360DigitalInfluence

For an industry that makes its money on figuring out what’s next, fashion companies have notoriously — and surprisingly — lagged behind when it comes to social media. Whether it’s a luxury brand that’s worried about diluting its exclusive status or smaller shops that have had a hard time making a dent in the vast Web, other industries have surged ahead while fashion figured out what to make — and how to make the most — of the social media movement.

How times have changed. In hopes that a concentrated effort means a quicker catch-up, many retailers and brands are now eager to put social media front and foremost. Here are a few of the key trends heating up the space (after the jump). Finally, for a change, other industries might do well to follow fashion’s social media lead.

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With the iPhone’s recent migration to Verizon and the iPad2 on top of every techie (and aspiring techie — we’re looking at you, mom) “must have” list, there’s a flood of new i-users trying to navigate the crowded app marketplace. We put our heads — okay, our mobile devices — together to come up with a list of some of our most-used iPad and iPhone apps that we think newbies will want to get their fingers on, stat.

Find a few of our top picks after the jump. What are yours?

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The forces behind DC Digital Capital Week — the 8-day tech fest that debuted to much fanfare last summer in the nation’s capital — knew that for round #2, they’d have to make an even bigger splash. So they chose 1/11/11 to unveil the 2011 incarnation of the event, scheduled for Nov 4-11, 2011. Cofounder Peter Corbett, head of D.C.-based interactive firm iStrategyLabs, sat down to give the scoop on five key updates for this year’s DCWeek, v2.0.

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If you watched the Golden Globes sans computer, you were missing out. Because beyond Ricky Gervais’ awkward one-liners and Natalie Portman’s awkward thank yous, there was a raging flood of original commentary and snarky play-by-play happening on Twitter.

But you don’t have to take our (celebrity-loving) word for it: According to Trendistic.com, 9 of the top 10 topics on show night were related to the Golden Globes, and 18 of the top 20 as well. (The non-Globes hot topic? The Jets. Seems rabid playoff fans still trump red carpet fashions.) Anyone who logged in to Twitter.com during the three-hour airtime was immediately greeted by a barrage of banter about what was happening on the TV, down to the most minute of details (poor Susanne Bier, the Danish director who won Best Foreign Film for her flick “In a Better World,” who will best be known — at least in the Twitterverse — as “the lady who flashed her Spanx onstage”).

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Call ‘em the Click-Change Artists. A new social media movement centers around the notion that doing good no longer requires rolling up your sleeves at the soup kitchen or seeking out neighborhood artists to support (though we’d certainly never disparage such types of old-fashioned philanthropy). The web now offers a new way for too-busy types to donate their time — and bucks — to feel-good enterprises. And, judging by the response, social media enthusiasts are more than happy to oblige.

Case in point: Social media phenom The Pepsi Refresh Project — where webizens vote for what social causes they think should receive a donation from the soda giant — has now garnered more votes than the last Presidential election. Other sites like mammoth microlending facilitator Kiva.org allows Bob in Boise to pledge a small sum (starting at $25) to a fledgling businessman in rural Africa — and nearly 800,000 people have forked over $160M on the site to date. Later this year, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes expects to launch non-profit-focused networking site Jumo.com, aimed at directly pairing up regular people and hard-working organizations on the ground in needy spots like Haiti.

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I came to Ogilvy 360 DI — and social media strategy — via a slightly different route than most of my colleagues. In short, I was a longtime blogger (and journo) who’d become frustrated at how poorly blog outreach was being handled by brands that, under any other circumstance, would’ve been impeccable with their approach. They’d finessed relationships with the press and customers, but when it came to bloggers, they ended up botching it completely (clunky outreach, poor planning, uneven execution) — and as a result, not capitalizing on all that blogs and social media could offer. Ogilvy was the first place I saw that truly got that blogger relationships were not a one-size-fits-all kind of endeavor. I signed on for the job.

Even though I’m now at Ogilvy, I’m still a blogger — my fashion blog, FashionisSpinach.com, has been tapped for a wide number of influencer campaigns for brands like Chanel and Gucci — and I’m still the target for many brands stepping into the social media sphere. Not a day goes by when I’m not completely amazed at how companies try to use clunky PR methods to reach out to bloggers like me.

Here are three of my most frequently seen pitfalls.

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