Fashion-forward individuals all have one desire in common: to keep up with the latest trends and follow fashion brands that align with their ideal lifestyle. For modern fashion brands, an effective social media presence is crucial to establish brand loyalty and bolster their public image. Simply showing up on social media isn’t enough; a well-planned social media strategy is essential.
Forbes reports that 62% of millennials prefer to interact with brands through social media, and 60% are influenced by brand loyalty when making purchasing decisions.
Hence, social media marketing is the go-to digital marketing outlet for fashion brands. Moreover, social media serves beyond a marketing tool; it’s now the primary channel for customer service, engagement, loyalty building, community creation, and even click-and-shop content creation.
Therefore, let’s delve into how fashion brands can leverage social media by examining successful social media strategies used by industry leaders.
Adidas Originals
Photo by Camilla Carvalho from Unsplash
Adidas Originals, the heritage line of sportswear company Adidas, boasts an impressive social media following, with 32 million Instagram followers, over 32 million Facebook likes, and 4 million Twitter followers, thanks to its fiercely loyal customer base.
Despite not being a luxury brand, Adidas Originals still attracts high-profile influencers like Kylie Jenner, who dons their apparel even outside of the gym.
The brand’s social media strategy is on point, using celebrity influencers to establish itself as a cult lifestyle brand. Adidas Originals has even more followers on Instagram and Facebook than Adidas itself.
The brand took influencer marketing to the next level by creating personalized, out-of-home ads for every influencer they targeted, eliminating the need to create social media content on their own.
The most effective hype for a fashion brand is created through User Generated Content (UGC), which influencers actively share.
Adidas Originals’ social media strategy revolves around celebrities and mega-influencers, with numerous campaigns featuring celebrity fashion designers.
Urban Outfitters
Urban Outfitters on Pinterest
Urban Outfitters has a strong social media presence, boasting more followers and engagement than competitors such as Diesel, Ralph Lauren, ModCloth, and Abercrombie and Fitch.
The brand’s success lies in its mastery of crossposting. Urban Outfitters identifies its most successful posts across Instagram stories, Facebook blogs, and other channels, and crossposts them on Pinterest or Tumblr to maximize longevity and engagement. This approach to content distribution sets the brand apart from competitors.
Additionally, Urban Outfitters cross-promotes its content by partnering with other brands that align with their audience’s interests. For instance, its collaboration with Vans resulted in record-breaking engagement, with 318,000 likes and comments.
Aerie
Aerie has masterfully combined User Generated Content with a powerful social cause, creating a truly explosive fashion brand campaign.
In a time when fashion advertising was characterized by excessive photoshopping, Aerie chose to take a stand on the impact of fashion on healthy body image and self-esteem of girls and women exposed to these ads.
As a brand with a heart (#brandgoals), Aerie pledged to never retouch their photos and encouraged their customers to share their unedited bikini photos in support of healthy body image. Aerie’s branded hashtag #AerieReal was the driving force behind this movement, empowering users to join the cause.
Aeri on Instagram
Top Tips Takeaway
- Generate excitement for new products through influencer marketing.
- Collaborate with both macro and micro-influencers.
- Utilize influencers to source User Generated Content.
- Maximize the distribution of your content through cross-posting and repurposing on all social media channels.
- Embrace Pinterest, Tumblr, and other platforms to reach wider audiences.
- Incorporate a cause into your marketing campaigns.
- Create a branded hashtag to encourage UGC and engagement.
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