Social media is a global phenomenon that has changed radically changed communication between people.

10 years ago, who would have ever thought to be able to interact with famous celebrities?

Get in touch with one’s favorite singer or actor might have been a just dream for normal people. Today, .thanks to social media, it is possible. Most famous celebrities are engaged with social media: they have twitter, facebook and instagram accounts and most of them personally control their own accounts.

But, why is it so important for Celebrities to use social media?

Self promotion

Famous celebrities don’t have customers, they have FANS. They use social media to build their own brand by interacting and communicating with their fans. How do they do it?

They post daily status, photos of their daily life as well as videos to keep their followers updated. They share their activities, future projects and any information that their fans may be interested in. Moreover, Celebrities leverage the use of social media by promoting their interests such as their movies if they are actors of their tours if they are singers.

Katy Perry is very engaged in social media, particularly with twitter.  In fact, in her California Dreams tour in 2011, fans’ tweets were displayed  during her live concert performances to get the audience interacting with the show. Is there a better way to directly interact with your fans??

Read more on Katy Perry social media strategy at: http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/katy-perry-brings-the-twitter-jumbotron-to-her-concerts_b7372

Another famous singer that has been doing pretty well on social media is Lady gaga, also known as the social media monster. She is the first one to top up 10 million fans on facebook and twitter. She currently has more than 67 million of fans on facebook and .. on twitter. “For videos like “Telephone,” “Born This Way,” and “Judas,” fans anxiously waited in front of their computers until the videos were released on YouTube. By revealing on Twitter and Facebook the exact date and time that the video will be released, Gaga is able to get millions of views in a matter of hours“. (http://www.qualitylogoproducts.com/blog/become-social-media-monster-like-lady-gaga/).

Lady Gaga has embraced the social media revolution by creating her own social network called “Little Monsters.com (https://littlemonsters.com/).

This social network allows Lady gaga fans to create and share Lady Gaga content and to interact with other “Little Monsters”.

The social media business

Social media is not just sharing content and interacting with your fans, it’s a real business where you can earn money. Some famous celebrities get paid for each tweet or “sponsored” tweet they post.

The Kardashian’s sisters, as well as being famous for their reality show, have their one clothing store which they advertise on Twitter,Facebook and Instagram. Moreover, occasionally their posts make them earn a lot of money. Kim Kardashian does not disclose her price per tweet but speculations put her price tag at $20,000 per tweet. Her Sister, Khloe gets $13,000 per sponsored tweet.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/30/celebrity-sponsored-tweets_n_3360562.html

 

The New York and London fashion weeks have just come to an end and all the fashion crowd has now moved to Milan for the Milan fashion week. In my last blog post we saw how fashion bloggers have changed the rules in the fashion industry; today, I want to draw your attention to the role of Social media in one of the most popular and relevant events of the season: The fashion weeks.

Social media is not just changing fashion, is also changing Fashion week.  (http://mashable.com/2010/09/16/social-media-fashion-week/)

With the emergence of social media,what used to be an “exclusive” event where only privileged people had access to, is now a social media phenomenon. Today, thanks to the Fashion Bloggers’ posts and tweets we feel like we are attending the event and we are sitting in the front row with celebrities and designers.

Just by tweeting #nyfw, #lfw or #mfw you’ll see the highlights of the New York, London and Milan fashion weeks.

Talking about New Yorks’s fashion week, Micheal Kors is at the top of the ranking for fashion brands with the highest number of tweets, followed by Ralph Lauren, Alexander Wang, Marc Jacobs and Jeremy Scott.

“Once upon a time, Fashion Week was a mere trade show for a relatively short list of editors and buyers. Today, designers grapple with a global audience that’s exploding via social media, to varying results”. (For more read the source I have used: http://qz.com/265739/who-won-new-york-fashion-week-according-to-twitter/)

This is an incredible opportunity for both consumers and designers. Consumers can immediately have access to certain information, such as the new trends of the seasons and the most popular outfits, whereas designers have a way to reach quickly their consumers and receive their feedback.

How can brands leverage social media during Fahion Weeks?

http://sendible.com/insights/6-ways-new-york-fashion-week-leverages-social-media/

This article provides 6 ways:

1. Pinterest

2. Twitter

3. Instagram

4. Live streaming

5. Facebook

6. Tumblr

Some examples of public fashion blogs where you can receive real time reports on the various Fashion Weeks:

http://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/

http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/fashion-blog+new-york-fashion-week

 

 

 

Social media is affecting the fashion industry in different ways.The fashion industry has always been characterized by “exclusivity” whereas social media is all about “sharing” and making things public and available to everyone. So, how is it possible that these two very different sectors found a successful way to interact? Fashion bloggers are the answer.  Fashion bloggers represent the most influential form of  social media phenomenon in this industry.

The rules of this multimillionaire industry changed as soon as fashion bloggers made their appearance.

They don’t just wear designer clothes and take pictures, they attend the most popular fashion events,parties and share with everyone their impressions,thoughts and recommendations on the new trends of the season. Consumers are very interested in the comments and feedback of bloggers because they are people they can relate to and that they can trust.

The fashion industry is an example of how paid media or advertising alone is not enough for a company to be successful in advertising and selling its products. Nowadays, earned and owned media are fundamental to spread and expand brand messages. Fashion bloggers are a way to make earned media successful in the fashion industry since they are able to reach everyone, they are trusted and they influence consumers decisions. They interact directly with consumers and that’s why they are so valuable to most fashion brands.

 Given the extremely large audience that bloggers have, they constantly receive free products such as clothes, bags shoes and accessories by the most popular brands who ask them to wear and review them. Both the consumers and the fashion brands benefit from this strategy. Consumers have the possibility to access more information regarding the new trends of the coming  season and brands can use the fashion bloggers as a mean to advertise certain products and also experiment new ones.

This really interesting article focuses on the changes that social media is inducing in the fashion industry:

http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2106921,00.html

A fashion blog I would advise to follow is Chiara Ferragni’s blog ( The blonde Salad). This Italian girl proved to be extremely successful at blogging and now has almost 3 million followers:

http://www.theblondesalad.com/

 

 

 

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