In the fast-paced fashion world, having a strong and strategic social media presence is no longer an option—it’s a necessity. With the ever-growing influence of social media platforms, fashion brands must effectively navigate this digital landscape to reach their target audience, build brand awareness, and foster meaningful connections. Our comprehensive Social Media Management for Fashion Brands offers tailored solutions to help fashion businesses thrive digitally. From crafting compelling content and implementing engaging strategies to tracking trends and analyzing performance, our team of experts is dedicated to maximizing your brand’s online presence. Join us as we delve into social media management for fashion brands, exploring the strategies and techniques to elevate your brand, captivate your audience, and make a lasting impact in the fashion industry.
What is Social Media Management for Fashion Brands?
Social media management for fashion brands refers to the strategic and comprehensive management of social media platforms to enhance online presence and marketing efforts. It involves various activities such as content creation, curation, scheduling, engagement, and analytics to reach and engage with the target audience effectively. By utilizing social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, fashion brands can showcase their collections, connect with followers, build brand awareness, drive website traffic, and increase sales. Social media management for fashion brands requires a deep understanding of the fashion industry, current trends, audience preferences, and effective digital marketing strategies. It aims to create a cohesive and engaging brand image, foster relationships with customers, and leverage the power of social media to achieve business objectives in the highly competitive fashion landscape.
The strategy of social media Management for Fashion Brands
There’s more to social media than posting content and hoping it resonates with your target audience. Posting content for content’s sake doesn’t move the needle as much as you’d hope.
You need a strategy—a plan of action that helps zone in on what you post across social media to meet the goals you’re setting for your fashion business. Followers, engagement, and sales are easier to generate when you’ve got a strategy to influence them.
So, what does that strategy look like? Here are 10 steps you can take to create yours.
1. Choose the right platforms
Every social media network has users who could become clients. But some are better suited to generating sales than others. Facebook and Instagram are some of the greatest venues to find out about, find, or buy stylish clothing, according to Statista.
Since Facebook owns Instagram (now Meta), creating a successful ad campaign via the Facebook Ads Manager can be done without much extra work.
Facebook has more than 48 million users in the UK. Facebook users claim to find fashion inspiration on the site in about four out of ten cases. In other words, Facebook’s platform offers a huge potential to engage a new audience and foster brand loyalty.
It’s important to remember that Facebook claims that its platform is the best place to reach fashion consumers between the ages of 18 and 34. Particularly, women assert that celebrities and influencers on the network serve as sources of fashion inspiration.
According to a Facebook survey, Instagram is the best platform for finding trendy products. You can connect with the 28 million UK Instagram users by creating a fashion-focused social media strategy.
What sort of stuff you need to post on Instagram, then? According to research, carefully crafted Instagram ads typically perform worse than mobile-created story advertising.
Additionally, if you decide to use Instagram for advertising, remember to add a call-to-action to your Instagram Stories. Eighty-nine percent of the time, CTA ads tend to perform better.
YouTube
It’s important to note that larger fashion industry brands like Chanel, with over 1.9 million subscribers, and Louis Vuitton, with 909,000 subscribers, are major players on YouTube. Smaller eCommerce brands are typically better off running Facebook ads (especially if you’re working with a smaller budget).
Instead of relying on paid advertisements, each luxury fashion brand rules the market by producing original content through its YouTube channels.
Even if you want to advertise on YouTube, a study by Strike Social discovered that the average cost per view on the platform is $0.026, while the typical view rate is 31.9%.
Also read : Social Media For E-Commerce : An Ultimate Guide
Snapchat
Snap Ads and Story Ads on Snapchat make it easy to sell stories. More than a quarter of Snapchat users make purchases when they see something they like, despite only 14% of users using social media to find new things.
Regarding content types, Snap Inc. claims that Discover content advertisements boost ad awareness by as much as 65%, highlighting the potency of video advertisements on the site.
TikTok
TikTok may be the new kid on the block in more ways than one, but it shouldn’t be discounted as a potential source of income. You might need to create video ads for your fashion brand using a more native strategy. However, the work spent is worthwhile because more than a billion individuals use the platform.
Users “Pin” things to digital boards on the social media site Pinterest. Native shopping pins, or pins saved directly from websites to Pinterest, open a new channel for smart firms to advertise their goods to new customers.
What’s best? Pinterest recently revealed data showing that 70% of users find new products on the platform, 90% think Pinterest helps them select what to buy, and up to 66% of users purchase after seeing a brand’s pins.
2. Create Instagram and Facebook Shops
Users may see, explore, and purchase things on Instagram and Facebook Shops without leaving those social media platforms. Your audience can shop for your products on Instagram or Facebook once you create them for your fashion brand.
Take Sweaty Betty as an illustration. Its Instagram Shop enables fans to shop for items directly from its profile.
Ensure your Instagram page has been transformed into a business account and linked to a Facebook page before creating an Instagram and Facebook shop. The next step is to confirm your eligibility.
Once that’s accounted for, the setup steps are simple:
- Head to your Commerce Manager and click Next.
- Choose your checkout method (Shopify, through Facebook or Instagram, through your website, or messaging) and click Next.
- Connect your Facebook Business Page, Instagram business account, Business Manager, and product catalog.
- Finally, review the Seller Agreement and click Finish Setup to publish your shop.
- From there, you can create a collection, add new products, or change the look of your catalog.
Refrain from relying on chance after setting up your Shop and assuming that people visiting your company’s profile will browse your in-app store. For each platform, produce fresh content and tag products from your shop. According to data, 130 million users click on these monthly Instagram commerce posts.
Followers can then quickly click through to purchase new fashion items after discovering them.
3. Create a consistent posting schedule
Consistency is a problem for many brands, especially when gaining traction. Nevertheless, whether you’re enthusiastic about producing Instagram stories, IGTV videos, TikToks, or Instagram posts, it’s essential for an effective approach to a great social strategy.
Was he not persuaded? Think about this: Fashion firms that published 0.96 posts per day on Instagram saw a 0.68% engagement rate per post, greater than the engagement rate on Facebook or Twitter.
Clarify what to post and be consistent with it. When posting fashion-related content to social media, pick a variety of these four content types:
Promote:
With powerful CTAs and direct response material, this content advertises your goods. The ultimate goal, as achieved by Pretty Little Thing with its Shop Instagram highlight reel, is to have someone buy your clothing.
Educate:
Social media users can learn more about your product and the “why” of your business with educational content. In other words: What is the purpose of your brand? Does it include? For instance, Missguided teaches people how to construct Halloween outfits in this Instagram post.
Inspire:
To evoke feelings, tell tales, and establish a connection with your ideal clients, use the personality and mission of your business. Motivate them with relatable material. TopShop achieves this effectively by posting seasonal content that provides a narrative about its clothing.
Entertain:
Make your brand fun by producing entertaining content. Draw in your audience with creative content that isn’t overtly commercial. Here is a sample from the UK retailer Boohoo.
It begs the question of how much of each form of content you should produce once you are aware of the material you must produce. For that, we’ve got a useful chart that can serve as a loose roadmap for your procedure as you pick things up and adjust as you go on each platform.
Various content kinds are more suited for some platforms than others. YouTube is a good platform for educational films, whereas Instagram is a good platform for promotional content from fashion brands.
However, remember that good content on TikTok follows trends if you’re creating it. The two UK influencers with the highest TikTok interaction rates, @hollyh, and @abbyroberts, produce lighthearted content that, most importantly, doesn’t promote any products.
If these artists are any indication, avoid overt promotion and opt instead for 40% content that is inspirational, 20% content that is informative, and 40% entertaining content. It’s time to increase your efforts if you see that a particular kind of content is performing pell.
4. Invest in influencer marketing
Did you know that the global market for fashion influencers is estimated to be worth $1.5 billion, with a projected growth rate of 35.7% by 2027? This means that you need to put some effort into finding the influencers your target audience follows.
Draw up a list of pros, cons, and average prices for the different types of influencers:
- Nano: Influencers with at most 5,000 followers. They tend to be the cheapest to partner with but have the most engaged audiences.
- Micro: Influencers with 5,000-20,000 followers.
- Mid-tier: Influencers with 20,000-100,000 followers.
- Macro: Influencers with 100,000-1 million followers.
- Celebrity: Influencers with more than a million followers.
When selecting influencers for your fashion brand, it’s crucial to prioritize engagement rates over follower count. High engagement indicates trust and credibility among the influencer’s audience, increasing the likelihood of them trusting and recommending your brand. It’s also essential to consider whether the influencer’s audience aligns with your target customers.
Once you find the right influencer, nurture a mutually beneficial partnership. This can involve offering free clothing, sponsoring their posts, or providing their audience with exclusive discount codes to drive website visits.
For instance, @beatseb, a Gymshark-sponsored influencer with over 120,000 followers, created a sponsored Instagram Story that garnered significant likes and comments, demonstrating effective collaboration.
TikTok is another platform where sponsored posts and influencer collaborations can be successful. By partnering with @kyletheyuan, a TikToker with over 350,000 followers, Levi’s tapped into an existing fanbase and gained endorsement from a trusted influencer.
Sponsored YouTube videos can also be impactful when you find influencers whose values align with your fashion brand. For example, Zoella, a YouTuber with a strong following of 10 million subscribers, collaborated with ASOS to create multiple videos showcasing their clothing, effectively reaching a large, engaged audience.
5. Repost customer content
User-generated content (UGC) is a highly effective strategy for showcasing your fashion brand’s products and driving engagement through an organic approach. Instead of solely creating content yourself, you can encourage your existing customers to share photos and videos of themselves wearing your apparel, which you can then repost on your profile.
This approach is successful because UGC boosts purchasing confidence, with 73% of shoppers stating that it influences their buying decisions. Additionally, UGC catalyzes interaction, as 61% of shoppers engage more with brands that feature user-generated content.
It’s worth noting that fashion brands already enjoy an average star rating nearly 5% higher than other industries. This provides a solid foundation to build consumer trust and fuel the sales flywheel, especially when potential customers see positive reviews on your product pages.
Gucci’s innovative response to creators mocking its brand online is an excellent example. Through the #Guccimodelchallenge, Gucci invited creators to compete by showcasing their best Gucci-inspired looks. The result was a viral challenge that generated a wealth of UGC content, which Gucci repurposed and prominently featured on its TikTok page.
6. Use fashion-related hashtags
Optimizing hashtags can be a powerful strategy if you aim to increase the follower count on your fashion brand’s social media accounts. While having more followers does increase the chances of turning users into customers, hashtags offer an additional way to reach non-followers and expand your content’s visibility.
Platforms like Instagram and TikTok allow users to follow specific hashtags, enabling them to see branded content without following your business’s account. By incorporating hashtags your target audience follows, your organic content can reach them effectively, even if they don’t follow your account directly.
The number of hashtags to use varies depending on the platform. Instagram’s latest update suggests using three to five hashtags for maximum reach. Some popular Instagram hashtags in the fashion realm include #styleinspo, #jeans, and #swimwear, among others.
TikTok also relies on hashtags to recommend new content to its users. Utilizing hashtags such as #OOTD, #lookbook, #streetstyle, and #fashionblogger can help your brand reach users interested in apparel and fashion.
Similar to implementing SEO on your website to rank higher in Google’s search engine results, leveraging hashtags on TikTok make your content discoverable to the right audience—your target customers. By strategically using relevant hashtags, you enhance the chances of your fashion brand reaching and engaging with the desired audience on social media platforms.
7. Jump on trending topics or events
Leveraging trends is a smart strategy for fashion brands to enhance their awareness by tapping into what’s already popular. Using tools like Buzzsumo, you can monitor discussions and closely monitor your products. These insights help you identify fashion trends early.
If London Fashion Week is approaching, you can collaborate with an influencer to create an attractive IG Reel showcasing products inspired by featured designers. Alternatively, you can invite an influencer to the event and capture vlog footage. This would give their audience an exclusive look at one of the most significant global fashion events, with your fashion brand credited as their partner.
Once you have the vlog footage, you can repurpose the content and share it on platforms where you have the most reach, which may vary for each brand. Embracing trending topics allows your brand to establish relevance by association. Feel free to seize these opportunities and take full advantage of the momentum they bring to elevate your brand’s visibility and engagement.
8. Prioritise customer service
While there are numerous tactics to boost engagement, gain social media followers, and drive sales for your fashion brand, sometimes, returning to the fundamentals can work wonders.
Customer service takes center stage in this regard. According to Yotpo, the key factors that matter most to fashion customers are service, speed, shipping, and price.
However, there is a downside: it has become commonplace for customers to express their dissatisfaction online, sharing poor experiences, subpar treatment, or negative encounters.
To address this, prioritize customer service by leveraging social media messaging and live chat as support channels. Research shows that 64% of people prefer messaging over phone calls when contacting representatives. Therefore, move away from traditional call center approaches and invest in training your fashion brand’s social media team to handle customer service inquiries and concerns adeptly.
By proactively addressing customer needs and resolving issues promptly and effectively, you can enhance customer satisfaction, foster loyalty, and cultivate a positive brand reputation. Putting customer service at the forefront not only meets the expectations of today’s fashion customers but also provides an opportunity to turn potential negatives into positive experiences, leading to long-term success for your fashion brand.
9. Track customer sentiment
Monitoring customer sentiment is a valuable practice to stay attuned to the perception of your fashion brand, even if you don’t have customers actively reaching out for updates on their orders. Understanding customer sentiment provides insights into how your brand is perceived and allows you to address emerging trends proactively.
According to McKinsey’s report, major fashion companies use data analytics to determine consumer sentiment. As soon as they notice trends, they act quickly.
Tools like Mention and Google Alerts enable you to track instances of people discussing your fashion brand on social media, even if they haven’t tagged your account directly. These tools provide valuable insights into how people perceive your brand, the impression your existing customers leave on others, and any potential issues that may arise. By monitoring these conversations, you can comprehensively understand your brand’s perception and take timely action to respond before any concerns escalate.
This proactive approach to monitoring customer sentiment empowers your fashion brand to engage with customers actively, address their feedback or concerns, and maintain a positive brand image. By staying aware of how your brand is perceived, you can ensure customer sentiment aligns with your desired brand identity and foster stronger connections with your audience.
In addition to the previous strategies, there are several other effective ways to track and monitor consumer sentiment for fine-tuning your fashion brand’s social media strategy:
Search for hashtags that include your brand name:
By actively searching for hashtags that include your brand name, you can gain valuable insights into how customers discuss and engage with your brand on social media.
Diligently track direct feedback:
Keep a close eye on messages, posts, and videos directly mentioning your brand. This direct feedback provides a direct line of communication with customers and allows you to address any concerns or issues promptly.
Pay attention to popular customer-shared posts:
Take note of the types of posts that customers share the most from your social media pages. This helps you understand what content resonates with your audience and tailor your social media strategy accordingly.
Utilize surveys:
Conducting surveys can provide valuable customer insights. By collecting feedback directly from your audience, you can better understand their preferences, needs, and sentiments related to your fashion brand.
Analyze tone and sentiment in high-engagement social channels:
Track the tone and sentiments in your social media channels that receive the highest likes and engagement. This analysis helps you gauge the overall sentiment of your audience and identify areas of improvement or focus.
Research has shown that sustainability and price are common areas of concern for fashion brands, as highlighted by a sentiment analysis conducted during fashion weeks. By leveraging consumer-driven social media data and tracking consumer sentiment, you gain powerful insights to fine-tune your social media strategy to align with customer expectations, address concerns, and build a stronger brand reputation.
Also read : Mastering Social Media Analytics: A Comprehensive Guide
10. Invest in paid ads
Even with a well-crafted fashion social media strategy, reaching every follower on platforms like Facebook is far from guaranteed. For instance, a post on a brand’s Facebook Page typically reaches only 5.2% of its followers.
As platforms shift towards the pay-to-play model, many fashion brands invest in advertising to ensure their content effectively reaches their target audience.
We recently collaborated with Love Leggings, a UK fashion brand, to optimize their ad accounts while maintaining a strong return on advertising spend (ROAS). The results were remarkable, with an impressive 8.2 return on ad spend and a staggering 598% year-over-year increase in revenue from paid ads.
Investing in targeted advertising allows fashion brands to overcome the limitations of organic reach and strategically reach their desired audience. By implementing effective advertising strategies, brands can amplify their social media presence, drive engagement, and achieve significant revenue growth.
In an evolving digital landscape, adapting to the pay-to-play model and leveraging targeted advertising can be a game-changer for fashion brands looking to maximize their reach and capitalize on the opportunities presented by social media platforms.
Also read : Harnessing The Power Of Social Media For Business Success
Conclusion
In conclusion, effective social media management plays a crucial role in the success of fashion brands. With the ever-evolving digital landscape, fashion brands must strategically leverage social media platforms. Through careful planning, consistent engagement, and creative content, social media can become a powerful tool for brand awareness, customer engagement, and driving sales. Fashion brands can create a strong online presence and foster meaningful connections with their target audience by adopting influencer partnerships, user-generated content, trend monitoring, and customer-centric approaches. Additionally, staying informed about platform algorithms, utilizing paid advertising, and monitoring consumer sentiment provide valuable insights and opportunities for growth. Social media management for fashion brands is about posting content and building a community, inspiring fashion enthusiasts, and staying ahead of industry trends. By embracing the potential of social media, fashion brands can establish themselves as leaders in the digital realm and achieve long-term success in the dynamic world of fashion.
Also read : Fashion – The Experience You Can Gain From Social Media