‘Let your audience tell your story for you’

Fashion has come a bit late to the party on social media but now there’s a scramble to be au courant. But where does one put their energies and can it ever really have an effect on your sales?

This brave new world of online, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and the like is a great democratiser. You can punch well above your weight in marketing terms, using tiny budgets. It comes down to understanding your audience and creating relevant, useful and interesting content.

Brands that get it right know what gets their audience excited and what stories are the most motivating.Rapha, the cycling clothing brand, has done this very successfully, creating a wealth of rich content on its site for cycling enthusiasts of all levels but also extending offline into real teams their audience can join.

Every piece of brand communication, whether it’s an app or a blog post or an event, should serve a purpose. Then of course your audience will share it, own it and use it to reflect their personality. If your budgets are limited, what better way to spread the story of your brand than to let your audience do it for you?

Get it right and you’ll soon have an army of advocates doing the marketing for you.

• Julie McKeen, Co-founder of Peaks of London: Breastfeeding for the Sartorially Minded, and former co-director, TBWA