Q+A: One Click Ventures’ Sarah Thaman

“Oh, tweet that.”  For many, tweets are what birds do, pins are what your grandmother wears, and grams are type of measurement. But to  people like Sarah Thaman, these words take on a different meaning. Thaman is a marketing specialist for One Click Ventures and manages the social media for many different brands.  Her “40 Ways to Tie a Scarf” graphic went viral on Pinterest and brought thousands of new shoppers to the Scarf Net website. Today, Thaman gives us an inside look at what social media has done for fashion and a little advice on how to do it well.    

With so many people using social media for personal enjoyment, how did you make that a career and what is your drive to continue your work within Indianapolis? 

I realized my passion for fashion when I was in college.  I started out pursuing a degree in journalism, and after writing a piece on fashion one of my professor suggested I go into fashion journalism.  I graduated with a degree in journalism and a minor in fashion merchandising.  I came to Indianapolis to work as an intern for Indy Monthly and realized the economy was not where it needed to be in order for me to pursue journalism as a career.  I worked in health communications, and that later lead to where I am now at One Click Ventures.  I started as a fashion copywriter, and I now manage the social media for Sunglass Warehouse, Readers Dot Com, Scarf Net, and Handbag Heaven.  What I love about Indy is that it is economically stable.    Since moving here in January of 2012, I have also grown to love the midsize city.  I do miss Louisville, but I am enjoying it here.

How has Indianapolis evolved with social media in the last couple of years? What role do you play in the fashion sarah-thamanscene?

The unique thing about Social Media is that it evens the playing field.  It allows for smaller companies to compete with those larger scale companies through the internet.  With Indy being so high tech, it is crucial for Indianapolis to compete with all the bigger international technological companies around the world.

I contribute by marketing brands. It creates more traffic to stores and allows for brands or designers to push their clothing by creating followers. We created a graphic [above] for Scarf Net that blew up on Pinterest, causing our site to shut down. Now thousands of people know about this brand based on a single graphic.  We were able to reach people we never would have been able to before. On the flip side, social media also helps the brand stay on top of what is going on within the fashion world. With live tweets happening and vines being shared straight from the runway we are able to see what is trending. These events are no longer as exclusive and are more accessible to the individual.

With blogging reaching an all-time peak, do you feel that traditional blogs are on the decline? What social media outlets do you see blowing up in the near future?

We work closely with bloggers, but with that market becoming more saturated, good bloggers are still few and far between.  As far as social media outlets, we have really seen a peak in Vine.  Brands tend to use this outlet quite a bit.  We are also watching Wanelo and The Hunt.  Pinners know how frustrating it is to pin an item and to later find that the pin is nothing more than an image.  The Hunt allows you to find the original site or something very similar.  We have used this by providing our client base with similar items to what they are looking for.  We also feel that there may be a shift in loyalty, and tweeters may have some competition.  A new app called Brand is formatted like twitter but allows for much more.

What advice do you have for our readers or anyone who is trying to master social media?

When it comes to social media there is always something new around the corner.  Before you have mastered the first, the next big thing has already happened.  It can be a little overwhelming, but it is always an exciting challenge to be ahead of the game.  The key to any new form of social media is overcoming the challenge of understanding the outlet and establishing your brand within that outlet before others.  The most important thing for social media is to never let anyone be the face of your brand.  Being your brand through social media is being you. Your followers expect you to be very present, on many platforms, and they want to interact with you.  However, you shouldn’t be everywhere if you can’t do it well.  Pick the ones you can excel at and devote your time to those.  Your fans will be where you are.  Instagram is great for personal branding.  It allows for a private snip of your life, and nowadays that is almost expected.  Social media allows for a personal connection on a level that has never been done before.  By opening up a door between you and your fans you create a dialog, which again is crucial for personal branding and can be a huge asset.

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