Tag - The Coveted

“The average Facebook fan page has around 130 fans…”

This was just one of the facts I learned at the FGILA’s panel regarding the social media phenomenon (i.e. Facebook, Twitter…Myspace-not so much…), as well as brand development, rules of social networking, and the how-to’s of utilizing blogs and social networks to create awareness for products. The panelists included some of the best in journalism, blogging and social media: Macala Wright Lee- the founder of marketing blog fashionablymarketing.me; Jennine Jacob-founder of The Coveted and Independent Fashion Bloggers; Crosby Noricks-founder of PRCouture.com; and Staci Riordan- who is the Chair of the Fox Rothschild Fashion Law Practice Group and has a blog as well.

The meeting was held on the Westside (and sadly, was crazy mad getting to on the 405 during rush hour, but nevertheless, I wasn’t too late getting there).  The entire discussion was indeed helpful to me, as a blogger and here are some highlights of the evening…

It’s a two-way street when building a relationship with a blogger. We should treat each other as if it could turn into a potential business relationship. Staci Riordan brought up that “internet and social media is about relationships and building those relationships.”  Macala Lee Wright  brought up ‘sticky traffic’- traffic which a blogger wants because the people are loyal and keep coming back. John Arguelles, the chair of FGILA, brings up the issue of Facebook vs. LinkedIn. He dropped his LinkedIn when he found that Facebook was more practical. He now has a Facebook for his group, product and personal needs. Macala added that it was best to just focus on the one (Facebook or Twitter) that works best for you. Scooter Girls founder, Arlene Battishill also discussed her success with Twitter and how it has helped her business. The topic moved on to the tools used to monitor traffic, such as Google Analytics- which I use and it’s gratis (free), Omniture- expensive and Kissmetrics.com-new. Crosby Noricks discussed a new trend among teenage girls- hauling, which is when they make short videos of themselves showing off what they’ve recently purchased. Otherwise known as video-blogging. The average video is around two minutes. I’m going to finish with the importance of Twitter. All the panelists find it extremely powerful in that they would tweet about a bad experiece and have so many responses. Jennine Jacob recommended documenting and sharing your experiences, whether good or bad;  as an example, she described her awful experience at Zara with FOUR of the salespeople. She posted it on her blog and received at least a hundred comments with people sharing similiar experiences.

Our society is growing more and more technological every day. We are now more dependent on our iphones, blackberrys and ipads as a source to scour the internet. Jennine suggested that developing your site to be more mobile would be very essential. There is also an app in development that whenever you see a pair of shoes on your favorite TV show you want, you can just push a button and boom, you bought it and it’s being shipped to your house.

Special Thanks: J, Elizabeth Matthews, FGILA, Emily Heintz, the panelists, Ron Friedman-moderator, Arlene Battishill, John of Mon Atelier, and Mary Hall of the blog, The Recessionista.