Yesterday I was honored to attend the FN Summit, a day with the major players from within the footwear industry to meet, present, and discuss the future of the category. Most fascinating to me was Session III, entitled Fashion Social: Clicking into Three Innovative Case Studies, with presentations by Rebecca and Uri Minkoff of Rebecca Minkoff, Leah Robert of Camuto Group, and Leandra Medine of The Man Repeller. Each speaker emphasized how essential working with social media is to the growth of a brand, and regularly using platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram. At Rebecca Minkoff, print ads were even generated via site fans/users who crafted photos via the image filter of Instagram.
Each speaker acknowledged that an ample amount of time, budget, and manpower is dedicated toward communicating with fans and customers via social media; at Rebecca Minkoff 25%-30% of the budget and 15% of workforce is put toward the social media effort, while Ms. Medina admitted that it is “80% of what I do.” Ms. Robert at Camuto Group spoke about efforts to build brand trust and loyalty through targeted college campuses across the country that had select ambassadors and fashionistas to mobilize events and publicity for the brand within their circles. The biggest takeaway is that as a brand, footwear or otherwise, it is crucial that you engage with your audience in a meaningful and authentic way via social media, not just to show sales and traffic numbers increase, but also to use as a tool for research and product development, as well as to truly understand who your customer is and where to find them.
How often do you interact with brands you love via Twitter, Facebook, etc?
–Julia DiNardo
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