Fashion && The Social Media, minus Twitter.

Fashion has forever been and will continue to forever be an extremely visual industry and concept. The heart of fashion is centered on looks, styles, appeals and of course - response. One's style makes them look to be a certain way and that draws a response of various appeals....either positive or negative...or sort of just in the middle. Fashion is a highly marketable industry...taking up tons of magazine space in the grocery store and local bookstore. Fashion is also all over the television. Turn on any station and there is either a commercial for some fashion, or an infomercial directly selling a particular fashion. Fashion is even popularized and sold inconspicuously through means of trend-setting and recognition. Say perhaps a certain celebrity wears a particular style dress to the Oscar awards. You can be sure that by the next month, recreations of the dress will be circulating the world's boutiques and countless people will attempt to recreate the style and look that was so appealing to them. Fashion can also be spread through music artists through their public appearances and through their music videos. Whether it is through magazines, television, internet advertisements, or public display of self-expression, fashion is a part of each persons life whether they know it or not. There is always a new fashion, there is always a new designer, there is always a new fashion faux-pas. As public relations practitioners, we know that there is also always a new innovative form of marketing, selling, advertising and/or promoting. Together, fashion and public relations now meet at social media. Lovers of fashion are finding countless new uses for social media within the realm of fashion. One of the top social media's for fashion is blog sites. The new "it" thing is to blog, and the new "it" blog...is of course a fashion blog. Being a fashion blogger myself, I can say that it becomes highly addictive. If you have a passion for fashion, and you are also a public relations entrepreneur - fashion blogging is where it's at. One such blog combining fashion and social media to show how the two really go hand-in-hand is http://www.yuliziv.com/  - now beware, this is not a fashion blog, per-say, but rather a blog promoting the idea of public relations/marketing/advertising in fashion...all through social media. With blog entries such as: "9 ways to use video content to drive sales", "Is Vogue going social" and "New York fashion week designers embrace new technologies" - this blog really goes into day-to-day constantly current updates on the two industries together under the social media umbrella. The NYC fashion week blog gives examples of various designer's personal acts of social blogging during that week stating that Kimora Lee Simmons of Baby Phat twittered about the fashion and streamed some of the fashion shows live as they were happening onto Youtube.  Tory Burch also twittered and uploaded pictures to facebook of fashion shows from the week. Issach Mizrahi live streamed his fashion shows onto the Issach Mizrahi Web site. In another article, entitled "On Twitter, Fashion designers and ROI", this individual blogger gives facts and figures for Dell, saying that their twittering Web site helps to bring in over $3 million in sales, and she says this to convince those non-believers among us that fashion and social media are two peas in a pod. In reading the blog entries from this particular blogger, Yuli Ziv, who is originally from Russia - one really gains insight into how social media can really help modern day fashion designers promote their brands and trends through creating awareness and using marketing/advertising methods as well. It is important to note that Ziv and many other fashion lovers are only fans of certain forms of social media for fashion however. When it comes to making fashion available through social media, these people are worried about control and validity. Therefore, they prefer social blogging as the main form, as opposed to social media sites such as Twitter Below is a video of Viv herself at a conference, telling why she thinks Twitter is not suitable for fashion, as a form of social blogging. Enjoy~!