For the last couple of years many fashion brands have been eager to follow a conscious track but while chasing this goal many brands have forgotten to take the fast pace of SoMe into consideration – which leads me to TikTok. Because a brand with a conscious approach needs to have a conscious strategy when it comes to its SoMe activities. At least if the brand wants to be considered trustworthy, argues Louise Nyboe Andersen, industry voice and Head of PR & Communication at Danish fashion brand Skall Studio.
Silence is also a way for a brand to breath – show its followers that it IS ok to zoom out. To show them that less is more.
“Well, TikTok is not only a stressful media – there are also slow living profiles with slow living inspiration. Let me show you,” a good friend within the fashion industry said to me recently as we talked about TikTok and I was claiming that this media is all about being in the fast lane and perhaps not the right place to be for brands with a conscious and slow living approach. She immediately grabbed her phone and started searching for one of the slow living profiles she referred to meanwhile an overload of stressful sounds from TikTok filled the room – and I thought yes, exactly!
For the last couple of years TikTok has been a hot topic in the fashion industry – for several reasons – and also one of the latest platforms that fashion brands had to consider whether to add to their range of SoMe platforms or not. But while fashion brands have been eager to follow a conscious track as well as the latest hype many brands have forgotten to take the fast pace of SoMe into consideration. Because really, can you be a brand celebrating slow living values which is often the case with conscious brands (slow living = life balance and well-made products) and at the same time be active on TikTok, supporting this fast lane platform? Well, I think there is a contradiction here.
Of course there are slow living profiles on TikTok as my good friend referred to but if you have to navigate through a lot of stressful noise to get to this destination, and finally watch videos in fast pace, what´s the point? And can you – as a conscious brand – support this nonstop overload of information, and at the same time talk about life balance and less is more?
In my opinion, it is not enough to consider who you collaborate with on SoMe – if you collaborate with anyone at all – the frequency of posts, and what kind of posts you make as it obviously reflects your brand. As a brand you also have to carefully consider which social platforms you choose to communicate on – because these platforms need to match with the brand values. At least if you want to be a trustworthy brand – and that must certainly be a goal for every brand, right?
Nevertheless, it seems like many brand leaders have forgotten to think about this while trying to be first movers whenever a new SoMe pops up. Because as many brand leaders argue – we saw how it went with Instagram – you have to jump on the train right away, otherwise you will miss out. But wait a second: Do you really need to be on this train? – and just listen to the wording – you literally need to JUMP on the train without thinking as you have to be reeeally fast! But being in the fast lane is a contradiction to a slow living fashion brand. And it also comes down to other aspects – for example as mentioned earlier – how often you share info. Silence is also a way for a brand to breath – show its followers that it IS ok to zoom out. To show them that less is more. After all, this should also be the message from brands trying to follow a conscious track. Why not also show it in the way the brand acts on SoMe?
Perhaps the full solution to being a conscious brand on SoMe is not here yet – but if brand leaders start to think about this issue, wiser and more strategic decisions can hopefully be made in the future.
