In marketing and PR, we listen as our clients talk about the purpose of their company, the inspiration and the particular point-of-view that drives them to create or serve customers. We help them figure out what parts of their story are most compelling, what makes them unique, and then we help them communicate that story to the media. Understanding brand voice, value, and what makes each company different allows us to craft compelling content that captures the attention of target audiences again and again. This recurring attention is what allows brands to increase awareness, become household names and ultimately grow and profit.

Style blogging is a form of visual storytelling and fashion blogs share news, highlight designers, and act as discovery engines for great pieces and new must-haves, but it’s a struggle to differentiate in a sea of similarity. The opportunity to rise above the fray comes, in addition to what is written or photographed, by working on your brand, and, a willingness to get personal. Consider Love Maegan sharing her struggles with infertility, Wendy of Wendy’s Lookbook’s passion for juvenile justice sparked by personal experience, and our dear Ashe, boldly sharing swimsuit photos and daring to reveal a healthy perspective on getting out there and enjoying the water. When we know more about you, we can root for you, we can feel closer to you, and that draws us in.

Humans are wired for connection. If you can find places in your blog to move beyond the clothes and help us understand what you stand for, what makes you tick and even where you struggle, you will be rewarded. A little vulnerability is not only personally validating – it’s often the more personal posts that unleash a fury of support – and traffic — but your willingness to bring your whole self to the blogging game will allow you to build stronger relationships with your readers, ones that will last well beyond your next outfit post.

How much of you do you share on your blog? 

Share on Facebook Retweet this

In just four short months, Vine has established itself as the leader in short-bit video apps fit for social media. Its quick adoption might have something to do with the fact it’s owned by Twitter, but it’s enough to get the attention of brands, bloggers and 13 million others as a useful tool. While Instagram is rumored to be releasing its own Vine competitor any day now, the fashion world is just getting comfortable with adding Vine to the social media mix.

These are 16 fashion bloggers who are active on Vine (meaning, they post fairly often.) Some names you might recognize, others you won’t, but they all offer you easy and simple ways to incite new ideas, promote or build community for your own blog.

Bag Snob

Follow Tina Craig’s fabulous stop-motion travel diary, with special appearances by her exquisite bag and shoe collections.

Bri Emery

Get a peek into the DesignLoveFest blogger’s other projects, including the BlogShop workshop.

ChiCityFashion

Chi City Fashion’s Vine is equal parts shoe candy, adorable dog clips and behind-the-scenes of a ‘work from home’ blogger/entrepreneur.

Could I Have That

She’s featuring other bloggers, behind-the-scenes of blog photoshoots and crowd sourcing beauty ideas from her readers in this Vine.

The Coveteur

Unboxing beautiful products and very gratuitous shots of dream closets are just a few of the clips you’ll see in The Coveteur’s feed.

A sweet look at the everyday life of the famous blogger.

Man Repeller

Leandra’s quirkiness (and singing!) are alive and well in her fun Vine clips.

Meagan Cignoli

Meagan’s beautiful mastery of stop-motion and time-lapse make for some stunning clips.

Nadia Aboulhosn

Personality, cats and The Office rule this blogger’s Vine feed.

Natalie Suarez

Check out Natalie’s Vine for a peek into her life…off duty

Naty Michele

Naty gives Vine followers the first look on upcoming blog posts, sponsored products and more.

Such a treat to follow the inner workings of Oscar de la Renta through social media, and Vine is no different!

ProFreshStyle

We love her outfits, but it’s ProFreshStyle’s humor and wit that make her Vine so fun to follow.

P.S. I Made This

P.S. I Made This squeezes in quick DIY tutorials and so much more into her Vine feed.

Purse Blog

If you’re looking for a fresh way to work with brands using your social media prowess, Megs of Purse Blog’s Vine feed can show you how.

Vintage Vandal

This retro fashion blogger shows how she pulls off an impeccable vintage style into everyday life in NYC.

Share on Facebook Retweet this

Bloggers do a lot of different jobs. We’re writers, photographers, marketers, entrepreneurs, developers and the list goes on. It’s easy to think that when you get in and do so many different tasks that you can do everything. To be honest, the thought has crossed my mind in my own life. But the fact is, we can’t be all things to all people. It’s actually better to focus on what you do best, whether it be creating a specific type of content, being a writer, a photographer,  or even a marketer and make that a priority. This will help you find your way to something you truly love, rather than spending time working on things that you’d rather leave to ones who are better at it. So don’t be so hard on yourself!

[Quote Source]

Share on Facebook Retweet this

Does it ever seem like some bloggers get all of the love from advertisers and media? You’re not crazy, and the reality is that gifted product, sponsored features, CPM display ads, collaborations and all of the things that allow bloggers to go pro aren’t spread evenly across the fashion blogosphere. Regardless of how you choose to monetize your site, chances are it’s going to involve working with brands in some way. Whether it’s a PR request for product or a larger collaboration, interaction with the marketing department or an agency to sell ad space, fashion and beauty brands collectively dedicate hundreds of millions of dollars each year towards advertising online. That’s the good news, of course. The bad? There are a number of reasons why brands don’t want to work with you, and won’t invite you to take any coins from their ad budget pot of gold.

It’s Not You, It’s Them

Like any relationship, building a relationship with a brand usually depends on a number of factors. Some of them will be totally outside of anything that you can control, but there are a few “it’s them” reasons that you can adapt to.

1. The Timing Is Off

Most of the advertising and publicity campaigns you see now were actually planned months ago. There were likely meetings where people working at the brands got together, looked at a bunch of numbers from previous months and years, and decided how much they were going to allocate to social media, and influencer (that would be you, the blogger) marketing, and display marketing and so on.

So while you may have an awesome series on swimsuits, that could have done really well with ads for sunglasses, or sunscreen or any multitude of related beach things, if you weren’t on the radar of these brands in February or March while media planning decisions were being made, you’ll probably be left out.

The Fix: Print is a dying, decaying dinosaur that’s big and slow, right? Sort of, but as fast as tweets and blog posts can be published, the collective online asteroid that threatens to kill it hasn’t taken it out yet. Your favorite magazine has their editorial calendar lined up months in advance. While cover stars and other specifics might change until the last minute, the general overview doesn’t.

Year after year, Vogue always has a “shape” issue where they remind readers that there are clothes available for ladies with bodies of a different shape than the models and celebrities usually featured (who knew?!). Vanity Fair has their “Young Hollywood” issue because there are only so many cover stories you can do on old, sometimes dead Hollywood (still love you Marilyn M.). Take a note from the old school and plan out certain editorial sections a few months in advance. It might seem predictable, and a bit formulaic, but it’s easy for advertisers and publicists to understand when considering how your blog can fit in with their planning.

Do This Right Now Hint: Now is the time to start organizing your pitches to brands for September and fall ads, when brands allocate more money to advertising. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a bikini taking long walks on the beach this minute, start planning and pitching fall fashion ideas now.

And in September? Make sure your gift guide ideas or whatever you’re planning for the holiday season hits the inbox of those same brands

2. The Budget Is Off

This is closely related to timing, but an issue of its own, and applies to brands at every level. Part of why you need to get in early is because you have a better shot at getting the best rates. While it’s not impossible for agencies or brand representatives to get an increased budget in the middle of or towards the end of a campaign, it’s not as easy for publishers to get top rates once half the budget is already gone.

In other cases, even at big brands, there is no budget. While there may be a brand manager who really strongly believes that they should be working with bloggers because they influence people to buy, that person’s boss may decide that the company will only work with bloggers on an unpaid basis – even if the brand could afford to pay. More than a few high end brands fall into this category. Those $70-100,000 per page magazine ads are how they’ve always done it, and it probably takes 10 meetings  before someone who feels like fashion blogs are over will give the okay for even a test campaign. At smaller brands, there may not be an advertising or PR budget at all, so it’s not just a matter of selling them on working with your blog, it’s a matter of selling them on spending money on advertising at all.

The Fix: Find your data-backed, proven strength. Data and numbers can be a much more convincing argument than anything else when pushing for brands to work with you on a paid basis. Do you have a strong Facebook following? If you’re a page manager, you can use Facebook insights to see what countries the people who like your page are from. Using Graph Search, you can also see what other pages or brands they’re into. If you have a high concentration of people from a targeted country, who like brands similar to the ones you’re pitching, that’s a compelling reason why the brand needs to do business with you. Find out what it would cost to target those same people using paid ads, and use that to make the case for why advertising through your blog and social media accounts is worth what you’re asking.

3. The Brand Is Changing

For those in the US, do you remember Burger King’s ads with the creepy king, and the over the top overtures to the frat boy type of guy? Going on the fact that “the King” and his giant, nightmare inducing plastic head are gone, at some point brand executives decided to try something different. If you had a blog that appealed to that crowd, you may have been a fit with the old advertising and brand image, but might not be a great fit for current messaging or the direction they want to go in.

And these shifts are often kept private for months before they happen, so you don’t get a convenient memo announcing “we’re shifting from a focus on classic, professional  style do edgy, downtown style for the next two seasons.”

So while your workwear focused blog may have been the perfect partner for a previous collection, if the current brand strategy is to target a more casual audience, you may not fit into the media plan any more.

The Fix: The answer here is definitely not to overhaul your blog focus on the whims of brands. If your audience trusts your opinion on a certain kind of fashion (and you’re happy with occupying that niche), you’ll attract other brands who do want to target your audience. Just as brand messaging changed once, it can change again, and being consistent in your own blogging will make your site even more appealing.

If you find yourself consistently being turned down for opportunities with brands though, it could be you. In the second part of this post, we’ll explore some of the reasons why brands don’t want to work with you when it’s not them (it’s you).

Share on Facebook Retweet this

Why? For one, I’ve set goals and expectations for it and myself that are perhaps on a superhuman level, and unattainable in the first place. I also don’t want to let my readers down, who, in my circumstance, have come to rely on certain types of content live on the site at least every day.  I need to set the reset, and maybe even the HARD reset button on this process, as it has become more draining than enjoyable. For those of you that feel the same way, here are three tidbits of advice that I am executing, that may help you gain a better blog equilibrium as well!

Focus ONLY on What Excites You Most

I have found that when I see the list piling up of “to-dos” as far as articles I have to write, so does the mounting fear, dread, and anxiety that I’m never going to get to it all in the tiny amount of time that I have to squeeze it in.  If, however I start with the item that excites me most, it gives me the drive and fulfillment to feel content with what I just got done. The adage goes that the hardest part about writing is getting started, so if you can start with the aspect you love most, be it outfit pics, product reviews, fashion news, etc, then go for it! It will most likely get your creative juices flowing, and leave you in a much better place mentally.

Be Candid with Your Readers

Sometimes it is a relief to “come clean,” and in this case, let your readers know how much you love and appreciate them, but  will be posting less frequently or need some time to rehash the site. Being upfront and honest about being busy, feeling overwhelmed, or burnt out sooner than later will give you the immediate release from the pressure of feeling compelled to constantly be working on your blog. Plus, everyone is so busy, I’m pretty sure your readers will understand! It’s so much better to let them know, instead of them wondering why you haven’t posted in a long time. Thinking about how you can best utilize your blog and time might be something you want to deliberate for some time, and you may decide to go niche or take it in a whole direction;  it may make your readers feel more involved if you give them a head’s up/sneak peek of what’s to come when you figure it out.

Seek Help

Know some college-age fashionistas? Friends who love to write?  A younger cousin obsessed with fashion? Tap them to write for you once in a while! It will refresh the content on your site to hear from a new voice, and give you some time to really make those posts that you want to work on most robust and memorable. Also tap into your blog network (IFB, ahem!) and see if anyone would be interested in post exchanges – most likely you will get an enthusiastic response.

 What has worked for you when you’ve felt like your blog was becoming your overbearing boss?

[Image Credit: Shutterstock.com]

Share on Facebook Retweet this

A few years ago, I went to a talk with Anna Dello Russo who advised everyone to “Invent your job!” The truth is, everyone has special talents that are useful somewhere in some way. We all have our passions, and in order to stand out and be irreplaceable, you really have to create your own dream job.

How do you do this? It’s not easy. When I started blogging, only a few people were making a living with their blogs, but I wanted to be one of them. It took a lot of exploration, experimenting and soul searching to get a clear direction of where I wanted to go. It also took a lot of work and stepping into the unknown.

Everyone’s dream job is different, so follow your passions and improve your talents. Don’t be afraid to step into the unknown and create your own dream job.

[Quote Source]

Share on Facebook Retweet this

Lead with a concise summary of the marketing activities in question.

In one or two carefully edited sentences, summarize what you did in partnership with a brand.  Mention the event, activation or other marketing activity that you launched along with the brand, audience and if relevant, key demographic involved in the activity.

Examples:

• “Curated a guest list for and hosted a holiday brunch with Local Cool Boutique followed by a sponsored post campaign on my blog and top social media accounts.”
• “Launched a one week Instagram shoe contest for London Shoe Designer targeting the East Coast market.”

Present your best “before-and-after” stories.

Think about the impact your marketing campaign/activities had on the brand partner.  You may not have access to some of the key analytics such as in-store sales, monthly unique visitors or other metrics the brand will likely measure about this particular campaign.  However, you can certainly measure analytics for your blog and key social media accounts.  You can also share anecdotes and stories about the effect your work had on qualitative measures such as sentiment and goodwill.

Examples:

• “On the day of the event and two days following the event, tweets about Local Cool Boutique increased over 150%.”
• “Over the campaign period, the sponsored post and related social media campaign resulted in over 5000 impressions for New York Bag Brand.”
• “The online activation resulted in increased engagement for Big Department Store.  Many of the comments on my blog in response to the campaign were positive with reader comments such as ‘Love Big Department Store for participating in this’ and ‘Thank you for the giveaway Big Department Store!’.”

Make it pretty.

Even the most professionally written, analytically sound case study will fail if it isn’t wrapped up in visually appealing packaging.  Remember to keep the text concise and tight and use the accompanying visuals and layout to sell your creativity as a blogger and brand partner.  Choose your best images to magnify the ideas in the case study.

Last but not least- edit with an eagle eye!

Your case study should be no more than 1.5 pages or 5 Powerpoint slides long.  So you will need to be a ruthless editor.  For every sentence in the case study or slide in your deck, ask yourself “Does this need to be here?  Does this make sense?  Is this boring?” Use common sense to strike out sections that are repetitive or don’t excite the reader.  Don’t be afraid to show the case study to a friend or third party to give your text and overall presentation an objective eye.

Would you put together a case study for brands?  Was this list helpful for you?

[Image Credit: Shutterstock.com]

Share on Facebook Retweet this

When people think of fashion blogging, it’s the personal style blogger who has carved a place in the public’s mind.  From peacocking at Fashion Week to building brand relationships, it always seems to be about the personal style blogger (can I get a “Marsha, Marsha, MARSHA!” ?)

As Jennine’s post on 126 Niche Fashion Blog Ideas shows, the personal style blogger is just a small, small fraction of what fashion blogging can talk about.

Why the focus on personal style bloggers?

This July I’ll have been blogging for 6 years, and when I started I had no intention of being a personal style blogger.  It seems that many bloggers started out this way, and at some point we all begin incorporating personal style into our sites.

I’d argue that the rise of fashion bloggers began with personal style bloggers: Susie Bubble, Rumi Neely, BryanBoy.  The Flickr community What I Wore (founded by Tricia Royal of Bits n’ Bobbins) grew quickly, and people jumped onto the personal style train quickly.

Six years ago, it was normal to see personal style talked about in a cultural or social context; for those daily outfits to include a DIY of how to create ombre tights or talk about what the significance of the pieces we wear.  In short: personal style blogging was as much about the life of the person behind the site as it was about the clothes they wore.

Personal style bloggers found success because it’s easy to relate to someone when you can see their face.  It’s also easier to trust their opinions about fashion when you can see them putting their words and ideas into practice.  This is likely why so many bloggers (like myself) began to incorporate their outfits into their site.  It also became an essential part of growing an audience.

So while the public things of fashion bloggers and personal style bloggers as synonymous, one look at this vast community would show otherwise.   There’s a whole wide world of bloggers out there who DON’T showcase their personal style, and that’s okay.  In fact, it’s great.

What do I do if I’m NOT a personal style blogger?

It’s OK.  It really is, and if you look at the IFB roster of contributors, you’ll recognize that there is an audience out there for your niche.  You CAN find success in fashion blogging, but it means approaching blogging from a slightly different position.

If you’re not a personal style blogger you may find growing your site and finding your audience more challenging.  You may think that IFB posts aren’t relevant to you.  This just means you need to work smarter — and differently– than those who share their outfits of the day.  Each post we share is relevant to you– it’s just a matter of spending a few minutes to think about HOW to apply that information to your site in a way that is relevant and meaningful for your own topic.

Recognize you’re in a position to establish yourself as an authority on a niche topic.  Crosby is the Girl Friday of fashion publicists and marketing.  Cora owns a leading site on lingerie, and you won’t find anyone more faithful to Repetto and James Perse than Grechen.  Authority is harder to establish when all you share is your outfits each day, but if you write about additional topics, you’ll have a much easier time doing so!

Without the “What I Wore” post, you can’t use utilize communities like Lookbook or Chictopia to grow your traffic, but you can leverage SEO so your reviews of the new Cover Girl lipsticks bring in organic traffic or others can find your picks for 6 Teal Sandals for Summer.  Many personal style bloggers under-utilize SEO because they lack written content.  Make their weakness your strength.

Remember that while personal style bloggers may be the majority, that doesn’t mean they have the greatest advantage.

Remember that while personal style bloggers may be the majority, that doesn’t mean they have the greatest advantage.  It means that the market has reached a saturation point and that it requires hard work and more creativity to stand out against the crowd.  Your site, with all of it’s unique coverage and content, positions itself to find itself its own audience.  It just may take a bit more work, outreach, and creative thinking to get the word out!

If you’re NOT a personal style blogger, what have you found helps keep you competitive, building an audience, and creating new content–without feeling discouraged? 

[Image Credit: Shutterstock.com]

Share on Facebook Retweet this

There is nothing like having a grand idea. I remember the first time I wanted to do a full day conference, even though had never done a conference before. I had thrown a few events, but nothing like orchestrating 25 speakers, getting people to attend, finding a place to host it and finding sponsors to pay for the expenses. But I did it. Not with one action, but with a series of very small actions. From sending emails, to creating outlines and brainstorming how things were to be.

It’s like that with blogging. It’s not as easy as just having a big idea then doing that one thing that makes a blog great. It’s doing all the small things like posting, tweeting, connecting with the community that make a blog great.

So when you’re getting caught up in the motions, remember that you’re working on something special, and these little things will make your efforts into something truly wonderful.

[Quote Source]

Share on Facebook Retweet this

Oh my goodness, I cannot believe we’re at 100 already! Thank you for participating in the IFB Project all this time. It began as an idea, and I had no clue we’d be doing it two years later!

Well, in the spirit of celebrating random numbers, perhaps “milestones” let’s turn our attention to the “list post.” List posts are somehow underused by fashion bloggers even though they are relatively easy to put together and have all kinds of SEO, traffic and monetizing benefits. One list post I wrote in 2008, still brings in around $200 a month in affiliates.  I’d say it was well worth putting together. Also, when it comes to posting, here on IFB we do tons of list posts, it makes the content more digestible for the readers and it helps structure the posts as well.

IFB Project #100: Write a List Post

One of my favorite mottos when it comes to writing is, “When in doubt, list it out.” Whether it be 100 reasons why you love fashion, to 10 trends to watch this season, list posts can be a lot of fun for your readers, heck, Buzzfeed made a media sensation out of the list post. So put together your favorite… anything into a post!

Instructions: Submit your post below by June 19th, and be sure to include a link to IFB  in your post (else, they can’t be featured in the roundup). And that’s it!

Share on Facebook Retweet this