Social Media Brand Audit

Fashion Retailers Industry

Companies that compete in this industry operate physical stores that typically offer wide ranges of clothing items and accessories.

Most Popular Social Media Platforms

Instagram: This social platform highlights photos, and fashion uses photos to showcase its designs. Fashion brands can easily share new clothing and outfits through posting a photo of them on Instagram and followers will see them more easily as they go through their feeds.
Facebook: This platform has the most users of any other social media platform, so it makes sense for just about any company in any industry to have a facebook page. Facebook pages will allow companies to show new products, and interact with consumers.

Charlotte Russe

Charlotte Russe was founded in 1975, and currently has 560 locations throughout 45 states in the United States. They are headquartered in San Francisco California. They are a clothing retail chain store. The company's target audience are females that are in their late teens and women in their twenties.

On Facebook, they posted a few unpopular posts in a row, which I believe led to a decline in page likes. They started posting more popular posts after the decline in page likes, but it was not soon enough, the followers were already declining. I also believe that the growing popularity of Instagram may have taken some Facebook page likes.

I noticed the most popular posts were images of complete outfits laid out, without a model. They received the most attention. They received the most retweets and Facebook reactions in comparison to other posts. They only posted this type of content on their twitter and on their Facebook, and did not post them on Instagram.

Charlotte Russe effectively leverages positive user feedback by retweeting positive tweets from customers, and brand fans. They don’t really use much other consumer engagement. Throughout the audit, after viewing several posts, only one comment response was seen.

Posts that appeared to be least effective were photos that showed two different looks in one. Perhaps people didn’t like one of the looks, so they chose not to like the photos. Images showing two or more outfits received the least amount of likes and shares and comments. Another type of post that seemed to receive less attention were posts that related to plus size product. Other posts that were not very successful didn’t have a specific pattern to them. The product and fashion that was shown in those posts were probably just not as favorable as other products.

There appeared to be no negative comments or negative attention on any of the posts that were made by the company. Either there was no negative reactions, or the company hid those comments or deleted them. However, there were negative posts to the page complaining about customer service in store and online, and a few other complaints. Charlotte Russe handled these complaints by apologizing for their bad experience(s) and asking them to direct message them so that they can assist them.

Wet Seal

Wet seal was founded in 1962 and is headquartered in Foothill Ranch California. They are a clothing retail chain store. They sell clothing targeted towards young women. Wet seal sells lower cost apparel and economy priced brand apparel. The company also designs and sells as its own apparel and accessories in its stores. Wet Seal’s target audience are young women in their teens and in their twenties.

Most of the posts made by Wet Seal didn’t seem to very successful. They did not receive many comments, shares or likes. No specific posts could be a reason for the decline in followers, as the collection of posts appear to be about as equally unpopular.

Most of their posts were not very successful, but the ones that seemed to work more than others were posts that had specific products with a link to buy. And their facebook posts that had multiple separate photos of different products with the shopping link to purchase. Another type of post that appeared to be more successful than others were photos with an outfit laid out without a model.

Wet seal doesn’t leverage positive user feedback very well. They have very few retweets of consumers and/or followers with positive comments about their brand.

Almost all of the posts were not very successful, and did not receive very much attention. It is difficult to differentiate what was less successful than other posts because all of these posts received between 4-17 likes, making them appear to be almost equally unsuccessful. Although most posts are different, so it is difficult to pinpoint an exact type of post that is unsuccessful, there is one type that proves to be continuously unsuccessful, this type of post is a photo with information indicating a sale, with no examples of products.

There were comments on posts of consumers that were struggling to purchase items online, and having issues with coupon codes that were shown in the post. Most of the comments are left un-responded to. Unrelated to the company’s posts, there are many consumer posts to the page with complaints and issues. Wet seal appears to take a while to respond to these individuals, if at all.

Summary

What seemed to be most effective for both brands appears to be photos of outfits laid out without a model. This might be more effective because you are able to focus in on the outfit instead of being distracted by the model, or the background of the model. This tactic may also be more effective because the consumers/followers don’t see a skinny beautiful model wearing the clothes, so the image feels more relatable to them, and they don’t have to feel like they won’t look as good in the outfit as the model wearing it in the photos.

Other tactics by the brands include showing photos of product, with links to shop, and photos informing followers of sales. The photos of product varies on effectiveness, which I believe is based on how they are accepted by consumers and followers. It is very possible that a clothing product they post may only be appealing to a smaller number of individuals. Sale posts don’t appear to have that great of reactions on social media, but it is possible that individuals see the link and click to shop, but don’t actually give attention to the posts.

Of the two brands, Charlotte Russe is the clear winner. Charlotte Russe did have a decline in Facebook page likes, but have increased both their Instagram and twitter followers. While Wet Seal has a decline in all three social media platforms. Charlotte Russe also has a lot more attention on their posts. Charlotte Russe also responds quickly and more frequently to consumers and followers.

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