I Heart Balloons by C1ssou

Any company can benefit from the networking, knowledge sharing, relationship building and customer service opportunities that exist through social media channels like Facebook and Twitter. Fashion is especially poised to succeed through social media because of the way that so many of us are compelled to build rapport with one another around our favorite garments, stores and recent steals.

Social media provides opportunities for brands and customers to get to know one another, building loyalty while at the same time driving sales and WOM. However, from an agency perspective, certain companies are more likely to experience success through social media, and it’s not necessarily even about their product – it’s more to do with how the company is shaped internally – how well social media pursuits sit with their internal agenda and values.

Below is a list designed to help fashion PR and social media marketing agencies evaluate if a client is a good fit for social given their current goals. Certainly part of the process is educating clients about this relatively new space, but hopefully these questions help guide initial discovery to help ascertain if and how social media can be integrated for success. For businesses looking to begin or expand their social media efforts, these prompts can also act as a checklist of sorts.

Does the client have an existing community? Does the product or brand inspire passion in their customers?

• The better the product, the more defined the niche, and the more obsessed people are with your client the better. The community doesn’t necessarily have to be on social media sites, they could have a large email database or offline contingent, but an existing community you can tap into when launching a social media promotion or presence can be a great way to jumpstart things. If the community isn’t there already, really set expectations upfront about the amount of time and engagement necessary to grow a social media community. If the product or the voice just isn’t there, it might not be a good fit. Encourage the CEO to begin using social media to network and re-evaluate in six months.

Are the client business goals are a good fit for social media?

• Ideally, overall business and marketing goals should include things like growing brand awareness, increasing brand loyalty, community development etc. These goals lend themselves well to softer metrics and evaluative measures that are valuable to track for a social media program. While direct sales has been a proven component of social media (and something that can be tracked easily with unique coupon codes and trackable links) it should not be the primary driver of participation.

Is your sense that the client feels obligated to do social media or are they genuinely excited about it?

• Some clients feel like they need to be active through social media just because everyone else is doing it. Often this means they are expecting to hire an agency and be done with it. This is not setting anyone up for success because a social media program needs to be a collaborative effort between the agency and the client.

Is your sense that the client is looking at social media as a quick fix or a one-time gig to promote a specific campaign or are they in this for the long-term?

• A client that recognizes a social media strategy as an integrated piece of an overall marketing or PR plan is more likely to see long-term success than a client that just wants to have a video “go viral,” and never engage again. Too often fashion brands begin a social media program but lose steam a few weeks afterward. Clients need to understand that social media is a long-term strategy and in terms of brand communication,  its here to stay.

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Polina Fashion, a fashion company specializing in public relations and marketing with offices in Boston, New York, and Phoenix, has announced that they will be developing a new PR campaign to launch fashion label Crowley Design Group’s Montanaco brand.

The Crowley Design Group is an outwear apparel company, created by the Crowley family in Montana approximately 12 years ago. Managing three labels—Montanaco, DENI, and RAZER, CDG uses the finest fabrics from around the world to create customized garments for their consumers.

Montanaco, currently sold in over 2000 stores nationwide, offers contemporary outerwear apparel is rooted in European styles and the rocky mountains of Montana at a reasonable price.

For more information, please contact: info[at]polinafashion.com

As December seems intent on flying by faster than ice skates on a freshly Zamboni’d rink, I missed dear PR Couture’s third birthday by a week. So yay! Happy Birthday to PR C, you are so fancy and so special and so totally three!

2009 has been a delicious year for me as PR Couture continues to grow and expand its coverage and reach. We were recognized by Evan Charmichael as one of the Top Niche Lifestyle Blogs in 2009 and I made it up to New York twice! In June the lovely Smashing Darling’s threw PR Couture an amazing party in the new Nolcha retail space, and then I was back in September, sponsored by the Microsoft Windows Phone to attend Fashion Week in New York. During NYFW I was lucky enough to speak on the Independent Fashion Blogger’s panel, “Evolving Influence,” with an amazing set of fashion industry peers. Later in the year, I was invited to speak about the evolution of fashion PR and emerging fashion PR trends to PR students at the Public Relations Student Society’s national conference.

Other highlights include going down to New Orleans in April to present findings from my Master’s Thesis about Fashion PR, presenting on a panel with fashion marketing experts Macala Wright Lee and Maria Ogneva about Twitter and fashion retail at the 140 Character Conference in Los Angeles, being the featured speaker to a local San Diego fashion networking group where I was able to share my success story and a last-minute decision to attend Portland Fashion Week. Phew!

In honor of three years of blogging and in lieu of the standard Friday links post, I sifted through the archives to pull out some of the my favorite posts from the last three years. Thank you from the very bottom of my heart for your readership – your comments, emails and support are truly one of the best gifts in my life. Now onto the posts!

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