Week 3B: Social Media Presence

Forever21:

https://www.forever21.com/us/shop

Facebook: Last used august 22^nd, with about 3 posts a month.

Instagram: Last posted September 8^th at around 8 am.  They had posted 5 posts in the past 24 hours.

YouTube: Last posted 2 weeks ago, with about 5-10 videos posted a month.

Pinterest: Last saved on September 8^th.  They have 519k followers.

Twitter: Last posted august 30^th.  They sometimes go weeks with out posting, then post a dozen in one day.

Analysis: Forever21 has a very strong social media presence, but they don’t post as often as I expected.  Out of the 5 they post less on Facebook and twitter than 3 of the other companies.  It is clear they have chosen Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube to be their most frequently used social media platforms.

Urban Outfitters:

https://www.urbanoutfitters.com/

Instagram: Last posted September 8^th at 6:30 am with 4 posts in 24 hours.

Facebook: Last posted September 8^th at 6:30 am with 4 posts in 24 hours.

Pinterest: The layout did not provide any time stamps.

Twitter: Last posted last posted September 8^th at 8 am with 7 posts in 24 hours.

Snapchat: They did not have a current story.

Tumblr: The layout didn’t provide any time stamps.

YouTube: Last posted 2 weeks ago.  They post 5-10 videos a month.

Analysis: Out of the five companies I chose, urban outfitters uses the most social media platforms.  While some of them didn’t provide time stamps, the ones that did show that Urban Outfitters not only uses the most platforms but uses its platforms the most frequently.  I would say out of the 5 they have the strongest, most beneficial social media presence.

Skatie:

https://skatie.com/

Facebook: Last posted March 4^th.  They posted 1 to 2 a month until then.

Pinterest: Last saved 2 years ago with only 3 followers.

Instagram: Last posted September 8^th, with posts daily.

Analysis:  I found Skatie’s social media use interesting.  The only social media platform they use frequently is Instagram.  They also do a lot of their advertising on Instagram.  That is how I found out about the company to begin with.  They do have a successful, strong presence on Instagram.  As a small company it seems like it might have paid off to be very good on one social media platform, instead of mediocre on many platforms.

Free People:

https://www.freepeople.com/?ref=logo

Instagram: Last posted September 8^th at with 3 posts in 24 hours.

Facebook: Last posted September 8^th with 3 posts in 24 hours, different content than Instagram.

Pinterest: Last saved 22 hours ago

Twitter: Last posted September 8^th with 3 posts in 24 hours.  These posts had the same content as Facebook.

YouTube: Last posted 2 months ago with 2-3 videos posted a month

Analysis: Free people had a similar social media presence to forever21 and Urban Outfitters.  One thing I noticed about free people was that even though they posted the same amount, and at similar times, more of the content was different between social media platforms, instead of duplicating posts platform to platform.

Dollhouse Boutique

https://dollhouseboutiquecarlsbad.com/

Facebook: Last posted September 6^th with posts almost every day.

Instagram: Last posted September 5^th with posts almost every day, the same content as Facebook.

Pinterest: last saved on September 7^th.

Analysis: I was surprised how successfully such a small company was able to maintain such a consistent presence on social media.  While they only have 3 platforms that they use, each one posts almost every single day.

For this assignment I chose 5 different apparel companies to research.  My goal is to start a women’s apparel company so I chose some large well-known brands, as well as some smaller brands that would be more likely competitors.  Social media is a huge part of the fashion industry.  Being able to post images of designs, lines and inspiration so accessibly on the internet is a huge benefit for clothing companies today.

Out of the things I learned, what I found most interesting was the difference between the large companies and small companies.  The massive, well-known companies like Forever21, Urban Outfitters, and Free People have numerous social media platforms while the smaller companies used fewer.  The smaller the company the fewer social media platforms were utilized. 

As an independent designer, it gives me an idea of the future expectations of my social media presence for my future company.  It let me know what is effective.  Although Skatie only uses Instagram, they have a successful enough presence that random people, like me, still know about them.  They make their company known in a simple straightforward way.