Photo by Max Ostrozhinskiy on Unsplash
The biggest drawback to young people now is FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). This delusion around not having enough time is creating a generation that has a skewed sense of success and the realistic timelines it takes to achieve long term career goals.
One of the best ways to thwart FOMO is by taking the most significant tool you have, which you’re constantly engaging with, and learning how to use it to optimise and build your career progression. What tool? Your mobile phone, of course. Here are five strategies to use to advance your fashion career.
Maximise your presence: the fastest and easiest way to do this is by creating an account on every single social channel that is relevant to your career. In fashion, they are Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. Ensure you change any cute names you came up with when you first ventured into social media with a name that people recognise. A great place to start - your actual name.
Adapt your message: knowing what each platform stands for and creating content and messaging that is relevant to the specific channel is vital. For instance, LinkedIn is about business people connecting in a business environment. Your target audience on LinkedIn would be someone more senior to you and in a position to give you a promotion or pay rise. Posting articles that directly link to the aspect of the business you work in is critical. For instance, if you’ve moved from being a full-time supervisor into the head office to start to work on the PR or events team, posting articles about other successful fashion events shows you are researching and learning your new role. If you’ve moved from a shop floor role into a training role, posting articles about how to be more productive makes for great content. If you’re still working on the shop floor, publishing articles about retail trends and customer service will get you noticed. Instagram is a great way to show your creativity and personal brand. Using it for career advancement means creating a secondary account and keeping it public while making other accounts private. Twitter is a great way to extract news and trends very quickly. Be sure to engage in a way that is contributing to the conversation and not contaminating conversations.
Share your interests: Instagram is the best platform to showcase your interests in a curated and casual way. If you are aspiring to be a Visual Merchandiser, London has no shortage of fantastic window displays as well as in-store creativity. Snap photos and place on your feed with a clear point of view as to why you like what you've shared. Using the stories feature allows you to be more casual and take your followers on the journey with you. Be sure to use the location and # features to optimise your audience and increase your reach, even if you are not posting in real-time. Using the highlights feature and creating a category such as "Shop Tours" ensures all your trips are saved for future viewing.
Google alerts: by placing keywords into the platform and receiving relevant updates directly into your inbox. Doing this one thing will maximise your productivity of content without sucking time out of your busy day looking for content to post. For instance, if you're interested in sustainable fashion, the keyword you would enter is "sustainability" "fashion" and "sustainable fashion". It's like having an assistant without having to pay for one!highlights feature and creating a category such as "Shop Tours" ensures all your trips are saved for future viewing.
Hashtag trends: don't be afraid to jump on the plethora of hashtag trends that show up on various channels. Right now, #awardsshowseason is always trending until the Oscars are over. An excellent way to highlight your point of view for best dressed is by posting content from awards ceremonies and using the trending hashtag to increase your ability to be found and to join the conversation. Also, consider fun trends to show off your personality. One that recently took Instagram by storm was the #dollypartonchallenge. Here are some of my favourite contributions to that trend!
As working professionals today, our mobile phones and the use of so many free forms of social media allow us to become our own publicists and promoters. Knowing how to use the tools available to us to our advantage is an integral aspect to playing a role in our own success plan.
If you’re looking for opportunities to work in luxury and lifestyle retail roles both in the Head Office and customer service, visit the Directory website https://www.directory-group.com/job-search