At the Afingo Fashion Forum on Friday at FIT, top influencers in PR and Social Media gathered to talk about the importance of brand presence and how to garner it. Each platform needs a specific strategy. Find out how the media savvy panelists go about their own branding, and that of their clients. 

PANELISTS:

Patrick Bradbury: BRADBURY LEWIS

Pam Bristow: CREATIVE CONSULTANT

Michele Cerwin: HL GROUP

Elizabeth “Izzy” Grinspan: RACKED NY

Keith Pollack: ELLE.COM

Moderated by fashion-web maven, Refinery29 Editor-in-Chief, Christine Barberich, she guided the talk through how each media company approaches their industry, editorial and online presence.

ELLE.COM Editorial Director Keith Pollack: As the first magazine to go onto Tumblr, they are experimenting with all forms of social media. They consistently get their most readers, however, from Facebook. Most of their reader engagement and conversation generators happen on Facebook rather than in the comments on the site. The key to attracting the attention of the press is making it personal. If not, they won’t respond. Also, exclusivity is attractive for a story.

RACKED NY is a news and shopping driven blog. Editor Izzy Grinspan uses Twitter as an immediate, always funny, OMG this is happening tool. She posts just a couple of stories to Facebook per day, just the ones you need to know. Most of the conversations happens on the comments underneath the stories.

HL GROUP, the prestigious and far reaching PR firm led by President Michele Cerwin, is built on building relationships. They know to be respectful of how media outlets like to receive information and how to change up the content depending on the medium. They don’t want web and print to fight, so they first generate content for print, give what’s some of what’s left to online outlets, and the rest goes to Facebook.

PAM BRISTOW partners talented designers with big companies to extend that designer’s brand beyond the clothing. According to Bristow, “You’re as good as your Google result,” so she works to make designers more searchable through different avenues.

BRADBURY LEWIS is a boutique PR agency that is very selective about their clients. They keep a small roster so Patrick Bradbury and his elite team can work personally with each designer. “The first placement is huge,” so being select about which media outlets get the premiere is key. Between traditional media and bloggers, he knows that they influence one another, so they are both highly important, and neither can fade.

REFINERY 29 EIC Christine Barberich chimed in from the moderating seat to talk about the crossover between editorial and advertising. When companies like Burberry and Tory Burch are focusing on digital media and making creative ads like short films, they have a better chance at getting editorial exposure. 

Launching later this month, Afingo.com is a self-proclaimed “match.com” for designers and factories. Their goal is to provide real world knowledge and connections to fashion professionals and newbies alike to enable sustainable production and the ability to Get It Made.