Guest post by Courtney Gerring, Digital PR at Fashionbi. Fashionbi is the world leader in Business Intelligence for the Fashion industry. Fashionbi enables smart decisions about the marketing of Fashion and Luxury brands by forecasting, analyzing and reporting in 90 countries their performances and clients perceptions.
Is Twitter part of your social media strategy? If so, have you considered creating a Twitter chat? It is not too late to start raising your glass to the advantages that Twitter can offer fashion brands. Twitter may seem like old news but it is still one of the most popular social media networks to share information in real-time.
Twitter is great when it comes to the news sharing capabilities, but an effective Twitter chat can prove to be just as great.
The Basics
A Twitter chat can be one of the most cost effective ways to boost brand awareness and to create engagement. Long gone are the days when fashion brands’ only option was to set aside a big budget for an event. Instead, consider creating a Twitter party.
Before we get down to the details on how to create an effective Twitter chat, let’s first establish the meaning of a Twitter chat.
The translation can easily be seen as a live focused online chat with a global reach where a brand can effectively communicate and engage with current or potential customers and/or industry experts.
It is simple to host a Twitter party or Twitter chat but you must first establish your end goal and your expectations. Typically a Twitter chat is over the course of an hour and key active Twitter followers are invited to run the chat. It is important to create a fun atmosphere, just like any offline party; entertaining and engaging. Create a hashtag around the chat to give people a way to follow.
Plan Your Twitter Chat
It’s important to choose a a specific topic what creating a Twitter chat. Chats happen so often, that a general “Let’s chat fashion” is not enough. Think about what topics would be a value to your customer and plan around that.
Another aspect to consider is integrating a dynamic multimedia source. Will you include a presentation or a video? Plan out the hour and what you want to share, create a list of engaging questions, and consider having a guest sharing tips and ideas.
Just like any other marketing or public relations objective, it’s important to establish goals. What do you hope to gain by doing this? Without measurable goals, you’ll never know if your efforts are successful, right?
The more you plan this the same way that you’d plan an offline event, the better.
Show Off Your Expertise
Your Twitter chat does not have to be focused on customers, either. If your Twitter strategy is to focus on your industry networking and connection building, this could be a great way to build on those relationship. Come up with a topic that could be useful and interesting for them and create a strategy around that.
It’s a great way to establish you and your brand as relevant and knowledgeable. You will start to gain respect as a brand and creative director that understands trends in both fashion and business. This is invaluable when it comes to industry relationship building.
Never underestimate the power that something like a Twitter chat can have on your business. It’s a free marketing tool (though proper planning and promotion of the event are no necessarily free), and it can do a lot to grow your brand awareness.
Remember that it takes time to grow, the number of participants is not necessarily a measure of success, and by keeping at it, you will hopefully start to see the results you want. So define your objective and measurable goals, create a plan, and give it try.