There is much talk about social media and social networking sites and how they can be incorporated into a company’s online advertising campaign. UK designer fashion label and luxury lifestyle group Burberry, has joined the social networking fray with the launch of it’s new website, www.artofthetrench.com based around one of their top-selling garments, the trench coat.

The site contains photos of members of the public sporting their Burberry trench coats in a variety of locations and situations. The photos can then be sorted by gender, trench coat colour, popularity or even by the weather depicted in the photo.

Burberry invites photographers and trench coat wearers to submit their pictures via a connection with Facebook, then picks the best ones to appear on the site. Facebook members can add their comments and share their trench coat experiences.

This is a great way for the company to promote itself whilst giving consumers a chance to interact with them directly. It comes after Burberry announced, back in May, they were planning to increase their digital advertising spend to 20% of their overall marketing budget, which is good news for Burberry’s digital agency.

Burberry isn’t the first company to try this social media approach to marketing either. Another British company, Mothercare, also runs it’s own social networking site, www.gurgle.com, which contains all kinds of comprehensive parenting advice, as well as opportunities for users to share and discuss experiences. Online fashion store ASOS is another example, with it’s community page allowing users to post status updates, comments and participate in discussions.

Car manufacturer Alpha Romeo recently launched a social media campaign on Twitter to help promote it’s new MiTo model. It placed 1300 stencils of the Mito car around major cities and invited users who spot them to take a photograph and Tweet it on their profile, with the intention of creating a buzz amongst a younger audience than it has perhaps previously targeted.

Creating groups on Facebook is another social networking tool being adopted by various brands and businesses. Marks And Spencer’s claim to have 80,000 followers, and other retailers like House Of Fraser, Debenhams, Homebase and Argos all have Facebook groups, though it’s hard to determine which are official and which have been set-up by members of the public or employees.

Clearly social media marketing is becoming increasingly important to businesses and will need to be employed alongside traditional PPC marketing, SEO and online lead generation strategies. It seems to be a way to encourage consumers to build a relationship with a brand or company and generate an interest and desire, rather than just bombarding them with overt sales pitches.

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