Brand awareness falls under one of the 4 P's (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) of starting a fashion brand, aka promotion is as important as the product itself. Now, unlike most promotional options, social media is essentially a free platform for you to generate brand awareness. *bonus!
If you use social media platforms in a thought out way you can generate brand awareness as well as sales. Understanding the social media hierarchy for the fashion industry will help you in this process.
To start, lets back track and take a look at the five most popular social media options: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest & YouTube. In a brief overview (because I'm sure almost all of you reading this use all five, if not on a daily basis, most definitely at some point throughout a month. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong - let me know)! So in short:
Instagram: Image Focused.
Facebook: Caption & Image Focused, Sharing encouraged.
Twitter: Caption Focused, Image(s) used to stand out.
Pinterest: Image Focused, Sharing encouraged, Search Engine Optimization.
YouTube: Video based, caption encouraged.
The fashion industry is a very visual. Therefore you will get the best results generating brand awareness using the most visual based platforms, but before I give you my opinion on order of importance to fashion brands, lets talk a little more about your branding.
When you try and generate brand awareness, you need to be sure you know who your branding is complete & you know your message - especially when it comes to then translating it onto social media. Knowing this will then help you decide which platforms to give your most energy. For example: Does your target demographic actually use social media? Make sure you know!
Now, lets put on the record that all social media platforms don't claim to convert, but building strong, consistent platforms, can impact your brand awareness quite incredibly.
This all being said, fashion is a visual industry. Whether you use the platform to showcase your inspirations or to market your products, or both, the more visual you can be on the platform, the powerful the platform to use.
Therefore, here's my top rated social media platforms to use for fashion brands:
1. Pinterest
Technically this isn't a social media platform, the algorithm works like a search engine instead, but because we all tend to see pinterest as a social media platform I wanted to include it. Why it's number one is because it does work like a search engine. What you put into your pins actually improves your SEO. More on that another time, but for now, an additional point that makes it top of the chart for me, is the direct link to the website you are wanting your demographic to see! In theory, you post a appealing collection shoot including the desired product you want to sell, and link the pin directly to that! Boom!
2. Instagram
I don't know for certain but I feel quite strongly that instagram gets the most daily uses especially for those under 30. So if your demographic falls within that this could be a great platform you to generate sales. It gets second place, because even if your demographic doesn't fall amongst IG users, it's still a great platform to use as an additional brand awareness tool. Those who are on the app might not directly buy but they might tell someone who is in your demographic. It's an excellent visual tool to promote your brand.
3. Facebook
I feel like this platform brings the most controversy, but it really still is used such a lot! It comes after instagram because honestly as yourself - what brands do you follow on facebook?! I can't think of one, however placing ads in facebook can be beneficial to your brand because you can really target your specific audience.
4. YouTube
Brands who are smart about their marketing can really use this platform for a huge benefit. It's easy these days to make high quality videos for a very little expenditure, but make sure they do look high quality... try not to put out average content- make sure the content boosts your brand message. This platform allows you to be the most creative with the content, post your campaigns, product specific videos, tutorials... the list is endless!
5. Twitter
Personally twitter is my fav platform, but for your fashion brand, it comes last because of the lack of visual elements. Yes, by all means you can utilize this platform to benefit your brands message - share events, new collection launches, sponsorships etc, but it you're starting with just one or two platforms I would leave twitter out for the time being.
Hopefully this has helped you understand a little more how you can use social media to your brands benefit, and which ones to focus your time on. I have too many opinions and ideas about social media and how you can utilize it - so feel free to send me any specific questions you might have about social media and your brand. Do you have a different opinion on the list? If so let me know!!