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Ever tried to move from Blogger to Wordpress? It’s hell! However, after many days of blood, sweat, and tears, the new StyleSampleMag.com is here! Check it out and let us know what you think…
Check it out and also see the latest in men’s fashion styles and trends. Also register and join for updates and to become a part of the community. Visit site: Man of The Hour Magazine
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Today was one of those days that make you grateful the life you have during the holiday season. I received an email from my dear friend Tricia Meeter (a former Estee Lauder executive turned fashion photographer and horse rescuer) regarding the latest addition to her family – a beautiful ex-racehorse named General Celmar.
How Tricia Met Celmar
Tricia received a call from the local race track regarding General Celmar.The person caring for Celmar contacted Trish in order to find him a safe home because she was concerned where the horse would end up.
Because he was raced and jumped so heavily, the damage done to his legs is extensive. Can you imagine being a teenager with the arthritis as bad as elderly person?
For those of you that aren’t familiar with the world of horse racing, most horses raced in America are done by they are four or five years old – General was raced until now, he’s EIGHT.
This meant he was bound for auction – and most horses in this condition end up on a slaughter truck headed to Mexico. If Celmar hadn’t found Tricia, he might have died in a painful, and inhumane way. I am sorry to be so graphic, but that’s the reality of horse racing.
How You Can Help
Tricia has begun serious rehabilitation on Celmar; adding a few hundred pounds to once thin horse and working on medical care. The medical bills on his rehabilitation are mounting.
Though she won’t be a 501(c)(3) until spring, Tricia needs funds donated help move this beautiful boy along.
So, for the holiday season, instead of jewelry, home appliances or buying something we might not need, how about making a donation to someone (that someone being Celmar) who needs a second chance at life?
The goal is to raise enough support to keep him on the farm for the rest of his life, his friend Cigar (the chestnut pictured above) would like that.
Tricia can be contacted at: eqxphoto@gmail.com or donations can be sent to Equinox Farms 1191 Via Encinos Fallbrook CA 92028. You can also buy Tricia’s photography via her website or etsy shop.
LUX Contributions: The staff of FashionablyMarketing.Me and LadyLux.com are so saddened by what happened to this horse that we’ve covered all his medical supplements for the next year.
Social Networking: New Trade Show Frontier – Fashion and Apparel Trade Show Coverage | California Apparel News:
http://www.apparelnews.net/news/tradeshows/112709-Social-Networking-New-Trade-Show-Frontier/page1
The fashion industry’s largest, most disruptive trend this year has been the adoption of social media. In the hopes of reviving sales, generating larger customer bases and finding more cost effective marketing outlets, fashion brands, designers and retailers have flocked to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube as the social media tools of choice. From small, independent designers to established luxury brands, Twitter, Facebook and Youtube are yielding profits for those who are “getting social” and are willing to talk to the people that buy their apparel and accessories lines.
Of the three industry favorites, Facebook has earned itself as the social media site of choice for fashion aficionados. Anyone can perform a Google search and find thousands of articles discussing how to use Facebook for marketing.
For the fashion industry – whether you’re a designer, a retailer, a magazine, a style blogger, or business professional – how do you use Facebook to effectively market yourself or your products?
Facebook Statistics
Now, don’t cringe! Statistics are really important to help you establish goals, set up strategies, and determine campaign ROI (return on investment). So here’s the skinny on Facebook:
1. Facebook has 300 million users, 30% percent (87 million users) are in the US.
2. The average Facebook user has 130 friends.
3. When a user likes or interacts with a brand or retailer they’re a fan of, they can tell all 130 of their friends that they “like” something the brand is doing. So, if each of those 130 friends has 130 friends, that action potentially reaches 16,900 people on Facebook. The number just goes up from there.
4. For every 10,000 fans a brand or retailer has, Facebook estimates that brand or retailer reaches 1.5 million users.
5. 47% of retailers increased their use of social media marketing for the holiday season. This increase was seen with Kohls and JCPenney.
6. Most retailers are getting 10% or more of their traffic from Facebook.
How Should Brands & Retailers Use Facebook?
Brands are mainly using Facebook for awareness campaigns and customer service oriented feedback. Facebook is also being used for contests, user-generated content (photos, stories, video), games, widget or badge downloads, polls and surveys, special offers, online coupons or access to early/exclusive information or pricing.
Most brands are incorporating a combination of these tactics, making their groups or pages extensions of their websites. Brands have realized that their Facebook groups are micro-communities and brand destinations within the Facebook. That’s exactly what they should be doing.
Some brands are even taking it to the next level by using technologies such as Off The Wall to add e-commerce capabilities within their Facebook pages. Moreover, shopping carts such as Volusion even offer direct product feeds directly to Facebook pages to enable on-page purchases.
How Do Brands & Retailers Establish Themselves On Twitter?
1. Establish a business account if you don’t already have one.
2. Determine whether a fan page or group is more appropriate for your marketing purposes. For fashion brands, pages are usually better as they’re geared towards building long-term relationships.
3. Review Facebook rules regarding business accounts.
4. Obtain a Facebook vanity URL so that people can find your brand or store.
5. Add basic information to the group or fan page such as links to the company site, events and tradeshows, links to other social sites (YouTube, Twitter) and email or newsletter subscription information.
6. Use the photo galleries to create collections for your products. Upload them by each season’s collection, breaking them down into products categories – shirts, dresses, pants and accessories.
7. Use the photo galleries to create lookbooks of how you’d mix and match the products in your collections together. If you’re a retailer, you most likely carry a variety of lines, so get creative and add them together. If you’re an individual designer, partner with your other designers and create collections together. Be collaborative. Better yet, ask your fans and friends to help you out (that’s what user-generated content is).
8. Post upcoming events including contests, giveaways and sales. If you’re a brand or retailer with a physical store, participate in pop-up events or trunk shows, create events and premieres on Facebook and promote them! Facebook can be used to drive in-store traffic and event participation. To track the percentage of attendance or participation, add an incentive to the event that only Facebook community members receive.
9. If you’re a blogger or online fashion magazine site, consider Facebook Connect to add social networking features to your website. Install appropriate applications to integrate feeds from your blog and other social media accounts into your Facebook page.
10. Encourage your fans to provide content, photos of how they wear your products, appropriate videos and their stories about how they became loyal customers or die hard fans. The best photos – feature, even make them your fan page profile’s photo for the week (kudos for Dunkin Donuts for thinking of this, everyone loves their 15 minutes of micro-fame, especial on the internet). Great engagement helps create brand awareness.
Food For Thought: The audience that visits a brand or retailer’s facebook group or fan page go there to interact – the key word being INTERACT. They act and interact differently than a customer who goes directly to a website or retail location.
WWD reported that Sephora doubled its sales during one if its Facebook campaigns. That’s incredible! It’s a perfect example of how a brand used social media to drive in-store and online sales. I’ve had similar results with blog contests and sponsored conversations.
How do you make facebook marketing successful? Strategy, implementation and proper campaign execution. It also depends on the product. Sephora, Anthropologie and H&M are going to have very different responses in sales than luxury items from Louis Vuitton or Gucci.
Randi Zuckerberge, Marketing Director of Facebook, has some simple, effective tips for distributing YouTube videos on Facebook that would work in tandem with our tips above.
To discover more Fashion Marketing articles, visit FashionablyMarketing.Me.
Shoppers rejoice!
There’s now a cool app, Fashionista, created by Zugara that allows you to have a virtual dressing room via your laptop.
That’s right; you can actually take a picture of yourself in this potential new attire and even get second opinions from your besties by uploading the images to Facebook. Can you see how this nifty new app feature offers you online shopping freedom without the hit and miss approach that’s become the norm for shopping virtually?
By using an AR marker to clearly mark the location for each garment location, you can easily maneuver the app with a simple flick of the wrist. Be sure to check out the video above and let us know what you think of this new tech shopping approach!
This cool new app is currently being utilized online at tobi.com so you can experience it for yourself. All you need to ‘try out’ this ‘augmented reality dressing room’ is a connected laptop and a camera.