Curated Social Media: The Future of Social Shopping


Image-driven fashion and beauty brands are reaping the rewards from traffic via curated social network sites like Pinterest, Fancy and Svpply. While Pinterest’s focus has never been specifically on shopping, for many, it has become a new way to share the products they love, own and wish to have. By contrast, Fancy and Svpply are entirely focused on shopping, which is their primary point of difference from Pinterest. All of these relatively new social networks, filled with tons of inspiring eye candy to keep users engaged for hours, have become powerful new outlets for brands and retailers to take advantage of. Here’s how:

1. Tap the Influencers
Many brands have experienced increased sales without even lifting a finger. Their products are being introduced into these communities by trendsetters and savvy shoppers—millions of likes, comments, and repins later, their products are spreading like wildfire. As a small fashion or beauty brand, imagine what can be accomplished by reaching out to these influencers and having them post images of your products. Fancy actually makes it easy to see who the influencers are; users earn badges by reaching a certain number of posts and get added to a top contributors list.

2. Create an Engaging Brand Presence
If you’re an image-driven brand, it does make sense to invest some time creating and maintaining a presence on at least one of these platforms. As their API’s become more advanced, you will have more tools with which to manage traffic and engage with users in new ways. Already, brands like Kate Spade are holding contests. Their recent “Ride Colorfully” contest on Pinterest gave away four custom designed Vespa lx-50’s to the users who made the best Vespa-inspired boards.

Engage fans on these platforms by posting new products frequently so your followers can get informed about launches and special deals. Also be sure to link up your blog, Twitter and Facebook to the image network you are using in order to reach all of your followers you currently have.

As experts in social media and online marketing, MSLK can help you craft a social media content plan and innovative promotions that will ignite fan engagement, so you can take full advantage of these networks.

In case you forgot or aren’t familiar with the networks covered above here’s a quick tour of the key features:


Pinterest

You are probably already familiar with Pinterest — which is essentially your online tackboard where you “pin” things up that you find interesting. Their mission is “…to connect people through common interests.” Users can upload images from their computer or pin images via the browser extension. (There’s even a moblie app for all major platforms.) Each image gets added to a board that is titled by the user. Your homepage feed consists of the newest pins of users that you follow. You have the ability like, comment, and “repin” any post.

 


Fancy

Like Pinterest, users can upload images from their computer or post images via the browser extension. Instead of “pinning” things you “fancy them” which gets added to a “list”. Each list can be titled with one of the pre-determined categories. The focus is on shopping, so on each product page, users have the ability to buy the product, become a seller, and show that you own it. Many brands have stores on Fancy and are called “Fancy Merchants.” There’s even a built-in shopping cart to purchase products that are available directly on Fancy. Fancy offers some incentives for active users:

1. Badges for people that reach a certain number of posts

2. Credit to spend in the fancy store when friends accept your invites. (25 friends will earn you $35)

 


Svpply

Svpply is extremely similar to Fancy, perhaps with even more of a focus on the products themselves. A key difference is the ability to filter by category, gender and price when looking at your feed or any user’s collection. They call their site a “curated collection of the world’s best products and stores.” Instead of pinning and fancying, you “want” things. And they have a browser extension called the “buy later” button. When you post an image you must specify a price range.