eBooks

iCrossing’s Fashion & Retail Editor Jo-ann Fortune talks to some of the UK’s top fashion bloggers about their experiences of working with brands.

Take some tips on how to, and how not to, go about working with fashion bloggers from the writers themselves:

Dos

“The best brand collaborations involve working with individuals that respect the fact that blogging is a business – actually compensating bloggers for their time, blog space and the promotional value they give to brands.” Audrey Rogers www.befrassy.com

“One of the best brand collaborations I’ve been involved in was when I was asked to dress the windows of a well-known high fashion store on Bond Street. Seeing my name on the window felt like such amazing recognition.” Carrie Harwood www.wishwishwish.net

“I really enjoyed a high fashion brand’s window-dressing event in Milan last season, and this season’s Lomography follow-up, and loved working with another designer brand to create my dream piece – a biker jacket with a hoodie inside.” Kristin Knox www.theclotheswhisperer.co.uk

“The more relevant information I get and the greater access to the products I have, the better the content I can produce around it.” Laetitia Wajnapel www.mademoisellerobot.com

Don’ts

“Some agencies are woefully behind when it comes to blogger outreach. Anyone still sending those ‘dear blogger’ emails needs a refresher course!” Jen Holmes www.littlebirdfashion.com Read more…

Anyone working in media and marketing today will spend the rest of their careers in a world where rapid change and disruption are a constant. The web, the social web, changes everything: this book is about the fundamentals that are driving the web revolution and how brand owners can develop strategies and ways of thinking that will help them to adapt and succeed in the age of networks.

I hope you enjoy it, please leave any feedback or comments below.

Download (3MB)

Our What is Social Media?: now available in Chinese thanks to three strangers who met via a social network and went on to create an eBook publishing platform.

In September last year Jia Liu, an MA student of marketing in Boston put out a call on an incredible communtiy site Yeeyan.com for people to collaborate on a project to translate the eBook into Chinese. Zhifeng Sun from Shanghai and Xinyu Mao from Qingdao answered and over about a month they created a Chinese version of the What is Social Media?, complete with illustrations of Chinese blogs and social networks where it was appropriate.

So far there have been 2,000 downloads and following the project the three have created an eBook publishing venture/platform called Innobook and have published five freely available eBooks, by authors including Seth Godin and Richard Adler.

The translation and adaption of the eBook is possible for anyone in any language without permission from Spannerworks because we released it under a Creative Commons licence.

Everyone on the team that worked on the eBook are delighted to see it spread even further. It’s also added extra impetus to our work on its sequel – watch this space…

We’ve written a concise beginner’s guide to social media for people in marketing and media. It’s aimed at people who have heard of blogs, wikis, MySpace and YouTube, and kind-of / sort-of understand it but would really appreciate a clear explanation, just to make sure.

The e-Book’s called “What is social media?” and you can download it here.

We really hope the book’s useful. Work’s already begun the second edition and some follow up books on related subjects, so please do email me if you have any feedback or suggestions: amayfield@spannerworks.com

The e-Book also marks the official launch of the Spannerworks Social Media division. Social media marketing is our third offering, effectively, alongside paid and natural.

We are working hard on some interesting new services and tools for our clients behind the scenes and will let you know al about them as soon as we can.