The 4 Pillars of Social Media Marketing for Fashion Brands

Fashion and social media go hand in hand, so it should come as no surprise that all fashion brands should embrace social media in order to enhance their presence in the marketplace. I’ve had the pleasure of working with fashion brands big and small in the past seven years and have discovered a few proven tricks for gaining followers, driving more traffic to your site through social media, and, of course, generating sales leads.

1. “Wanelo”

Wanelo, short for ‘want, need, love,’ is one of the most effective mobile shopping apps, beloved by fashionistas under 25 worldwide. It’s a never-ending feed of things you never knew you needed. I discovered this app when I was a social media specialist at a popular online boutique. I noticed that Wanelo was driving significant traffic to the store’s Web site and I wanted to explore the capabilities further, so I had my team place all of our products (over 2,000 SKUs) to the app, and within six months it became the top traffic-driving referral source (even trumping Facebook).

It’s a good idea to post all of your items to Wanelo; and once on Wanelo the products will link back to your site if the user is interested in making a purchase. Make sure to put in all the appropriate tags for your products–don’t get lazy with tagging!

2. Twitter Chats

Want to get in on the conversation? Join #StyleChat, the weekly fashion chat that takes place every Wednesday from three to four PM EST. This fashion-focused  chat lets you genuinely engage with the fashion flock and is a proven way to showcase your expertise by answering questions. It’s also a good idea to follow the people who take part in this chat because they are Twitter power users who are more likely to engage with your brand in the future.

3. The Power of Pinterest

I can’t believe how many fashion brands are not on Pinterest. What a mistake they’re making! Pinterest is now the world’s third most popular social media network and it cannot be ignored. In my experience, visitors to our Web site who come from Pinterest have a better conversion rate. The average referral order via Pinterest is around $80, which is twice as much as Facebook.

Instead of making random boards, why not create boards based on different themes, trends, and even color stories. Look at your mood-board and see what inspired you that season, and then create different boards for each of your inspirations. Lastly, don’t forget to install the “Pin it” button on your Web site, making it super easy for your customers to pin items from your site to Pinterest.

4. Facebook Albums

Most people nowadays don’t go directly to a Web site; instead, they search for brands directly from Facebook and  browse the brand’s Facebook page looking through their albums to see their latest offerings. You can benefit from this behavior by creating albums of your products.

You can do new arrival albums where you post up your latest stock items as they come in, and also create albums based on your different categories. Make sure to put a link back to your website on each photo.