American Apparel and Facebook - What Could Happen?

Let’s talk social networking-

Online social networking is the idea that an online medium allows for connections to be made that would otherwise not be possible. What makes the internet so special that it allows these connections to be made? It’s easy and rooted in the infrastructure of the mediums themselves. For example, let’s look at Facebook. By this point, most people have heard of the social networking site, but what does it really do that makes it so popular and unique? Well, it’s like this – let’s say that you’re really good friends with Person McPerson. You’ve known Person for a long time now and you know some of his friends. But – do you know all of his friends? Doubtful. So, let’s say you friend Person on Facebook and discover he has an entire network of friends you had no clue about. Bingo. At this point, you can find an entire network of friends that would otherwise be unknown. Some of these friends may provide huge benefits to you that would otherwise be unobtainable (say, for example Person is friends with the hiring director for Pixar…) – at any rate, online social networking allows for these connections through established friends to be made.

Okay, so we’ve got social networking down. Great. Now, let’s take a look at the world of advertising and see if it applies (Can you figure it out yet?)

Advertising has long been defined as the mass communication of an idea, organization, product, or service. Through various attempts, advertising attempts to connect with a specific audience to achieve desired results (no duh, right?) Sounds easy. But here has been the long uphill climb for the world of advertising – establishing credibility. It’s kind of like this, imagine walking across campus and having each person you walk past try to sell you the shirt your back. You would be so bombarded by offers you wouldn’t even have a clue where to start. And if that’s a little bit too theoretical – just think back to how many ads you see each day. Each one begging for your time, attention, and most importantly, your money. So who gets it? Who gets your dollar? Probably the one you can closest associate with or have the most trust in. (Have you figured out where this is going?)

So, we’ve got social networking and the basic premise for advertising – what next? Okay, let’s go back to the popular social networking site, Facebook. Let’s say that you’re on Facebook and you’re looking over your buddy Person McPerson’s profile. Now, keep in mind, you’ve got a relatively high respect for Mr. McPerson and suddenly, you realize, Person is a member of the “I Love American Apparel” group. You may say, ‘Oh wait, what?’ As you look closer, you realize a lot of people you know are in the group. In fact, most of the people in the group are people you know or would like to know. Okay, so great. Here’s the hook – you realize what they all have in common is that they all enjoy American Apparel clothing. You visit the site, browse around, and before you know it, have spent $20.00 on a brand new AA Helvetica Alphabet T-Shirt. Game- set- and match.

Ridiculously (Really) Simple Syndication

(Come on guys, let's keep things simple.)

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) allows users to generate a personalized homepage which will automatically receive updates and feedback from a list of subscribed websites. Put another way, RSS allows a one-stop locale for an individuals’ favorite sites and news. For example, let’s assume that Jack (a MOSTLY hypothetical individual) really likes grunge music- like, more than any of us or anyone else you can possibly imagine. Jack can then set up a ‘reader site’ at a location such as Google and subscribe to various websites who continuously discuss music or other band-related information. By doing so, Jack no longer has to visit 20 different sites every time he gets on the internet to find out if anyone has posted new information about his early 90’s musical taste. Instead, Jack merely logs into his RSS reader site and quickly scans through all the newest updates from his favorite websites. There it is: in one site. Simple. Really simple. And it also allows Jack to spend more time doing… whatever Jack does (visiting Seattle? I don’t know. Whatever.)

Enter Public Relations. Ah yes, the art of sending mass communications to targeted audiences. Now how does RSS play into this? Figured it out yet? It’s simple, really. Really simple.

From a business aspect, let’s assume you are the manager at a major state university bookstore. Furthermore, let’s assume you would like to stay on top of the latest technological breakthroughs from companies with whom you purchase products from. Okay, so, the obvious players in this category may include Adobe, Microsoft, and Apple. Perfect. Next, let’s assume you are trying to watch the horizon for what new products are coming out and how many to order for your store. A simple (really simple) way to accomplish this task would be to set up an RSS reader site which would automatically give you updates on the progress of specific products. Therefore, it’s possible spend less time watching the various news on these products, and more time doing whatever else you need to.

But let’s say that’s “too business” in nature. Okay, fine. Then let’s assume you work at local news-station and you would like to keep up to date on the latest deals and decisions from local businesses. Simple. Set up an RSS reader to watch all the latest RSS feeds from local businesses and the deals/decisions that they come to which may affect the community. Just like that, any news worth reporting will come to your RSS reader site, automatically.

As you can see, the world of RSS is not only simple (ridiculously so) but also incredible effective at reporting the latest news relevant to your audience. Even more so, the news you deliver only needs to be sent once as RSS will automatically send it out to all audiences who have identified with your organization. So there you go, a simple solution to otherwise, not-so-simple (in the past) problem.

(Let the feeding frenzy begin!)