The emergence of social media platforms in the early 2000s has been utilized by fashion brands to promotetheirPlatformssuch as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube have allowed fashion brands to engage with consumers.
TikTok
Luxury brands have turned to TikTok to engage younger audiences. During Milan Fashion Week of February 2020, designer brand, Prada, collaborated with the TikTok influencer, Charli D’Amelio, and the video reached 36.8 million views. Later that year in September, TikToklauncheditsownfashionmonth and invited users to join by sharing content under hashtags #TikTokFashionMonth, #GetTheLook, and #Fashion101.New York Fashion Week’shashtags on TikTok were the most watched for the Fall 2020 fashion season, reaching 15.3 million visualizations and engaging 2.9 million users.
Since the 2010 launch of Instagram, the app since then has gained millions of followers. Instagram is now considered to be one of the most powerful tools in shaping the way consumers perceive brands. 81% of Instagram users use the platform to research products and services and 50% of users have visited a website to make a purchase after seeing a product or a service. With over 200 million active users, access to creative content is virtually unlimited. Many fashion-forward Instagram accounts with large followings are able to turn their passions into businesses, generating income using their status within the community. Models and influencers who use Instagram for representation in fashion had a greater likelihood to walk on fashion runways.
The introduction of Facebook Pages allows brands to create a Facebook profile for their brand and promote their name. This allowed for consumers to like, follow, and interact with the company page. The company would then post feeds that would be received by consumers in their recent posts. Visual media interactions on social media platforms such as Facebook have been successful in the distribution of fashion media. Interactions can take place between the brand and consumer, through advertisements, sharing behind-the-scenes content, and commenting on profiles. Consumers can comment on brand posts, post pictures of the product, click links, like, and share the page with their own network.
Pinterest is a “visual discovery engine”.The social media component comes from users posting pins and creating pin-boards that other users can save and share. A class of second-year fashion students sat an American university has incorporated Pinterest into their course curriculum. The motive of utilizing social media in fashion was to open a dialogue of conversation between the designer and the consumer to directly access their wants and needs through Pin-Board.
YouTube
More recently, fashion brands have expanded because of YouTubers. YouTubers would receive PR packages and advertise the brand in their videos, and the millions of people watching would see these advertisements and be more inclined to look at these brands’ websites and order them. Some YouTubers would be invited to fashion shows, or events from big brands.
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