first time where both sides of the advertisement are reaping the benefits. As new social media outlets are developed, positive relationships between the user and business will continue to foster and grow.

Written by Alisa Frye from Rebecca Adele PR & Events