Top tips: How fashion brands can get the most from their fans

Major fashion brands are building up huge social followings, but how should they engage those fans? Tamara Littleton, CEO of social media management agency, eModeration, examines the issues.


Social media is a natural fit for fashion brands – visual, fun, and made for sharing. And there’s some great stuff being done on social media from fashion names: River Island is using tweet mirrors in store; brands like ASOS are doing customer service on Facebook and Twitter; Victoria’s Secret is growing on Pinterest ; and Top Shop is a big user of Tumblr. The biggest fashion brands on Facebook are trainer brand Converse (32.5 million fans) and Victoria’s Secret (19.2 million), meanwhile, the most popular UK brand is Top Shop (nearing 2.5 million followers) closely followed by ASOS which tops 1.7 million fans.
Even Luxury fashion brands are booming on social channels. Burberry has 13.2 million fans on Facebook, Dior just over nine million Facebook fans and Gucci 8.7 million fans. Armani has around 3.3 million Facebook fans, and around 3,000 people ‘liked’ the brand’s pictures of its new collection when they were posted on the site. With fan numbers like these, it’s clear that people are eager to connect to their favourite brands on over social channels.
But ‘like’ or follower numbers alone don’t tell you much. Does the brand post a continuous stream of news and never reply to fans’ comments? Or does it regularly engage fans? Does it grow loyalty? How can a fashion brand make the best use of its social media following?
Be social – If people have taken the time to ‘like’ your brand, take the time to talk to them, rather than simply attempting to acquire new fans. Where and how you do this depends on what you’re trying to achieve, of course. ASOS uses social media to offer an extra level of customer service: ‘ASOS Here to Help’ on Facebook and Twitter offers fans a clear channel to contact customer service and gives the brand a way to move customer service issues away from its main pages. This is a good strategy if you have different objectives for non-customer service social pages (such as a focus on sharing, volume of updates and reach) and customer service channels (speed of response and resolution rates).
New Look is also achieving good levels of social engagement, with a branded community, DailyNewLook, which allows the brand to engage with customers in an environment that it controls.
Learn from your customers – According to research by Reevoo, recommendations from friends are our main influencer in purchase decisions (followed by reviews from strangers). The study reported that 88 per cent of shoppers would consult reviews before buying, and 60 per cent were more likely to buy from a site that included reviews. Of course, brands that include reviews risk giving a platform to negative feedback, but it does provide the brand with the opportunity to rectify any issues and gain a positive response as a result.
Social media is a great way to float ideas for new projects, designs and lines – making a saving on that R&D budget. It also lets you identify, engage and reward ‘superfans’, who might like to offer feedback on exclusive content.
Treat fans as individuals – For all the talk of fashion trends, fashion is really all about individual style. One of the reasons that Vintage has become so popular is that it’s relatively unique in a sea of clone branded items. Major brands are realising the importance of relating to customers as individuals, with their own tastes and desires. For example, Burberry allows shoppers to design their own trench coat. People can chose the style, colour, fabric and lining to the coat, as well as adding extras like a monogram. This may look like a lot of effort for the brand to go to, but the end product can end up triple the price of an off-the-peg item.
It’s not all about Facebook – Pinterest is becoming hard to ignore. Apart from the massive user interest in themed boards around major events like weddings, people working around the industry are also taking to Pinterest. Journalists, bloggers and designers can all be found on the site. Most of the fashion brands on Pinterest are really just getting started. ASOS has 20 boards now and almost 9790 followers. Victoria’s Secret hosts the adventures of customers via its #VSTeenyBikini board which encourages users to share pictures via Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest (the board currently has over 16,600 followers and 188 pins). Brands can’t use Pinterest as a generic store front, (because of anti-self-promotion rules), so they are forced to find creative ways of engaging people, by creating content that people want to repin.
Top Shop is always interesting to watch. As well as the usual channels, it encourages customers to post pictures to its Tumblr account, as well as combining apps like the SCVNGR game with geo-targeting to award prizes and offer incentives to consumers within 500 metres of the store.
Work with fashion bloggers – The vast majority of fashion students and graduates have their own blogs – it’s a great way for young designers to get noticed, and those interested in fashion to express their individual style. Fashion brands recognise their influence, and are busy courting them by offering exclusives, previews and creating blogger-only events. Fashion magazine Vogue even created the ‘Vogue Influencer Network’, a network of 1,000 bloggers who help spread the word (unpaid) about the magazine.
Being a social media success is about more than just ‘like’ or follower numbers. As brands like ASOS, Victoria’s Secret and Burberry have shown, it’s about creating a unique, engaging experience for each one of those fans, tailor made to each individual platform the brand communicates with them on. Social media represents a shift in the balance of power between brands and customers, and brands better get on board fast if they want to compete.
This article is based on a white paper: How fashion retailers use social media, which is available to download here.
By Tamara Littleton
CEO
eModeration