Problem

Presently social media can be termed as the most affective medium through which a company’s products can be advertised and sold. The number of social media users are growing by staggering numbers and presently Facebook alone has a user base of more than 1.86 billion which is a huge number in itself (Tuten & Solomon, 2017). Therefore the companies have a great scope to reach a great number of people through social media, and what is more is the target audience can be chosen and narrowed before the campaign is launched. In this research the aim is to provide suggestion to increase the customers of an apparel company through social media.

The particular problem that is the target of this research is to how effectively us the social media and increase the target customers. In today’s times it is very difficult to grow a business without the presence in social media. Apparel companies mainly target the people who are fashion conscious and want to look good even if they have to spend a little more for their clothes. Therefore it is important for the apparel companies to set their target customers appropriately and then use images, phrases and language in a way that the target audience is impressed by the advertisement and they actually buy the products (Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2016). The idea is to set the social media accounts of the company in a way that the people can either buy the products directly from the online social media pages or they get to know the details of the locations and contacts from where they can get to buy the products. The apparel companies are required to understand the customer demands therefore the advertisements must be interactive. The customers may share feedback about the products they are going to buy or they have already bought, this is what is necessary to actually build up a customer base.

A secondary research can be done by analyzing the existing advertisements of the already famous apparel brands and also by studying what the other experts have to say in their research about the social media marketing strategy, especially in the apparel industry. It is seen that the fashion and the apparel brands are in the “sweet spot” of social media websites, this is because people follow these pages out of their own interest and also interact (Ashley & Tuten, 2015). One example is the growth of Dior in the last year which grew by a staggering 300 percent (Chaffey, 2016). The largest median size of the audience is enjoyed by the fashion brands and then followed by other kind of products. It has been researched and seen that Facebook is having the greatest number of followers in the category of fashion. Experts state that in the case of engagement it is on Instagram that the audience show highest interest in engaging and interacting with the fashion brands and therefore it is one of the most important mediums to advertise apparel.

The most effective brands that performs well in the social media, especially on Instagram is the outdoor and the outwear brands, and the outdoor brands enjoy two times more engagement of the audience compared to the casual wear brands. The experts point that the average users mostly searches about their required product by using hash tags, and therefore the hashtags are very important to be selected wisely so that the larger portion of audience can be reached (Felix, Rauschnabel & Hinsch, 2017). It is seen that the top fashion brands are using social media as their primary tool to increase interaction. For example, Burberry is very effectively using social media having a follower base of 17 million which is growing by the day. The strategy is to not only focus on selling but also on customer engagement.

It can be analyzed from the above research that the primary need in selecting the social media campaign the apparel company is to 1^st select the target group of the market, this is also known as segmenting the market. The company must select the age group, or the economic group to which it wants to sell it products and then start its social media campaign based on that segmentation (Gamboa & Gonçalves, 2014). The following are 5 recommendations that the company may follow in order to establish itself firmly in the social media platforms.

• The company must do proper research and then engage in properly segmenting the market and then putting up advertisements on the social media according to that segmentation.
• The company must use Instagram as the foremost platform to advertise its product. Instagram is seen to be the most effective platform for these purposes.
• The company must be using high quality images of the apparels and other products it intends to sell. The images must be aesthetically appealing and people must be interested in buying them because of their visual appeal.
• The company may be hiring brand ambassadors and celebs to advertise products and this increases the engagement of the customers. People are interested in following celebs and their lifestyle, therefore this would be affective in giving extra mileage to the company.
• The company may keep one or two person as dedicated social media managers who will be dedicating their time to improve the performance of the social media pages of the company. They would be dedicated to increase the number of engagement in the social media and increase reach.

Conclusion 

It can be concluded that the users of social media are seen to be engaging more with the fashion brands than other brands, therefore the company must make good use of the opportunity so that it may increase its reach and develop better customer base loyalty. The brand must be aware not to engage in cheap marketing like push selling and spamming but to make the process interesting by interactive posts like quizzes and memes apart from product advertisement. The company may create a target and then engage dedicatedly to make a firm base in the social media platforms.

Reference

Ashley, C., & Tuten, T. (2015). Creative strategies in social media marketing: An exploratory study of branded social content and consumer engagement. Psychology & Marketing, 32(1), 15-27.

Chaffey, D. (2016). Global social media research summary 2016. Smart Insights: Social Media Marketing.

Felix, R., Rauschnabel, P. A., & Hinsch, C. (2017). Elements of strategic social media marketing: A holistic framework. Journal of Business Research, 70, 118-126.

Gamboa, A. M., & Gonçalves, H. M. (2014). Customer loyalty through social networks: Lessons from Zara on Facebook. Business Horizons, 57(6), 709-717.

Schivinski, B., & Dabrowski, D. (2016). The effect of social media communication on consumer perceptions of brands. Journal of Marketing Communications, 22(2), 189-214.

Tuten, T. L., & Solomon, M. R. (2017). Social media marketing. Sage.