This blog post will discuss the concept blogging in social media marketing through evaluating the effectivity of Topshop’s blog campaign. Although other methods of social media marketing exist, I will only be discussing this method within the context of blogging.

What is blogging and how does work in social media marketing?

Established in the 1990’s, blogging was considered an online document form of a journal or diary. The term blog can be defined as a type of a web log (Leggate, 2012). In recent years, blogging has gained popularity in the world of social media, the concept in practise is based on the creation of open ended content, made with the intention to create conversation. Fundamentally, the measure of success  for a blog is based on the amount of comments it receives. Over time, readers opinions evolve into community discussions and as the traffic of consumer opinions increase, participants become influential part of the subject content. In relation to social media marketing, blogging refers to the social interaction of commercially produce content made with the intentions to understand a person’s personal preferences based on a particular subject/topic (Thevenot, 2007).

Topshops’ blog inside-out

Topshop has created a blog called Inside-Out (figure 1.), which contains informative posts that discuss the inspiration and influences behind the brands produce. The blog provides information on the production process, allowing the public to see the companies methods from designs to manufacturing, The blog also give the public the opportunity to voice their opinions and ideas for newly created and potential ideas and was created to give the company the chance to understand, the direct thoughts and opinions of their consumers (Topshop, 2015).

Figure 1 Topshop blog Inside-Out

The blog also covers topics surrounding around the world fashion and live fashion  question and answers and content from their participation within fashion events (figure 2).

Figure 2. Topshop at the MET Gala

An article entitled How live blogging has transformed journalism, discusses how the  concept of live blogging has changed the traditional of world of reporting and goes on to state that live news has the potential benefit of increasing website traffic and consumer comment participation. The guardian reported a 3.6 million user participation with use of the of this concept, increasing their online news reading by 9%(Wells, 2011).

The company has connected its blog to its Facebook page (figure 3.), creating a multi dimensional digital marketing strategy that infuses the companies blog into their consumers social media outlets.

An article entitled, Social Media Integration – Strategy is Necessary for Marketing Success, discusses methods and benefits of social media integration in digital practise. The article states that this concept has the potential to expand business networks, enhance credibility and improve sales (seenBest, 2012).

Figure 3. Inside-out Facebook page

The aim of this digital marketing strategy was to provide consumers with a perspective of transparency within the brand, which allows the public to directly interact and discuss their opinions on the brands content. Topshop has achieved this based on a study conducted by econsultancy which showed, Topshop’s consumer engagement and interactions currently ranks as number one on Facebook with over 2 millions followers. (Charlton, 2012)

An article entitled, Integrating Your Site with Facebook: 5 Benefits!, provides some insightful advantages of incorporating a website into social media marketing methods. The article shows that customer reviews can be considered an advantage in social media integration because people who shop online rely on other peoples comments and ratings, to guide their purchasing decisions. (Neosites, 2013) Another article entitled, Why Online Reviews are Important to Your Business further discusses the importance of customer feedback in business and states reviews shows customer loyalty and that customer who have made the effort to leave feedback are more likely to comeback to businesses for repeat custom(Anderson, 2014). An example of a company that failed to appreciate this factor was L’Oreal (figure 4). L’Oreal created a blog with false review on their produce. The blog received a lot of negative press as the brand later admitted the post review on their blog was fake.In an attempt to redeem the companies name,  L’Oreal asked 6 real consumers to review their experiences with their anti wrinkle product line (Plummer, 2008).

An article entitled Will fake business blogs crash and burn?, discusses how businesses have attempt to take back some of  the power created from public reviews. The article goes on to states that businesses have been caught out creating fake blog review content known as “flogs” and that not only are these businesses legally held liable but the employees who create the content can also be held liable too, under the consumer protection rights of trading standards (Plummer, 2008).

Figure 4. Loreal “flog” testimonial

In conclusion the concept of blogging as a form of  social media marketing is definitely an initiative that businesses should consider when creating their digital strategies; as shown in the analysis of Topshop this concept can be presented in different ways and on different platforms. The only obvious downside to public review and comments is that it has the potential to ruin a businesses name, especially when they are made with the intention to benefit them.

References:

Graham Charlton . (2012). Topshop is the most popular retailer on Facebook and Twitter: stats. Available: https://econsultancy.com/blog/9645-topshop-is-the-most-popular-retailer-on-facebook-and-twitter-stats/. Last accessed 19/04/2015.

Matt Wells. (2011). How live blogging has transformed journalism. Available: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/mar/28/live-blogging-transforms-journalism. Last accessed 19/04/2015.

Michael Anderson . (2014). Why Online Reviews are Important to Your Business. Available: http://www.blurgroup.com/blogs/group/why-online-reviews-are-important-to-your-business/. Last accessed 19/04/2015.

Neosites. (2013). Integrating Your Site with Facebook: 5 Benefits!. Available: http://blog.neosites.com/2013/02/25/integrating-your-site-with-facebook-5-benefits/. Last accessed 19/04/2015.

Robert Plummer . (2008). Will fake business blogs crash and burn?. Available: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7287413.stm. Last accessed 19/04/2014.

seenBest. (2012). Social Media Integration – Strategy is Necessary for Marketing Success. Available: http://www.seenbest-web-design.com/techclub/tag/benefits-of-social-media-integration/. Last accessed 19/04/2015.

Thevenot, Guillaume. (2007). Blogging as a social media. Tourism and hospitality research. 7 (3-4), 287.

Topshop. (2015). About us. Available: http://insideout.topshop.com/blog-user-guide. Last accessed 19/04/2015.

Leggate, Michael. (2012). Blogging. The clinical teacher. 9 (4), 260 – 261.