Social media in fashion

While the element of social media lies dormant on many retail websites, with product ratings and reviews the extent of their offering, a new social media benchmark study by eDigitalResearch demonstrates that fashion retailers are really investing in the consumer experience and using opinions to shape the future direction of their brands.

By assessing 72 UK retail sites, looking at the volume of followers and their efforts to engage in two-way dialogue, Topshop and River Island emerged as leaders; not only recording a large number of followers, they also encouraged a greater degree of cross-communication through established Twitter and Facebook pages.

Cultivating loyalty through social media
Before starting to engage in social media, it is important to decide upon goals and identify the right approach that will help you to meet the cultural balance of the brand, market and the social platform.

The only downside is that to really cultivate loyalty through social media channels, it is very time-consuming. For example, leaving customer queries unanswered can be detrimental to the brand, particularly as a negative post could spread and damage brand reputation. One way to put out these fires would be to introduce a dedicated customer service channel, where these sorts of posts can be handled effectively. Asos successfully does this by offering assistance to customers both with their buying decisions and practical problems or queries. It’s important to note though that Asos employs an entire dedicated team to deal with customer comments and issues.

The speed of the feedback means that you may be constantly adapting the campaign to meet the ever-changing needs of your target demographic. If you want to engage customers and understand their motivations, you need to get under their skin, which requires a lot of time and resource to show that you share the same values. Creating identity in this way helps to stimulate higher levels of engagement. River Island uses music on its Facebook page to help create identity and familiarity with its target audience.

By monitoring feedback, Topshop can pick up insights on what styles particularly resonate with its target audience so that it can use these to promote and push product. Followers are rewarded with exclusive invitations and incentives in order to encourage future posts and create a more community-like feel. 

As well as listening and monitoring mentions, Topshop engages with its audience with regular and updated output such as editorial and video content and promotes links to its website and blog to encourage further contact.

Generating ROI
While it isn’t cheap to run a social-media campaign given the time and resource required, it is one of the most direct channels through which to gain insights into your audience’s needs and wants. Unlike advertising, which is indirect and costly, you can use social-media channels to get a steer on what will provide the best possible return on investment for your business. Essentially, it boils down to the “more you put into it, the more you get out of it”.

It can be cost effective, as long as you know who your brand advocates are and encourage them to advertise your products on your behalf. Positive reviews and comments, as well as links to products, can be actively shared by your customers. It is important to cultivate brand advocates by offering them  exclusive offers, special discounts and free video content so that they can then push out to a wider audience. This has sparked the concept of “cocreation” whereby merchants can proactively engage with consumers to road-test designs before they hit the shop floor. 

Successful brands have invested money in creating a customer-focused landing page, which provides a great way of increasing website hits, while offering customers relevant and engaging content. People are then effectively more motivated to make impulse purchases, or bookmark the web page so that they can come back and purchase later. Look at Topshop, which promotes a compelling landing page that provides ideas on how to bring fashion to life with make-up tips and advice. It also encourages people to post and exchange their top tips too.

When it comes to measuring return on investment, there is no exact science. While you can quickly measure the number of followers, the hits on your website and look at your sales figures, it is difficult to put a value on your contribution and the loyalty that it creates. There is no one-size-fits-all approach and measurement really comes down to what goals you have set yourself.

Next steps
We expect retailers to develop their social media offerings as brands learn more about the tools available. Innovative and interactive campaigns aimed at increasing brand awareness and creating advocates are forecast to dominate retail’s future marketing output. Those that are effectively using social media will be those that have a good understanding of their target audience and using these channels to encourage further brand advocacy. 
 
Ed Dick is social media manager at eDigitalResearch, a provider of benchmark reporting services and market research.