Using Social Media for a Fashion Brand

Hi everyone,
I am gonna talk a little bit about my internship and how we use social media. I am working for a lingerie brand named Kiki de Montparnasse, in the PR department. We use Twitter and Facebook everyday to communicate with our clients, fans, friends.... We let them know about our credits in magazines, about the latest celebrities wearing the brand, the latest partnerships, creations.... The president only want us to post once a day on both Twitter and Facebook. I have two opinion concerning that. Posting more could annoy people, which I understand. When you see on your facebook/twitter page 10 times a day the same person/brand, it starts being annoying. But, I also think that posting a little bit more (like 3 times/day) could made the brand better known as a lot of people have no idea what it is. I invite you to like Kiki de Montparnasse on Facebook or follow us on Twitter. ;)

The New Wave of Advertisers

With the age of tivo, people are not longer sitting in their homes watching television.  They are streaming all of their shows on the Internet.  Brands took notice to this and started posting ads online.  Now people are too busy watch programs over the computer.  Mobile is the new window for advertisers.  But with the monitor being so small, the ads will get lost on the pages.

Advertisers have been using social media as a new tool to promote their brand.  They are creating Facebook and Twitter accounts to post promotions.  You can also get promo codes on Foursquare.  Actually, with the use of Four Square, advertisers can use the public as virtual billboards.  When a person enters your store and promos the brand, they collect points for future rewards.  In exchange, you get free promotion from them to all of their friends.  QR Codes are definitely coming into the social media trend.  It allows non-Internet forms of advertisement to compete in the online world.

The biggest trend that social media is going to see in 2011 is the wave of new forms of advertisements.  Times are changing and in order for a brand to survive, it must enter the new wave of social media.

~ Michelle Martinez

Love It or Hate It..It's the new wave of Social Media..

Two years ago we saw exponential growth of social media, especially the development of social networking sites. According to Nielsen Online, Twitter's popularity spurted during the past 2 years.  Meanwhile, Facebook continued to outpace MySpace, who knew?. So I guess it goes to show that during the past 2 years we as social media consumers have certainly picked our prime sites we choose to socialize with the world. When Twitter first came out I thought who would want to use this? All you do is write what you are doing every second of the day. " I'm at the mall right now". " I'm watching the Oscars right now, OMG look at Natalie Portman's Dress!" For me I had thought that this website is a waste and is like the website Xanga that we used to post random thoughts and videos. Although, now Twitter is one of the main sites people use day-to-day and continues to add more people to their bandwagon. 


I knew I was out of the loop several months ago when I went on an interview with a big media company. The interviewer had asked me if I Twittered. I had replied no I don't have an account. The answer I got back in return was, "oh, really thats a problem because you have to know how to Twitter". After that interview ended I was completely stunned by the person's response and said to myself, "is this what the world is coming to?" Before enrolling in a Social Media class I still didn't want to partake in the Twitter frenzy because I honestly I don't care to have one nor have the urge to blog about my life every second of the day. Out of all the social media websites, I happen to go on FB the most, but it certainly took me a while to make a profile. Although, just like Myspace that lured thousands of people I wonder if FB will eventually crash and die like Myspace. Now when we hear the word Myspace we think of 13 year olds posting up childish pictures and comments. We forget though 3 to 4 years ago we were all glued to our computers when Myspace was "in". 


I personally think just like everything else, these media sites might loose some momentum and people will "be over" them. Just like clothing or the hot new lipstick of the season, they eventually die and then come back 3 years later. I think FB and Twitter may be in now but like Tim Gunn says, " one day your in the next day your out".


- @ Elisa Cervone

Relationships in the Virtual Space

The number of predictions in social media that were made for 2011 is outstanding. But who can really predict things in a field where the leading social networking site of today, may not even exist in three months. 

One trend I found went beyond the way businesses will use social media or what kinds of social media will be most popular. An article on ReadWriteWeb.com predicted the “10 Ways Social Media Will Change in 2011.” The seventh prediction made by author Ravit Lichtenberg, was that “psychology is shifting.” People used to feel like they did not have the ability to influence personal and cultural injustices, but today social media has given them a tool to extend their voice to reach the masses, and actually effect them. 

Beyond this power to change, however, is how the constructs of relationships will evolve because of social media. Lichtenberg asks “how do we respond to the changing definition of relationships?” Behavioral cues are virtually gone, as interactions move behind a computer screen – or a smartphone, or an iPad. How will this impact our ability to connect? The number of people who rely on text messaging and Facebook updates to keep in touch with “friends” is far exceeding the number of coffee dates and even phone conversations.

Lichtenberg says “in the coming year, companies wishing to succeed should already start to set practices and create a charter to understand the intersection between technology and psychology. Focusing on behaviors is no longer sufficient.” 

If companies can no longer focus on behaviors, then what do they focus on? Keywords, search terms, likes and dislikes. That is how marketers will find their consumers, and how friendships are made in the virtual space.   

Lichtenberg asks “how does our need for emotional balance get addressed in the face of constant change?” And there is no doubt that this virtual space that is the center of worlds is constantly changing.

-Briana Samuels

Advice of the day about social media tools

In my opinion, I think social media can either be very interesting tools or very dangerous when it interferes with professional life. It is for sure a good way to connect with friends and it is wonderful if you try to find back your first high school love. But (cause yeah there is a huge “but” here), you have to be aware of the fact that absolutely everything you post on the web will stay on the web even if you think you deleted it.

Nowadays, companies employ a new kind of professionals. Their title? Headhunters.

Those people are experts in finding on the web all the information they need concerning actual or new employees. And don’t even wonder, they are able to find absolutely everything that refers to you. It could be a simple phone number but also this very one picture you posted and didn’t want to remember on which you appear drunk as hell and barely naked.

A French survey has been led about facebook. The goal was to understand better why people share that much information about their private life. To the following question : “Why do you post pictures of you and your friends on facebook?”, most of them answered it is to have memories. But why? Do memories need to appear on a public social tool to be remembered? If we are being honest here, it just seems to be an ego thing. We want to expose ourselves to receive good comments about how we look, how the party we threw was awesome, we want to make people react about our lives.

So, my advice would be : never post anything on a social media tool that could damage your image or your reputation in another context. Have you heard this story about that girl who told her boss she couldn’t go to work cause she was sick? Imagine his reaction when he found out pictures of her on facebook, laying by the pool cocktails in each hand. I let you guess who is still desperately looking for a job today…

Also, check how many friends you have on facebook and wonder : among them, who do I really consider as my real friends?

Alexia

Social Media: The Heartbeat of Advertising & Marketing

Honestly, I am a very private person.  I never understood social media users who post their entire lives on the internet for everyone to see, dissect, and analyze for their personal enjoyment.  There are too many malicious individuals out there to even be sharing the fact that you prefer mustard over ketchup on your burger to begin with, let alone posting relationship status' and restaurants that you have recently "checked into".  On the other hand, utilizing social media outlets such as; facebook, Twitter, and FourSquared to navigate your business and market is probably the most brilliant idea society has embraced in a very long time.  The fascination behind having everything at one's fingertips is not only shockingly convenient for the masses, but for the nature of a business, brand, and even a celebrity figure.  Advertisers and marketers have spent decades throwing their materials and ideas in consumers' faces; yet, they felt there was more to thirty foot billboards and stimulating press.  Why wait for the consumer to approach the brand, when the brand can target, approach, and devour the consumer all in a few seconds?  I know, sounds a little too rough around the edges, but that's the game marketers must play.  Now I believe it is our turn to squeeze as much juice out of these social media outlets as we can, because although some of us truly appreciate traditional television and press ads and messages, social media is in full bloom and has ultimately become our future.  The job market is tough right now; therefore, we as soon-to-be college graduates must take in everything that is being offered to us in order to go the distance in our field of interest.  Go-ahead sign up for twitter, FourSquared, LinkedIn, whatever you feel like doing in order to get your foot in the door, just remember; no one really cares about that AMAZING tunafish sandwich you're going to be eating for lunch later.

Social Media:A New Way to Interract

My way of social media has many interpretations. It's a way of stay connected with friends, networking, and staying updated to whatever your interests are. Twitter and Facebook are my daily usage. Twitter is a very handful tool that I use because it helps me to stay updated with my friends that I don't get to see on an everyday basis and it's also useful to me because the people or brands i follow allow me to keep up with whatever their new moves are. Twitter has been great to me I have met people on twitter through mutual friends and network with them which has been great because I landed a great internship, gone to some great events, and made new friends/contacts through it. Facebook allows me to stay connected with friends that I don't talk or see regularly. To be honest though I don't take Facebook seriously because I perceive it as an outlet to be yourself. I treat it as a blog. I post videos, pictures, links that I enjoy and hopefully my friends or people that are my friends find an interest in it. Sometimes FB can be too much! There are those few that don't agree with everything you say or sometimes get offended but really it's only FB life doesn't revolve around it. That being said people need to stop spending their leisure time by abusing social media and need to start using this as an outlet to accomplish their goals. I went to an event for Social Media Week which was 2 weeks ago and the event was at The Hearst Building which Cosomo Mag hosted and if was quite informative. The panel which included Bryanboy who is a fashion blogger that has been recognized by the fashion world is a great example of what his mission was. His way of starting to use social media was by blogging on this website. He said that he wanted to make a blog that shared his passion for fashion, experiences, and people he met to his readers. He then moved onto twitter and also facebook. He uses twitter to promote companies that offer him free clothing or pay him to promote it, he shares his trips,events, and ideas thru twitter. So to conclude this Bryanboy is making himself into a brand. A brand to his blog. By doing so he now is working on products such as makeup, clothes, and such. I think that is very smart of how he started it all. If he can do it so can anyone. Social Media is not a threat to expose your every move or be stalked it can be a way to build yourself up in an industry of your choice!



-John Morales