2010 in Review: Brands Ramp Up Social Media
Social networking continued to benefit many brands in 2010 as companies forged ahead with new technologies and social-media strategies to further market their brands to consumers and gain new followers along the way.
Reston, Va.–based Web-marketing firm comScore Inc. released a June 2010 report titled “Women on the Web: How Women Are Shaping the Internet” and found women, overall, spend 20 percent more time on retail sites than men do. Among the various retail sub-categories, comparison-shopping and apparel sites reached the highest percentage of women, at 24.8 percent and 18.7 percent, respectively, in May 2010.
Earlier this year, Alex Mendoza, partner of Fairfield County, Conn.–based Web-marketing firm Stylophane, launched the company’s Facebook Fashion Index (www.stylophane.com/fbi). The FBI ranks the social activity of more than 1,500 fashion, jewelry and footwear brands, as well as retailers, and ranks them according to the number of followers each brand has on Facebook and Twitter.
“The main thing in social [media] right now is brands should be growing their Facebook fan base—and that’s what many brands are doing today,” Mendoza said. “It doesn’t matter much what a brand is saying to its fans if they don’t have an audience that is listening.”
Mendoza said that with more attention being turned toward social media, the cost of engaging customers and marketing to gain new fans could potentially rise in the next couple of years.
Andrew Bernhard, chief executive officer for online private-sale site HauteLook, which launched a mobile shopping application in 2010, described the importance of social media and how his company utilizes the technology. “We are very active on Facebook and Twitter. It’s important for us to be able to communicate with our members outside of our site,” Bernhard said.
Fashion brands’ rise in social media was further fueled in part by the launch of the Apple iPad device.Several brands, retailers and other fashion media outlets—such as Gilt Groupe, Gap Jeans 1969, Net-A-Porter, The Sartorialist and Style.com—released iPad mobile applications.
Irvine, Calif.–based contemporary swimwear line L*Space released a mobile app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch in November. “I created the L*Space app not only because I believe that social media is important now more than ever but also because I want our consumers to be able to interact with the brand no matter where they are,” said Monica Wise, creative director and designer for L*Space.—Connie Cho
