Black Friday and the exclusive Fashion Weeks: Two pinnacle times of the year where retailers and the fashion industry hope to make up for a bad year or put the cherry on top of an awesome upward-driven one. But leading up to (or concluding) these championship fights for retail revenue redemption and leader-crowning, how are retailers and the fashion industry elite getting the word out about the deals or extraordinary collections that they have to sell?America's retailers are learning how to chime in on the conversations of their customers through social media. Whether it be Facebook or Twitter, major retailers are learning what their customers like and don't like based on their Facebook statuses, comments and tweets. Besides using commercials, retailers like Old Navy use their Twitter page to advertise the deals and discounts currently going on in their stores.Retailers like Cole Haan are using digital media to create aliases for their customers based on the customers' lifestyles and embed interactive games in their social media pages to compliment these efforts. Cole Haan's Facebook page mentions "Like us and explore more" to encourage the visitor to dive deeper into how Cole Haan clothing and accessories cater to the "Urban Explorer".As B Culture has mentioned before, digital media is a powerful commercialized hammer that some celebrities have wisely wielded to secure the nail in the foundation of a fruitful relationship with their fans. This is the same for high-end fashion designers. Fans of celebrities, the customers of high-end fashion designers, often like for their customers to vote for "who wore it best" and post new looks through their social media fan pages. Celebrities are often the retail industry's initial guinea pigs and retailers use their customers' social media comments to know what trends are hitting or missing which is a heads up to the retailer on which ones they should follow or continue to produce.Digital media also helps high-end fashion designers get the word out about how to access a designer's full collection, the campaign and allows the fashion industry's supporting cast - the Press and stylists - to chime in on what they liked or didn't like, what fashion shows they are excited to see and how the public can mix and match the designer's pieces. Louis Vuitton has their full Spring 2012 fashion show on YouTube. Before YouTube, customers could only dream of seeing a high-end fashion show from beginning to end. The video of the above Louis Vuitton fashion show is in HD, which further gives the viewer the experience of being at the actual show.From New York Fashion Week to a new high-end boutique opening up in L.A., fashion editors and socialites can us Foursquare to let their followers know what fashion shows and store opening they are spiriting to cover or shop next. Retailers can also use Foursquare to reward their frequent visitors with special discounts and recognition. In the image above, Jeremy P. is listed as the major of Kenneth Cole in SoHo. Foursquare makes an individual a celebrity along with the place the individual frequents.Digital and social media has given the customer more of an immediate say in what works and what doesn't. This gives the retailer and designer the ability to react more quickly and efficiently within their next collection. It seems social media may have accelerated the transition between fashion trends because of the swift reaction to what's hot and what's not. Interactive media is now the digitized style meteorologist for the fashion industry.
