As a life long reader of fashion magazines, I use to devour their glossy ads of luxury designers. Like many, I coveted the down time to read my stack of magazines on long plane trips, or on vacation.  Recently, while preparing for one of those trips, I noticed my stack seemed lighter than usual and my desire to lug those magazines less.  What was going on?

I realized my fashion fix was already being satisfied on a daily basis from a variety of Facebook fan pages and Twitter followings.   Many who don’t use social media assume that it is a waste of time.  For me and many others, it is an efficient way to follow the things I am passionate about.

On Twitter,  I follow magazines and the fashion designers themselves.   Of course, I read InStyle Magazine’s Twitter feed, but beyond that I follow a few fashion blogs.  One of my favorite blogs, The Glamazon Diaries has great articles on fashion trends, and tweets them to twitter followers. As an added bonus she knows what I like and often will tweet  me a link about an article I might personally enjoy on her blog.   InStyle or Vogue Magazine can’t engage a reader that way.

I have a handful of designers I shop at on a regular basis, and the fact that they are on Facebook and Twitter builds on my devotion to their brand.  One of my favorite designers, Diane von Furstenberg, will  on occasion personally tweet.   I know she had never been to a basketball game until she went to a Lakers game over the holidays. In real time she posted a twitpic of herself at the game. This tweet  had nothing to do with her latest design, or sale in one of her stores. But, I love her and the brand more after that tweet -  it is genuine and personal.

Unfortunately, late players to the social media game are luxury brands, which is really no surprise given their sluggish and reluctant entry into offering e-commerce on their branded sites.  However,  Burberry has taken a different path, and is the clear leader in luxury brands that are manipulating social media.  Last year they launched the site TheArtoftheTrench. The site is beautifully executed showing urban settings with all types of people wearing their signature trench coat.  The site links users to their Facebook fan page. There the  users can comment on the photos and even upload photos of themselves wearing  a trench coat.  It is their attempt to bring a younger audience to their brand by reaffirming that the trench coat is still a classic item, something a younger demographic is willing to pay more for.

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Other ways fashion brands and retailers can use social marketing tools is to communicate during a crisis.  A few weeks ago the New York Times wrote a story about how an H&M store was destroying and throwing out clothes that were returned.   As in many breaking news scandals, Twitter  lit up with the disgust of this behavior.  H&M’s U.S. twitter feed was  able to respond quickly, and direct those concerned to a link that this was not their policy.  This certainly calmed the crisis down with an immediate response, shortened the news cycle on this story, and potentially reduced the risk of long term damage to their brand.

As a disciple of marketing and a devotee to fashion, I get giddy thinking about all the access to engage fans through social media that fashion and retail brands now have, which helps get the ‘golden goose’ all marketers strive for – brand loyalty.

Kelly Collis Fredrick is the publisher and founder of CityShopGirl, delivering daily discounts and promotions to D.C. area retailers, restaurants, spas, specialty stores as well as ecommerce sites.

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