Social media in the fashion industry

Social media use in the fashion industry has enabled average consumers and regular people to have much more interaction with fashion designers and high-end clothing, shoes and accessory firms. Unlike traditional advertising platforms, such as billboard ads, magazine ads and television commercials, which the fashion company and their advertising agency had complete control over, when fashion companies do a social media marketing campaign in the 2010s, average consumers and regular people can post online comments immediately below the fashion company's social media advertisement. This accessibility is due to the increased usage of social media since 2009. Social media is a real time platform that reaches across the globe; this has had a great impact on how consumers interact with the fashion industry. Social media has brought about new channels of advertising for fashion houses to reach their target markets.

These new channels include, but are not limited to: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Pinterest. Since the global financial crisis in 2008, global consumption of luxury fashion goods diminished. Retailers had to shift their focus to "classic" lines to recapture their target market, as consumers were less likely to take risks on avant-garde items. (Kapferer, 2012) confirms: "The recent economic crisis prompted the affluence population – the top 20% of income earners representing 60% of the market – to refocus on real value and great classics, and to pay the expected price." Although the marketing strategies and tactics have changed, the primary aim of marketing fashion remains the same, "ultimately attracting and retaining customers" Webber (2009). In the social media era, fashion houses needed to reshape their marketing strategies to capture consumer's attention. This is where the shift from traditional print media to more interactive media started to occur. Social media is able to use different forms of media such as: videos, live streams and interactive Web 2.0 features to engage their target market.

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