The Rise of Fashion Influencers: Shaping Trends and Consumer Behavior

The internet has brought forth a lot of good to the world. In the democratization of, well, everything, what was closed off and reserved for a select few is now open to the masses. The floodgates have opened, the barriers to entry have fallen and regular ol’ people are changing the face of how the fashion business transacts, and making a lot of money while doing so.

How do I grow a follower base in the fashion + lifestyle space while monetizing my brand’s content? Great question! How about overcoming pain points to create consistent and engaging content? Oh, and actionable items on how to collaborate with brands to help you (both) sell more products, you ask? I got you!

Growing a Follower Base from the Ground Up

Growing a follower base is likely the first line of duty that most aspiring brand builders will shy away from and give up on if they don’t see instant results. NEWSFLASH: This stuff takes time! 10k followers ain’t gonna cut it long term unless there is sincere interest (more on that later) and a genuine respect for what your brand is doing.

Luckily, you have been working on this for a while — eh, eh? And even if you haven’t, you are going to want to do the following to create a solid foundation for your fashion + culture social media empire.

Build It (Your Brand) and They Will Come

Building a strong brand starts with YOU. Defining your unique style, voice and values are going to pay for themselves many times over as you get out there and hustle your biz.

Remember, people seek authentic and relatable content. This is factual information and unarguably true. The more you can be you, the more your followers will show confidence that where they are hanging out is where they need to be — on your brand’s page.

You are in the enviable position as a brand owner to let your interests and passions shine and resonate with others simply by you doing you — customers will continue to hang around (and buy stuff) if they sense what you are doing is undeniably unique and genuine. The realness resonates. Don’t lose track of this golden nugget!

Network and Collaborate 

Building your brand will necessitate some face-to-face time with people in your industry. Not wild about trade shows or breaking the ice with complete strangers? Swap face-to-face with screen-to-screen and you’ve broken into the scene virtually. Either way, you are going to need to attend fashion industry events to network with designers, photographers, models, and influencers adjacent to what you are doing with your brand — it’s just part of it.

Consistent Posting Schedule

Consumers — and producers for that matter — are creatures of habit. Schedules are generally regimented, and your job as a brand builder is to break through the noise and get in front of your customer on a consistent basis. Not only does this involve creating crispy-fresh content, but it must be delivered on time and as promised.

Luckily, there are scheduling tools available to plan and automate posts and Stories so you can sip your cold brew and plan your next move — Have you met Manychat?

Analyze and Adapt 

Brand builders, influencers, and content creators wear many hats. In the beginning stages, you will be tasked to create the framework for your brand’s image, mission, vibe, etc., and to be a little bit of a statistician as well.

Successful brands are always looking at ways to better engage their audience, for obvious reasons. Even when you’ve hit a stride and the numbers are racing, there is always a variable that is driving the growth and you will want to capture it. Maybe it was the merch drop, the TikTok Live sesh, the branded content post, that influencer collab. Something is doing the work, finding it is the key.

See: A/B testing, click-through rates, retention on IG/TikTok Analytics.

TikTok Quick Tips for Building Brand

TikTok is driven by Trends. A way to capture the moment is by creating high-quality (get out that ring light and polish up your editing skills) content that includes:

Fashion Tips and Tutorials: Styling advice, wardrobe hacks, how to be a fashionista without even trying — you know the drill.

Behind the Scenes Content: Pull back the curtain of fashion shows, photo shoots, and the design process to inspire your audience to try the process themselves.

Transformations: Before and afters are still a trendsetter’s go-to. Doll up, dress up, and get out there to where the cool kids are.

Collaborations with Fellow Influencers: The days of being toxically competitive are over — there’s space for everyone and your best asset is being friendly and optimistic on where your brand is headed (Duet anybody?).

Instagram Hot Tips for Building Brand

With about ¼ of the world’s population scouring Instagram monthly (about 2 billion people 👀), you would be a silly goose not to take a gander at the potential that IG has for building your brand. (Corny. We know, but we love a good allusion.) 🪿

IG Stories and Highlights: In between soaking in some sweet, sweet algorithmic excellence, people are still navigating to pages and poking around. Make sure you are posting a fashion + lifestyle Story daily and archiving them in a nicely curated Highlights section as well.

Engage, Engage, Engage: It sounds redundant (because it is) but responding to comments, DMs, and mentions is essential to keeping your brand in the mix and satisfying the algorithmic powers that be.

Utilize Instagram Shopping: Every brand needs a little swag(ger). Once you’re ready to hype your own branded products, Instagram shopping is the perfect place. Just tag the products in your posts and collabs, link them to your marketplace, and watch sales pour in.

Monetizing Fashion + Lifestyle Content on Social Media

You are here to sell something. Maybe it’s a product, a lifestyle, a clothing line, a fashion company. This is what we call brand in the biz, and now more than ever is the time to sell online. Here’s a primer on how to accomplish just that:

Define your Brand and Identity: First things first, you’ve got to have a cohesive brand identity. No worries if you haven’t gotten there yet. Try some yoga in the woods, have a yerba mate out of a gourd, do some soul searching and figure out your approach to present your beautiful idea to the world.

Produce Your Merchandise: There are so many resources for making gear and merch online it’s admittedly dizzying at times. Want to do a run of shirts? Stickers? Customized bags? Check out CustomInk or StickerMule. DIY types, check out button makers and screen printing kits for street cred and experimentation rights.

Set up your Online Store: Both TikTok and Instagram have marketplace features but why stop there? Woocommerce, Shopify, and Etsy have some really nice and user friendly options for selling your next ‘fit.

Promoting your Merchandise through Social Media

So you’ve got a box of branded shirts, hoodies, and hats that are the flyest thing since modern aviation — almost there! You are going to have to promote your fresh goods to the masses, and here’s how:

Collaborate and Cross-Promote: You are going to want to create video promos and take quality photos of the new garb. A lot of brands will give away merchandise to fellow influencers and collaborators and get some promotional material in exchange. Use Stories, Reels, TikTok Live to help get the word out.

Contests and Giveaways: These are leveraged by fashion and lifestyle influencers to create a bit of hype while getting out their brand to the peeps. Encouraging people to @ your brand will spread your reach even further and give opportunity for user-generated content, which is always a hit. Reposting such content helps build community and provides legitimacy to your brand as well.

Limited Time Offers / $pecial Deal$: Selling your brand is part business acumen and part resourcefulness. Creating a sense of urgency on a limited release item is gold for selling goods. YOLO, BOGO, get ‘em while they’re hot, people!

Paid Advertising: TikTok Ads manager, Instagram Ads, and Snapchat Ads manager are user friendly and inexpensive ways to get your product and brand out to a larger audience. You can select demographics such as city, interests, and age group to effectively target the people you want to see wearing your gear.

Need inspo? Check out these 15 Fashion Influencers you are going to want to follow

Challenges in Creating Consistent and Engaging Content

When talking about creating consistent and engaging content for your fashion + lifestyle brand, it’s important to look at the challenges influencers face. The following pain points will give you an idea of the hurdles creators and brand owners may encounter:

Content Burnout: Pace yourself. It’s not a race but a marathon. Continuously making fresh and creative content can be exhausting.

Tip: Inspiration can come from any number of sources. Keep it fresh by going on a tech detox weekend retreat to the forest, go to an art exhibit, take a walk, eat pierogies. Get out of your routine for a minute and watch as your creative mojo returns with a new found glory.

Retaining Audience Engagement: It’s tough to balance everything and maintaining your audience’s attention in the long run is a true challenge.

Tip: You must learn a basketball basic here: The Pivot. It’s important that you can adapt and not take a failed post or Story too personally. Engage with your audience and they will feed your creativity over time.

Balancing Authenticity and Trends: Yes, you will have to bend sometimes to meet the expectations of your audience. Yes, that means finding a trend and hopping on the train.

Tip: Again, this is your brand, your creation, your destiny. With the sheer abundance of content creators and influencers entering the fashion + lifestyle industry through social media, there is a place for everyone. Better yet, there is space for everyone to create trends that are genuinely their own.

Changes in the Algorithm: Does it ever feel like once you’ve got the algo’ down it changes? That means it’s doing the thing it’s supposed to do. Out with the old and in with the new!

Tip: Check out influencers and brands outside of your industry for inspiration. What are they doing that people aren’t in your community? Adjust your strategy and do some A/B testing. What you might be convinced won’t have a place could be the thing that helps you carve out your niche and satisfy the algorithmic powers that be.

Additional Hacks for Keepin’ it Fresh

Create a Routine and Plan Ahead: At first it might feel daunting, but seeing what’s on the horizon is a great strategy to stave off content production anxieties. Through the process you will glean inspiration simply by putting a loose schedule down on paper to start (or a Google doc).

Engage with Diverse Influencers Across Industries: There is nothing like getting stuck in a redundant feedback loop. It is the definition of becoming stale. Don’t do that. Instead, reach out to influencers outside of the fashion + culture world and see what they are doing that might resonate with you. Influencers in beauty, food, and travel are doing similar activities to you, but with their own twist.

Other Online Platforms and Tools: Your go-to platform for achieving audience engagement can sometimes leave you wanting more. Inspiration can go beyond scouring Pinterest for inspo as well. Check out Figma and Miro for some nice templates to create your own moodboards.

Brand Collaboration 101

When looking for avenues to market your fashion + lifestyle brand, a collab just makes intuitive sense — ideally, you respect each other’s work, you enjoy each other’s company, and you see a bright future together. You want to be partners in your shared pursuits.

As a reminder, in the fashion and lifestyle influencer space, professional and consistent branding is key. So, before you start reaching out to collaborators, make sure your profile is sharp and cohesive. I would suggest using a graphic designer for your core brand assets for continuity’s sake.

Creating a Media Kit

Showcasing your value will entail sharing your bio, social media stats, audience demographics, and examples of your best work to entice prospective collaborators. Make sure to highlight past collaborations (if you have them) and positive outcomes that would influence a collaborator to jump on board. Media kits should appear professionally designed, and don’t forget to include your contact info and social media presence as well.

Reach Out to Brands 

Ok, so you have a nice tidy media kit ready to share with prospective brand collaborators… Now what? In the world of brand and business, an unsolicited email sent from a complete stranger is frowned upon, and if it reeks of copy/paste, its home will be the spam folder. To increase the odds of getting a reply:

Create a Personalized Pitch: A personalized email or DM to brands of interest will only go as far as the effort you are willing to put into the communication. Take the time to introduce yourself, explain why you love their brand and how your collab can add value to their marketing efforts.

You are going to want to highlight your brand’s unique selling points here as well. This could be audience/follower size, historical data on engagement, and past successful collaboration efforts. This would be where you would want to talk about your ideas about how the collab would look. Include sponsored posts, product reviews, or creative campaigns that each brand would contribute to.

Follow up: No one likes the idea that they have been ghosted, and most likely your email got lost in the shuffle. A respectful and courteous follow up email shows that you are interested and serious about your intentions to collaborate.

How to Become a Brand Ambassador on Instagram

How to Do Paid Partnerships on Instagram

Ok, So…Now what?

Growing a follower base in the fashion + lifestyle space is not what it used to be, and that’s actually a good thing. Gone are the days of schmoozing wealthy benefactors to invest in your company. This isn’t to say you don’t have to put in the work — starting, building, and monetizing a brand is a favored reality now more than ever. It’s a question of how big you want to go. Knowledge is power. Now get moving on that dream. Yes, that one.

Check out the following companies who are masters of their brand in Fashion + Lifestyle

Classics: @Vogue, @harpersbazaarus @vanityfair, @chanelofficial @dior @vanityfair

Street: Supreme, GmbH, Dickies, Stüssy, Nike Skate, Brain Dead, Timbuk2

Music/Culture: Saint Laurent, Noah, Moshino, Burton, Vans, Filson Channels to peruse: Vice Fashion, Carhartt WIP, @advanced.research