Working out the Twitter Mafia
There has been a big realisation: Twitter as a micro blog site, is a great communication and Marketing tool where professionals and brands have discovered its power to connect with the world to network and to engage with potential employers and clients. The aim is to get followers and to follow people who you share common interests, you would like to network or do business with, or you simply like what they have to say.
Although at first sight, Twitter might have appeared to be a very clever way to waste copious amounts of your time: You could buy into the idea of fame and what it would feel like to rub shoulders with your idols and favourite celebrities in general by getting to know their innermost secrets and thoughts by becoming their follower ‘friend’. Also, you may have wrongly believed everyone cared about everything you had to say and your followers were your ‘fans’ – all because you became, all of a sudden an important person or a new all time celebrity.
The truth is that the Twitter revolution is growing rapidly, more and more brands are beginning to realise the benefits the micro-blog site can offer, however they are quick to realise that maintaining a presence online is not as simple as it looks. It is therefore important businesses have a strategy and plan in place to ensure regular tweets; updates are in order for you to successfully engage with the world.
Some businesses believe succeeding in Twitter it’s just a matter of the number of followers they have. Therefore companies providing online applications that are trying to capitalise on the Twitter swift rise. Some of them claim to gain you Twitter followers for you to appear more popular in exchange for money. My advice would be – Don’t Buy Twitter Followers
Buying followers, means you would go against Twitter’s rules and may have your account terminated. It’s also considered the worst way to promote yourself, as any followers sold to you are unlikely to be real or even interested in what you have to say. Some operators also use very unethical means to add them to your account (such as creating thousands of fake accounts with the only purpose to follow accounts in exchange of money). The key skill is to engage with followers and listen to what they have to say too.
There are other so far accepted, promotional methods to grow your Twitter presence, monitor your account, schedule and publish tweets. Some could be considered of dubious value.
Have you ever come across Twiends for instance? A promotional method to grow your Twitter presence, they propose seeds as the ideal way to grow your social network consistently each day. Those seeds can be employed to get more exposure and either be featured or encourage and reward accounts for following you. They then can use those seeds to pay for other accounts to follow them. The result here could be they may only follow you to collect seeds and not because they have anything in common with you and they are likely to un-follow you afterwards.
What happens when you are following too many people? Either by extreme enthusiasm or by using applications where you get rewarded the more people you follow. Then you can use I Unfollow to get rid of those accounts you didn’t want to follow to start with any way or the ones that have become inactive for years.
By this time, you might have become suspicious of how many of your followers were either expecting you to follow them back and you haven’t, or had only followed you to get their reward seeds. What to do now? – Despair not. Another tool can be used, such as Who Unfollowed Me to find out who has un-followed you. Also, it can be used to find out who is following you but you are not following back and those you are following but they are not following you back.
It is worth mentioning Timely, an analytics and optimisation tool that adds your tweets to a scheduler and publishes them when they are likely to have higher impact. When you run out of ideas they offer suggestions for tweets although they seem to always be the same ones. It can also be used to calculate the reach of your tweets.
Have you ever thought it may be interesting to see how many dead accounts you are following? Manage Flitter can do just that. It is a popular monitoring tool to manage twitter followers and non followers. It shows if they follow you or not, if they are talkative or quiet, or even if they are inactive.
Call me ‘the old fashioned of the new era’ but I feel strongly about not doing things organically or getting involved in dubious practise. Followers should come when you interact and engage, have an interesting bio, a non default ‘egg image’ on your profile, and you have exciting things to say regularly. I think it is important to enrich your followers’ day with something newsworthy, to reply to their tweets and appreciate their time is precious so – remember, don’t be a bore promoting your products nonstop and don’t bombard with same links to your blog or website.
Technologic evolution of fashion
Some may say clothes are practical items necessary to protect ourselves from the elements. Others see clothes as part of a multibillion industry where fashion is worth billions and it changes at least twice every year (Spring /Summer and Autumn/ Winter collections). The fashion industry influences in one way or the other how we present ourselves to the world.
Technology applications in fashion made possible the textile developments that took place around 1940 and 1950 with the improvements of fabrics with manmade fibres and blends, and automated garment construction techniques.
Now in the 21st century, where the Digital age is reaching unthinkable heights technology is one of the driving forces of the changes we have seen recently in the fashion industry.
Now technology applications in fashion not only mean the experimentation with new techniques or fabrics, but also to engage with the public, expand in communication and reach an audience only dreamed about before.
All regarded Fashion Houses must have not only a website but a Twitter account and a Facebook page that get updated regularly with relevant, interesting and engaging content where users can show the connection with the brand thorough becoming a follower or using the like button. The ones with a more avant-garde approach have Flicker, YouTube channel, phone applications, micro sites, blog, online competitions, LinkedIn, own targeted social network, interactive shows, live streamed activities, and video responses to simultaneous Question and Answers sessions.
Fashion brand Diesel, continues to pioneer its integrated social media strategies. Heavily focusing on Twitter, Diesel is using social communications to drive followers into brick and mortar stores for music events, sales, cocktails and socializing.
Designer Norma Kamali is using the reverse social media model. Kamali has added QR codes to her store windows so that customers can shop from the street when the store is closed. When viewers scan the bar codes in the windows, they’re taken directly to the product page on NormalKamali.com where they can purchase the item via their mobile device.
Social Media has been seen transforming Fashion Week and making what traditionally was open to a lucky few hundred now reaching millions and at a much quicker speed with immediate coverage.
Fashion was a luxury enjoyed by the elite. The exclusivity of high fashion continued well into the 21st century until social media came into the picture.
Luxury brands seemed to have been reluctant to adopt the new trends of online sales and use of Social Media to start with, but since they embraced it some have taken it to an extreme and even have a reputation for innovation.
Thanks to the latest technology like online streaming Fashion shows can be seen by millions – 3G and 4G mobile phones, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks aide the propagation of images and videos in a matter of seconds, offering immediate global coverage.
In Feb 2010 Burberry had a 3D fashion show that was streamed lived simultaneously in different cities creating hype in the media in different countries.
In November 2010, Ralph Lauren’s fashion house decided to celebrate the launch of Ralph Lauren e-commerce in the U.K. and the 10th anniversary of ralphlauren.com in the U.S. It was a fusion of art, fashion & technology in a visual feast for the five senses with 3D projection, light and sound mapping with illusions of a blowing breeze, and even a light mist of the collection fragrances, creating the ultimate sensory 4D experience.
It resulted in the production of 700 million online impressions which made the brand to be regarded at the cutting edge of technology.
The latest t demonstration of technology took place in April 2011 where an installation of holographic projections of models mixed with real models walking to a powerful song by one of British most loved and world-renowned singers Adele, together with falling rain brought the British experience of Burberrys to Beijing.
Who would have thought a traditional brand that is over 150 years old can inject the latest technology and even get a reputation for innovation?
With all, we can see that Luxury brands are keeping up with the latest technology and reaching to the masses. Their aim is to have a more open communication and engage with the masses, making everyone feel valued and part of a community and ultimately make bigger sales. But can mainstream afford the luxury brands or only pretend to connect with them and keep up with their fictitious communities?
