On Monday I published 5 Ways Social Media Has Changed Fashion on Mashable.com. Here is a more in-depth article, complete with strategies and ideas for 2010.

Macala's Mashable Article

Adopting Social Media

It’s safe to say that the fashion industry has adopted social media as a marketing platform to reach their customers online, reignite brand passion and customer loyalty.

Fashion brands and retailers are still grappling with social media in terms of controlling brand perception and establishing metrics to measure its marketing value. They have made attempts at using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other social communities to develop digital marketing strategies to drive online sales and retail store traffic.

Until recently, the fashion industry has been fashionably late to the social media fête – refusing to adopt it at all and just parking their namesakes on certain sites. Even worse, they have used one-way marketing efforts on sites and have used RSS feeds for sales and promotions. If social media marketing were so beneficial, cost effective and valuable, why would brands put so little effort into it?

Getting Cozy In Communities

The concept of “being social” and engaging has scared the large majority of designers and brands in our industry.  Fashion has traditionally been crafted as something aspirational.  From a brand’s perspective, they have very specific feelings and emotions they hope to create for the wearer.  Fashion is an experience, and the thought of going social scares the majority because they’re not sure how to translate their brand stories and woven love affairs into online traction.

Then, along came communities in the form of social networks, forums, wikis and blogs – telling brands that they have to participate and create dialogues with people online.

The majority of the industry thought, “Are you kidding? I’m not going to do that! It will tarnish my brand’s image.”

American Apparel, TopShop and emerging, independent designers were early adopters of social marketing. Once they started reporting positive results, other brands followed. Now almost every brand or retailer, from Sears and JC Penny to Oscar De La Renta and Louis Vuitton, have created a presence in several social communities – the most notable being Facebook.

The once one-way conversations solely consisting of social feeds as tools to push clearance sales are slowly giving way to genuine interaction, customer relationship cultivation and the creation of niche audiences. It’s been a tough learning curve, but there is finally some positive traction amongst this niche population.  We’re beginning to see less one-way conversations seeing more genuine interaction between brand and client that is leading to lasting audiences.

Facebook and Twitter are now among the most valuable tools for brands to monitor consumer sentiment and provide real-time customer service.

Creating Niche Communities

Now that fashion brands have learned to navigate social media, many brands are beginning to experiment with their interactions; they are beginning to develop their own social networks or even invitation-only communities.

Brands have also started to partner with fashion-oriented sites like Polyvore for sponsoring on-brand contests within website communities. These contests create opportunities to develop brand affinity and establish relationships with the next, younger generation of shoppers. Targeting communities beyond Facebook and Twitter yield extremely high engagement and can even offer higher conversion rates compared to mainstream sites.

Luxury brands Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana, Chanel and Burberry have launched their own social networks or added social components to their existing websites. While Facebook and Twitter allow brands to market to the masses in multiple ways, more exclusive social destinations within theirs site enable them to extend their brands’ stories and promises to customers. In doing so, they can maximize users’ online brand experiences.

Thus far, niche communities such as Weardrobe (recently purchased by Like.com), Modepass, and Lookbook.Nu have yielded ROI, as audiences of these websites are more likely to become loyal customers.

In 2010, we’ll undoubtedly see more brands experimenting in creating their own social networks or incorporating social aspects into their websites. The one thing to watch and measure is going to be how those marketing outlets affect brands financially. For fashion and marketing through social media, ROI extends into retail sales. All users have to do is click the purchase button!

Embracing Mobile Apps

StyleCaster App. Mashable.com

When it comes to developing apps, fashion brands and websites have taken the adage “There’s an app for that!” to heart; brands have been experimenting with apps the same way they’ve experimented with Facebook and Twitter.

Chanel shows their runway collections via their iPhone app, and Gilt Groupe’s app allows users to shop sample sales and receive alerts as to when sales are starting. Two notable, more social-oriented apps are Stylecaster and JustLuxe.

StyleCaster’s app lets users access style tips and read individually-customized news feeds about fashion trends. It also houses a large online retail catalog of brand-name clothing. The app creates customized style recommendations based on weather conditions, as well as provides buying information.

JustLuxe is a digital global concierge company offering an extremely interactive app with over 1000 member benefits. Utilizing GPS, the app will recommend restaurants and hotels in the user’s area that are participating in the VIP benefits program. It’s the first style-oriented app that leverages location-based, mobile marketing. Luxury products, services and companies should be keeping an eye on this.

Most brands are focused on the iPhone, as there is more documentation and lower development barriers. What we haven’t seen is a lot of development focused on Blackberry or Android devices. There are currently only 41 fashion-related apps available for Blackberry users; content publishers have created most of these apps to deliver articles and blog posts.

The Rise & Validation of Style Bloggers

In 2009, bloggers had the largest impact on fashion than ever before. They influenced everything from print publishing to how brands market themselves online. There are thousands of style-related blogs on the web these days, but those dedicated to their craft have earned industry recognition.

Gala Darling, Bryan Boy, 13-year-old Tavi, Scott Schuman of the Satorialist and Garance Dore have earned recognition from Dolce & Gabanna, Burberry, Alexander McQueen and leading publications such as Vogue. They’ve participated in fashion design collection collaborations and received front-row, international Fashion Week seats next to some of the most notable figures in the couture world.

GalaDarling.com

So why have certain individuals and fashion websites been able to achieve such status?

Though each of their sites is uniquely different, they’ve built cult followings around the quality of their content – which features their expertise and areas of passions.

In a recent Financial Times article, being a style blogger was deemed a perfectly respectable career for someone in the fashion industry. The social web has removed the gatekeepers who used to solely hold the keys to an industry that was hard to penetrate and build a name in. The next set of fashion catalysts are being born via the web.

The Impact of User Generated Content

Coach Blog A Day Giveaway

User generated content crosses every aspect related to social media and fashion. From blogs to exclusive social networks, from fan photo contributions on Facebook to product reviews, user generated content is where it’s at.

As a founder of a top fashion PR blog, Crosby Noricks has noticed more fashion brands going from merely establishing basic social media presences to realizing the collective power of their customer’s social network by encouraging fan contributions on Facebook, Twitter, brand blogs and brand sponsored contests. In particular, she points out notables like G-Star, the Dutch clothing company that just launched a social media campaign to find “reporters” to attend their fashion show at upcoming New York Fashion Week, as well as Coach’s  Holiday Blog-A-Day program, which enlisted 30 bloggers and vloggers to ensure holiday sales were in the bag.

One of the most notable and consistent campaigns built around user generated contests, content and social engagement has been from brand Charlotte Russe, which Noricks manages in her capacity as Senior Social Media Strategist of San Diego-based Red Door Interactive. Charlotte Russe holds a weekly trivia contest on Twitter that drives followers to their website and YouTube channel in the pursuit of prizes such as the recently given-away jacket that was worn on Gossip Girl. Moreover, Charlotte Russe also holds a “CR Fan of The Week” contest, which gives fans a “style assignment” and asks them to post a photo to the wall and which gets shoppers involved with the brand.

Currently, in an effort to allow fans to be a part of the creative process, Charlotte Russe has utilized the Brickfish platform to create “Be The Next Charlotte Russe Design Star, a ” t-shirt design contest where the winning Project Runway wannabe will have her shirt produced and sold online. A fashion filled trip to NYC is also included, naturally.

Another great example of user-generated content used in conjunction with a niche network is Burberry’s, Art Of The Trench site. Users are encouraged to upload images of themselves wearing Burberry’s signature trench coat. Burberry is highlighting consumer-created content from preferred customer segments.

We’ve even seen the launch of successful magazines that is based on user generated content contribution. MyItThings, created by fashionprenuer Yuli Ziv, is published based off of user contributions.

MyItThings.com

What’s In Store for 2010

Moving into 2010, social media is going to infuse itself into the way brands and retailers reach online audiences.

Building More Sustainable Business Models

In 2008, designers discussed streaming runway shows after budgets for Fashion Week were slashed. In 2009, the trend was picked up among more designers, and Alexander McQueen, Isaac Mizarahi, Donna Karan’s DKNY, Louis Vuitton, and Norma Kamali live-streamed their runway shows for New York Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2010 (S/S 2010).

Live Runway will become mainstream in 2010. Fashion brands and designers have embraced the technology as a new creative medium and have realized the broader marketing benefits and cost effectiveness of digital streaming.  Instead of spending upwards of $2 million dollars to showcase a collection to less than 1000 people, designers can produce a digital runway show for less than $50,000 and receive an average of 30-45 million page views.

During her S/S 2010 show, Norma Kamali launched an iPhone app that enabled potential customers to simultaneously watch her digital show and purchase collection pieces as they came down the runway. Now, Yves St. Laurent, Ralph Lauren and other designers are following her marketing strategy to boost retail sales and broaden their consumer bases.

Live streaming has already made its way into fashion-oriented reality TV shows. For the past two years, Style Coalition has live Tweeted and streamed video from New York Fashion Week via their site InsideTheTents.

Smaller, independent fashion brands and designers are also going to seek more cost effective business models to cut the high costs of launching their collections. Sites like Madison Buyer (a site that serves as a digital extension of trade shows and which showcases emerging fashion brands), Fadmashion (an industry only social network), SenseOfFashion (a social network/e-commerce website) and Clashe (a site that allows designers to create digital look books and extend industry contacts) are going to be pivotal for new line success.

Digital launches are effective ways of cutting down the price of print production, e-commerce and marketing costs that usually engulf entire budgets for new brands.

Following in the footsteps of the large brands, we will see many fashion brands using social sites like uStream.tv and Justin.tv to create live digital launches for their collections for less than $5,000.

Geocentric: Location Based Social Networks

Monetizing Mobile - Gowalla.com

The second largest trend for 2010 is going to be mobile brand engagement. Fashion brands, magazines and websites have or are developing apps to extend their online presence and increase distribution channels on mobile phones. The challenge is going to be engagement. Few apps offer continuous, consistent engagement; most are updated every three to six months.

Brands need to understand that consumers who download their apps are looking for brand engagement via their mobile devices. Retailers should aim to change their apps once or twice per month depending on app content and consumer usage.

Making the mobile marketing mix more complicated will be the addition of location-based sites like Gowalla and Foursquare.

Playing Foursquare involves exploring restaurants, coffee shops and retail locations in major metro areas. The payoff for playing can range from special deals at eating and drinking establishments to scoring points that create badges and “mayorships.”  So far, about 200 venues – consisting of diverse venues like bars and frames shops – have promotions offering discounts and other perks to Foursquare users.

Foursquare is focused on getting as many businesses as possible to add discounts and other promotions to the site for members and  retailers, and these offers bring infinite possibilities. Foursquare users are driven by points. This means that the retailers offering the best point incentives have the most opportunity to reap the greatest benefit from their promotions and mobile marketing strategy.

Gowalla allows users to stamp their digital passport and earn rewards at the places that they visit. Again, the “rewards” and incentives from retail locations are endless. Shoppers purchasing t-shirts from American Apparel can earn a stamp in their passport for visiting American Apparel; once they’ve visited five retail locations, they can earn an exclusive incentive in the form of free merchandise, discounts or other incentives.

According to Flurry, a mobile applications analytics company in San Francisco, keeping users entertained will be aongoing challenge, . Foursquare said that it is seeing user retention between 30 and 60 percent. For retailers, that presents a large opportunity; brands and designers who leverage emerging social technologies have seen stronger brand building, e-commerce and in-stores sales opportunities than those who are slow to adopt. By becoming early adopters and staying at the forefront, brands who take a chance at new online innovations are uniquely poised. If they stay current with trends, these brands could become barometers for the fashion industry.

So what do you think? What are some of your predictions for the next digital trends in fashion marketing in 2010?

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