Since its launch in 2006, micro-blogging social networking site, Twitter has attracted more than 700,000 UK businesses. The site is rapidly becoming a must for any business’s online marketing strategy.

High street giants such as TOPSHOP and River Island (@Topshop_tweets @RIVER_ISLAND) manage Twitter accounts to build a correspondence between their brand and their clientele. Online etailer, ASOS dedicate numerous Twitter accounts to vital members of their marketing team, who tweet about their job, fashion and popular culture. (@ASOS @ASOS_Nat @ASOS_Troy...).

For those of you who are ignorant to the latest craze to sweep laptops and BlackBerrys across the country, here is a little information. The website enables members to submit short and snappy tweets of up to 140 characters, similar to a Facebook status update. Tweets are then collated into a timeline which is personalised by the member to include Tweeters they are interested in. In order to include a Tweeter in their timeline members must follow other Tweeters that capture their imagination; and so the community blooms. Members can talk to the world, participate in trending topics, like the #WorldCup, and also speak directly to other Tweeters in @ mentions or Direct Messages.

Fashion retailers, magazines and not to mention MFN (@TheFashionNetUK) are using Twitter to reach out to customers and business associates in this whole new way. MFN caught up with some of Manchester’s best Tweeters, over Twitter, to learn a little bit more about its benefits to the fashion business; whilst followers read and participated in the interviews, or Twitterviews, in real time.

Stylisa's Lisa Maynard

First up was Lisa Maynard-Atem the Managing Director of Stylisa, a “fashion styling & branding consultancy” which “offers bespoke services to its clients”. Stylisa’s twitter feed is maintained whilst on the go via mobile tweeting applications, TweetDeck and UberTwitter. @STYLISA is mainly operated by Lisa herself because, as the face of the brand, Lisa believes “it's important that people connect with [her]”. This view is shared by many big brand tweeters like, for example, NewLook (@NewLookfashion @NewLookMen) who prefer to keep tweeters to a minimum to help ensure the tweets have a continuous tone and perspective.
Having been tweeting now for “just over a year” Stylisa began their twitter voyage to enable the brand to reach its national and global customer base, however, “there are many benefits” says Lisa; “It's great for business advice & ideas! It's brought the world to our doorstep!”

It is not surprising then that Stylisa value Twitter highly among their marketing schemes since their website has enjoyed “over 30,000 hits in recent weeks and [they] have won new business with some big clients” from their use of Twitter. Lisa went on to say that “We are also in talks with several other brands, all of which we owe to our social media strategy”.

Henri Lloyd, the world famous yachting and “foul weather apparel” brand who are native to Manchester offered their insight as the next participant of the MFN Twitterview. Tweeting to us was Dan, the brand’s Social Media Manager who is in charge of the company’s social networking output. @HenriLloyd63 is generally maintained from the brand’s head office in Worsley but Henri Lloyd also tweet on the go from certain events; the “next one will be Wakestock then Silverstone GP” says Dan. @HenriLloyd63 is operated by Tweetdeck both on the computer and on Dan’s iPhone. The brand have only been tweeting since the beginning of the year and set up their Twitter account to “allow people to engage directly with [them] and to provide real time updates on what is happening in Henri Lloyd”. The use of Twitter by the brand is largely to do with promotion and, unlike Stylisa, doesn’t provide the company with another way to do business. Still, the company do regard Twitter as a valuable way to increase brand awareness and thus hopefully make more money; “we do believe that as our Twitter presence grows we will see an increase in revenue and increase customer loyalty through great customer service”.

Our last tweeter was Umbro who very kindly took time out of their busy World Cup schedule to tell MFN about their tweeting habits. Tweeting to us was Aaron, one of the couple of members of the Umrbo team who operate the @umbro twitter feed. Unlike our other participants, Umbro are not too concerned with dedicating their Twitter feed to one staff member; “Umbro on twitter is run by a couple of people, who also look after our website, blog, Facebook and Flickr”. Umbro tweet in a similar fashion to Henri Lloyd, mainly from their Cheadle or Dale St. studios or on the go at matches and events. The sports brand’s use of twitter is vast, from a promotional vehicle to vessel of business opportunity. Umbro stated that “It allows us to have a bit of fun, and talk about football in general, rather than simply about our products I suppose. We've also used links with famous Twitterers to create some special edition products!” With regards to tweeting etiquette Umbro prefer to keep it simple “we try to not 'over tweet' - and only tweet stuff that we think people will find interesting or funny”.

From our tweets with three of Manchester’s best fashion tweeters it became clear that Twitter is most certainly a marketing venture any fashion business should consider. By opening your marketing portfolio up to Twitter companies can engage with their clientele on a personal level by engaging them in direct correspondence, over the internet. Furthermore, as has been the case with Umbro and Stylisa, Twitter can broaden the opportunity for business ventures for you and your company but introducing your brand to others that may not know of your existence. In the tweeted words of Lisa Maynard-Atem of Stylisa: “The power Twitter and social media in general should not be underestimated!”

Words by @JordanJMcDowell (Jordan McDowell to you non twitter-ers)

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