IBM x The Style Line

*I have been invited by IBM to share my honest thoughts and experiences around Smarter Commerce, and as part of this collaboration, IBM may provide me with product, access, content or other forms of remuneration. All opinions are expressly my own.

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New York Fashion Week has finally come to it’s end and as most of us know, with every ending comes a new beginning. As such, I am very happy to announce that I have partnered with IBM to participate in a new social-media generated campaign entitled My Smarter Commerce.

What is smarter commerce? It’s undefined and left to us to give it identity. For a personal definition: I think of smarter commerce as being constantly informed on how to evolve and maintain your personal brand through active and engaged conversations via technology and social media platforms - You are being smarter by being accessible in a number of ways. So, over the next 30 days, I’ll be sharing bits of my story in relation to how smarter commerce has enhanced my own brand. But that’s not at all, we want to know about your story too.

Yet how does this relate to the NYFW image you see above? Well here’s a bit of my story: I kicked off my fashion week by sitting front row at Kenneth Cole, which was amazing for two reasons: 1. The fact that it was KC’s return to the runway 2. The theme of show revolved around the digital age… To such an extent that for the final walk, the models came back out taking pictures of US {the audience} on smart phones.

This got me thinking:

If you consider a successful brand like Kenneth Cole, who in all honesty doesn’t need to utilize a lot of social media strategies/marketing to maintain sales but chooses to add that facet to their brand identity, then it must be pretty clear how much of an impact the digital age has had on all companies. I’ve been professionally blogging for a little over two years now, and in that span of time I’ve seen more new platforms arise {i.e.: Instagram, Pinterest, Vine, etc.} and more and more luxury brands begin interacting with consumers via these platforms.

To embrace Kenneth Cole’s acceptance and appreciation of social media, I decided that for every show I sat front row, I would capture these moments in the most raw and instantaneous way - Through Instagram, hence what you see above. This quick and easy delivery of my experiences as a fashion blogger, sitting front row was much more accessible then using traditional photos and posting maybe a day or two later. The other thing that has to be considered is all of the pre-show, backstage coverage, and live-streaming sent out by the designers themselves to the general public. It got me thinking about two things, Is the exclusivity of fashion shows dwindling/Is it even necessary to have physical shows? How much do you think fashion week(s) will change in the next five years?

But I first have a question for all of you: How does social media influence your own lives? Let the next 30 days be an open forum; re-blog this post with your answer using the hashtag #MySmarterCommerce. I will also be posting individual questions throughout the month for you all to answer… Let’s see where this conversation takes us.  

Until next time! xo

• Source: thestyleline