A strategic plan to inform emerging fashion retailers about social media research and best practices. 2 Proposal Overview Social media can take the form of various outlets, including, but not limited to: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, etc. Each social media platform has its specific use and benefits, with a wide range of active users. It is important to note that successful retailers are using these online strategies to penetrate new markets, to champion for social media movements, and to effectively develop connections with consumers. In this social media blueprint, we suggest using Instagram as our company’s main social media platform. Our primary research examines H&M, Topshop, and Uniqlo’s Instagram accounts and revealed the importance of using models, creating effective hashtags, and providing customer service. The secondary research presents the best practices of social media and how the public and specific individuals view social media. To conclude the proposal, we will provide a comprehensive strategy that includes a detailed plan with suggestions for a stellar social media presence. Primary Research Summary & Key Takeaways We have compiled the following key takeaways using Instagram. Our primary research includes a variety of retailers who specialize in different products and promote to diverse markets. These three key findings will provide an all-encompassing approach which will ultimately tie into our strategic recommendations going forward. #1: Using models to showcase the retailer's products increases follower satisfactions. Each one of our retailers uses this form of posting. The following three pictures are example images used by retailers to promote their products through outfit modeling. Our retailers provide consumers with the option to directly purchase clothing, accessories, and shoes via online portals. These types of posts provide followers with a visualization of how the products will look once worn, which is part of the purchasing decision many consumers take into account. In addition, these types of images also provide outfit inspirations when consumers are in need of assistance with outfit coordination. (Uniqlo) (H&M) (Topshop) 3 #2: The use of hashtags connects posts to a broader conversation and trend. Our retailers use various hashtags that either connected their post to an on-going product line, style, event, or motto and “catchphrase”. For example, Uniqlo wants to be known for their fashionable, yet simple clothing. Their hashtag, #simplemadebetter, allows Uniqlo to actively promote the company’s business strategy of revamping basic clothing to make it ‘better’ quality and more fashion forward. London Fashion Week is one of the most prominent events in the fashion industry, known to set the latest fashion trends. The #LFW (London Fashion Week) establishes Topshop as a brand that is compatible against the haute couture f.

1. A strategic plan to inform emerging fashion
retailers
about social media research and best practices.
2
Proposal Overview
Social media can take the form of various outlets,
including, but not limited to: Instagram,
Facebook,Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, etc. Each social
media platform has its specific use and
benefits, with a wide range of active users. It
is important to note that successfulretailers are
using theseonline strategies to penetrate new
markets, to champion for social media
movements, and to effectively develop connections
with consumers.

2. In this social media blueprint, we suggest using
Instagram as our company’s main social media
platform. Our primary research examines H&M,
Topshop, and Uniqlo’s Instagram accounts and
revealed the importance of using models,
creating effective hashtags, and providing customer
service. The secondary research presents the best
practices of social media and how the public
and specific individuals view social media. To
conclude the proposal, we will provide a
comprehensive strategy that includes a detailed plan
with suggestions for a stellar social media
presence.
Primary Research Summary & Key Takeaways
We have compiled the following key takeawaysusing
Instagram. Our primary research includes
a variety of retailers who specialize in different
products and promote to diverse markets.
These threekey findings will provide an all-
encompassing approach which will ultimately tie
into our strategic recommendations going forward.
#1: Using models to showcase the retailer's
products increases follower satisfactions. Each one
of our retailers uses this form of posting. The
following threepictures are example images used

3. by retailers to promote their products through outfit
modeling. Our retailers provide
consumers with the option to directly purchase
clothing, accessories, and shoes via online
portals. These types of postsprovide followers
with a visualization of how the products will
look
once worn, which is part of the purchasing
decision many consumers take into account. In
addition, thesetypes of images also provide outfit
inspirations when consumers are in need of
assistance with outfit coordination.
(Uniqlo) (H&M) (Topshop)
3
#2: The use of hashtags connects poststo a broader
conversation and trend. Our retailers use
various hashtags that either connected their post to an
on-going product line, style, event, or
motto and “catchphrase”. For example, Uniqlo wants
to be known for their fashionable, yet
simple clothing. Their hashtag, #simplemadebetter,
allows Uniqlo to actively promote the
company’s business strategy of revamping basic
clothing to make it ‘better’ quality and
more
fashion forward. London Fashion Week is one of
the most prominent events in the fashion

4. industry, known to set the latest fashion trends.
The #LFW (London Fashion Week) establishes
Topshop as a brand that is compatible against
the haute couture fashion houses in the
latest
trends, it also streams to audiences the latest
fashion trends and Topshop’s newest
products.
Furthermore, hashtags, such as #HMSport and
#TopshopUnique are both tags that are specific
to the H&M and Topshop brand. This form of
hashtag allows brands to promote different
styles
within its product line, but also help crowdsource
contents from its users. Individualuserscan
associate themselves with the brand by adding
thesebrand specific tags to their posts.
Through
the use of a single hashtag, we can instantly
connect with a broad spectrum of audiences.
#3: Social media is used as a forum for
followers to inquire about the availability of
individual
products, product lines, or just general customer
service oriented support. In the following
images, you can see the exchange of questions and
answers, if provided by the retailer. It is
important to note that thesetypes of exchanges
facilitate brand awareness and fatigue, as
those who inquiry expect a quick response. If
a timely and effective answer is given,

5. consumers
are more likely to trust and continue purchasing
from the retailer.
Being able to acknowledge and understand the
reasoning and benefits behind each post type is
a crucial element to dominating each social
media outlet. Consumers want a variety of
content
that can engage their interest and satisfy their needs.
Instagram provides a diverse selection of
features that can assist retailers in entertaining
and intriguing their followers, such as, the
ability to connect poststo previous conversations
and trends to help create a holistic and
4
historical record. Even with all of thesehelpful
features, it is still up to the retailers to
provide
content that will engage its audience and maintain a
connection with them. Paying extra
attention to followers by answering their questions and
concerns, will help maintain our
position as a seller who is dedicated to
fulfilling the needs of its buyers. The above
primary
research findings are just someof the efficient and
effective strategies of successfulsocial

6. media practices. We will continue to discuss other
strategies for beginning and sustaining a
positive social media presence throughout this
proposal.
Secondary Research Summary & Key Takeaways
Social media platforms serve as instant access
to observe patterns and trends. While our
primary research served as a greatstarting point,
combining secondary research, sources that
can back our claims with educated studies and
evidences, creates a more sustainable and
efficient recommendation. Here are someof the key
takeawaysthat we gained from our
secondary sources and the reason behind their
importance:
#1: Customers can possibly base their apparel
purchase on company advertisements and/or the
models/celebrities who wear the clothing items.
Fortunately for us, research by authors Philine
Cao, Dr. Sandra Meister, and Dr. Oliver Klante
documented their findings on this very subject in
the journal article, “How Social Media
Influence Apparel Purchasing Behavior.”
The authors - who are well educated in marketing
and strategic sourcing - conducted an
experiment in Germany to see the level of
influence social media has on women’s

7. shopping
behavior and preferred methods of purchase: online
versus in-store. The authors categorized
consumers’ decision making process into the
following five phases:
The authors conducted an online survey using a
five-point rating for each of the phases. The
sample included 194 women with at least one social
media account; somewomen were college
students or professionals. Facebook,Instagram, and
Pinterest were chosen as the social media
platforms.After the data was collected, the authors
discovered that “social medias are
significantly more relevant for activities during the
stages of need recognition, information
search, and alternative evaluation than for
commenting on others’ clothes.” This article
also
found that a women’s reactions to clothing is
strongly influenced by the person who is
wearing
the clothing. This type of advertising by
bloggers/celebrities have the potential to bring
more
recognition to our company’s brand because
consumers may be more inclined to purchase
from a company that one of their favorite celebrities
endorses. Communication through social
media from us to our happy clients is key to
our company’s sales.
#2: As seen in our primary research, the hashtag is
a powerful social media marketing tool with

8. multiple functions that can be used to expand our
brand’s area of influence. Hashtags are used
to represent and cross-promote the company and its
values. Secondary research articles
confirm our initial findings on the importance of
hashtags: In the Business.com article entitled,
5
“7 Ways to Harness the Power of Hashtags,”
Andy Beohar recognizes a hashtag’s
importance
and gives seven tips on how to use them
effectively. According to Beohar, the seven
ways to
using hashtags have the potential to do the
following: start conversations, cross-promote
across social networks, crowdsource the company’s
content, provide feedback, narrow
audiences down to certain locations, go live at
events, and keep up with and stick to trends.
The
ultimate result of using hashtags should be to
“make people stop and read,” which will
give our
company visibility and bolster profits.
#3: To have social media as an essential part of
our company’s marketing strategy is good,
but it
is more important to know how to use it

9. effectively to help our business grow. John
Rampton,
an entrepreneur and self-proclaimed online
influencer, provides several strategies on
effective
harnessing the power of social media
effectiveness in his article, “10 Effective
Strategies To
Leverage Social Media For New Customers.” If
we were to follow along with the strategies he
proposed, we could engage with our customers via
social media by finding out what they like
best about our brand and what we could do to
improve our service. Rampton’s otherstrategies
include customer discounts or free offers and quick
responses to inquiries made on social
media. Ultimately, our company should use social
media to growour customer base while
successfully holding on to the customers we already
have.
Strategy for Implementation
To simplify our recommended implementation, we
have included a 6 month schedule of
activities on how we intend to implement our
social media strategy. This model can be
enhanced in future endeavors, sinceit includes
planning, implementation, effective analysis,
and revisions.
Phase Activity Description

10. Phase 1: Strategic
Planning
(1 month)
Create an Instagram account
Establish a strong company hashtag
Contact influential social media
personnel
Simple and catchy username
Unique & representative
Encourages collaboration, brand
awareness & recognition
6
Create a post schedule with at least
2 weeks of content
Set a customer interaction guideline

11. This will help with creating a
stable and active feed
This will be used in P3 to measure
media effectiveness
Phase 2:
Implementation
(3 months)
Implement planned activities;
closely monitor and determine how
oftento post new information
Include temporary promo codes in
posts
Keeps us engaged with our
followers by promotingclothing
trends in accordance to our
strategic plan
Gives customers reasons to stay
connected with our company’s
page by providing discounted
purchases and free items
Phase 3: Inquiry
Follower Base
(1 month)
Survey followers on all activities

12. implemented; provide incentives to
followers for completing the
questionnaire
Inspect customer satisfaction
Query on the effectiveness of
current posts
Examine what items are most
popular to produce, sell, and
promote theseitems more
Determine what followers want to
receive from our retailer
Phase 4:
Continuation of
Strategy with
Revisions
(1 month)
Use data from survey to improve or
switch strategies in branding
Create a post schedule for the next
2 weeks, incorporating the findings

13. Continue with current strategy or
revisit strategy to address survey
results and make
additions/improvements
Making changes can be difficult,
establishing a strong schedule will
relieve pressure and help our
retailer find our strategic rhythm
After Phase 4, the process starts again at
Phase 2. However, the necessary changes need to
be
taken in the schedule to accommodate newly
incorporated topics/findings.
Duration of each phase can be increased/decreased
dependingon the capacity of the social
media strategy team.
As we continue our social media campaign,this
model can be used to strategically plan for
additional social media platforms like Facebook,
Twitter, Tumblr, etc. Similar stepswill be taken
to begin our exposure in each social media
platform when deemed necessary.
7

14. Conclusion
Social media is a powerful tool that transfers
information faster than ever across the globe,
bringing with it a wealth of opportunities for
individuals to hear and be heard in a
whole new
way. Our company would do well to adapt to
the changes that come with the ever-evolving
methods of online communication.
Using an Instagram account and incorporating
effective hashtags will help to give our company
more visibility to the public, thus increasingour
customer base and ensuring that we remain
responsive and aware of what our current
clientele wants and desires from us as a
brand. More
importantly, our company can avoid becoming
outdated and unaware of current trends, which
will make our company less competitive with other
clothing companies, resulting in loss of
market share. Being available to effectively
interact with our customers shows our commitment
to providing the best customer service we can offer.
We must go to our consumer base.
Instagram is a direct outlet that will allow us
to penetrate a new area. In doing so, we
will be
more profitable because we will be marketing our brand
and products on a level easily

15. accessible to our consumers.
We hope you take our research and strategic
recommendations into consideration and that you
approve our proposal. Please do not hesitate in
reaching out to our team in regards to
questions or concerns.
Thank you for your time and consideration in this
matter.
NEW STYLE
Social Media Report
Report Overview
Social media is a very important way for a company to publicize
their product, it is also important for a person who wants to

16. know something or wang to share something. Especially for the
business, every product needs to be publicized, and the social
media is the most important way to share or show something to
their customers.
This report analyzed the Nike’s Twitter and their posted history
and the types of what they posted. I have collected the
information of their Twitter and what their customers said and
like for the past week. I want to understand my competitor’s
concepts and ways for social media to get a better experience
for my customers.
Research Method
Over a week, I have focused on my competitor’s Twitter and
collected some information. This is the list:
1. What type of their posted is most be liked by their customer
2. How often they would post
3. Which type of content is most popular by customer.
About Twitter.
In nowadays, there are a lot of person and companies will use
twitter to be their social media tools. The companies use twitter
to publicize their products, they use twitter share some stories
to encourage young people. Their customer will take comments
and likes for what they interested about. They also can forward
some twitters if they want.

17. Number of Posts and Followers
On their titter, they won’t post something as soon as possible
when they have a new product or some news. They might post
only two or three within one week. But something there will be
more than three
They have posted 35.7 thousand twitters and they have more
than seven million followers. And we can find over Nike
created the twitter, their followers is increased by time faster.
What they posted on the twitter is some more and more and the
comment will involved many different fields not just about their
product or something else.
Types of posts
Nike have posted a lot of twitters, but there are many different
type of their posts and for each different type, their followers
also have different responds.
1. Nike will post some twitters with their products, some is
their new but some thing is not new. For this type, it’s more

18. like an advertisement to publicize their product.
2.
3. 2. They also posted some videos or article with some
inspirational content. Because most of their customer are
teenagers, so they might want to share some positive thing to
their customer.
4.
2. They would post some content which is about like styles.
Nike want to share some positive and active life for their
followers. That is a very good way to have resonance with their

19. followers
Conclusion
Base on my observation, Nike post their twitter by many types.
They post some inspirational twitters even more than their
products. Because that might more easy to have resonance with
people and almost everyone will like those kind of comment.
That is a very smart way, they use that to abstract their
followers and let them think they have many same like
philosophy. I will study from that because that might more
important than just publicize the products.
Secondary Research Chart
For this assignment, you will find at least two (2) reputable
sources on the topic of social media use for fashion
brands/businesses. At least one should be an academic source
from a peer reviewed journal. The other may be non academic
sources from reputable sources like The New York Times, The
Washington Post, etc. If you are unsure of the appropriateness
of a source, just ask me.
Search phrases to consider: “social media business best
practices”, “social media business branding”, “social media
business marketing”, “social media brand awareness”, “social
media fashion industry”, “social media fashion brands”,
“influencer marketing”, “social media celebrity endorsements”
Once you have your sources, please fill out a blank chart for
each of your sources.
This assignment is graded on completion and thoughtfulness.
Example Chart
Bibliographic Citation of source
Rutigliano, Karina Tama -. “How To Leverage Instagram By

20. Using Influencer Marketing.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 17 Jan.
2019,
www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2019/01/17
/how-to-leverage-instagram-by-using-influencer-
marketing/#c75dbfc51c8a.
What type of source is this?
Popular news media Forbes magazine
How credible is the author? What makes them credible?
Karina Tama-Rutigliano is a Digital Marketing Strategist
Write a brief summary of the source (in your own words).
This article examines how businesses can use influencer
marketing to get the most out of Instagram. It features a step by
step guide for how businesses can find the right influencers to
work with, negotiating payment terms, creating effective
collaboration, and the legal side of sponsored posts.
Write a brief description of how this source will be helpful to
you in the proposal document.
This article will help me illustrate the steps I think my company
should take to build relationships with influencers and how we
should structure our influencer arrangement.
Provide at least one quote (including parenthetical citation)
from the source that will be useful to include in the proposal.
“Be aware that the brand you’re partnering with created a
marketing style that drew their followers. In working together,
you won’t want to deviate too much from that. Give the brand
room to dovetail your brands and don’t try to micromanage the
entire process.” (Rutigliano)
Source #1
Bibliographic Citation of source
What type of source is this?
How credible is the author? What makes them credible?
Write a brief summary of the source (in your own words).

21. Write a brief description of how this source will be helpful to
you in the proposal document.
Provide at least one quote (including parenthetical citation)
from the source that will be useful to include in the proposal.
Source #2
Bibliographic Citation of source
What type of source is this?
How credible is the author? What makes them credible?
Write a brief summary of the source (in your own words).
Write a brief description of how this source will be helpful to
you in the proposal document.
Provide at least one quote (including parenthetical citation)
from the source that will be useful to include in the proposal.
Proposal
Overview: Drawing from the research findings you previously
shared in your report, you will prepare a persuasive proposal (4-
6 single spaced pages, 11-12point font, not including title page,
table of contents, etc).
This proposal should outline and suggest a specific plan for

22. preparing a social media campaign for your company.
Remember that your company is a new up-and-coming company
that does not yet have a social media presence.
Path to Completion: You will continue to use the primary
research from your report as examples. The proposal will also
require you to search for and use secondary research sources to
support your recommendations.
Audience: Your audience for this project is the Social Media
Communications Committee, which includes the company’s
CEO and CTO. This is a different audience than the report! This
time, you should not need to focus on explaining general
information about social media.
Purpose: Your goal in this proposal is to advocate for a specific
course of action of what your company should do to use social
media effectively.
You are not only presenting or positioning information for
decision makers (as you did in the report project), but this time
you are also presenting a persuasive case about developing and
implementing a social media campaign that is responsive to the
company’s needs.
When drafting the proposal please remember to review
models/samples of other proposals as a way to plan and guide
your writing. Reading chapter 8 in the book will help you
understand this assignment – make sure you read it many times
throughout the proposal project process.
Required Elements:
Regardless of how you choose to draft and organize the
proposal, your project is required to have these sections:

23. Title Page
Introduce yourself, the business, and the main social media
marketing strategy
Introduction
A brief overview or summary of the project that includes your
purpose for drafting the proposal. Do not include information
that the audience would know (i.e. information about your
company, general information about social media platforms,
etc.)
Primary Research
The most important/ persuasivedata and facts pulled from your
report
Secondary Research
At least two outside sources pulled from your secondary
research worksheets
Strategy for
Implementation
Persuasive appeals that invite the reader to act on the
information presented. Consider including a timeline, budget, or
other action items that indicate the next steps in your plan of
action. This is where you tell your audience HOW to make your
plan happen
Conclusion
End with strength: summarize main points, look to the future,
and thank readers for their time.
Grading Criteria:
In addition to the criteria specified in the WPC Written
Communication Rubric, in order to earn an “A” on this
assignment, your report should:
· Demonstrate audience awareness through tone and content
choices
· Follow the Genre Pattern to organize ideas and sections
logically

24. · Eliminate unnecessary repetitions or redundancies in the
document by using the Paramedic Method
· Use visual content effectively by explaining and
contextualizing images and graphs
· Integrate secondary sources effectively and seamlessly
· Follow the principles of design (contrast, repetition,
alignment, proximity) to create a visually pleasing and effective
document
· Cite and attribute outside sources properly throughout the
body of the document (There is no need for a Works Cited at the
end…generally you don’t see bibliographies or works cited in
business documents unless someone specifically asks for it)
Your final draft of your report should also be free of any
unnecessary errors and/or discrepancies that might undercut
your ethos or credibility as a writer