DVR'd the Royal Wedding? You Missed Out.

There are a zillion blogs and websites recapping the highs and lows of the royal wedding. I'll leave much of the future bridal style forecasting to them, but here are a couple of thoughts I had about the wedding:

First, I still can't get over the post-it notes left out on the chairs in Westminster Abbey. I'm not actually upset about them, just a bit in shock:

Next, Beezus and Eugenie's outfits will be the big Halloween costumes of 2011. Hello, Jetsons!

Third, this wedding was awesome, but Twitter made it more so.

Aside from the marketing and business development aspects Twitter offers for companies in the wedding industry, the real-time aspect of thousands of different opinions, took watching the royal wedding from a fun, personal experience to a fun collective experience. Much of my own live tweeting was tongue-in-cheek rather than academic, and it was fun to see everyone's perspective on such a large event. Some loved the bouquet, some didn't. Some loved the dress, others were expecting more vavoom. Some blinked and missed the kiss, both times. While we could have read about this all later (and we did), Twitter allowed the conversations to exist as though all of your favorite wedding industry friends and colleagues were in the same room.

Analysts have estimated that between 2-3 billion people tuned in via TV and social media for the wedding. The previous record for the number of people tuning in online to a live news event was President Obama's inauguration in 2009, with 70 million people. Over 400 million watched the Royal Wedding live on YouTube alone. Prior to the event, Twitter set up a server specifically to handle the royal wedding hashtags and updates. During the wedding itself, every trending topic worldwide was related to the royal nuptials. While all eyes may have been on Wills and Kate, social media strengthened the community that was watching and made the wedding feel more real and personal than just watching on TV would have allowed.

What was your experience watching the royal wedding? And what were your fave hits and/or misses of the day?


Top photo via Angela at WedLuxe Magazine, second via Getty Images, Twitter image via Grey Likes Weddings.

Social Media and Your Marketing Collateral

My business cards (designed by the talented Kelly Ashworth) are pretty straightforward: company logo, my name, email address and website. I wanted them to be like this for two reasons:

First, one of the core beliefs of Splendid Communications is that social media is a return to old-fashioned conversations rather than a race to keep up with the next big thing. The platforms that drive digital media are obviously tech based, but their purpose is to build relationships. It's a lot of technology focused on a simple and age-old goal. To reflect that value, I wanted the cards to be simple and uncluttered.

Second, my business purpose in using other social media platforms is to drive people to my main site. Different conversations happen on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and other platforms, but Think Splendid is "home." It's the platform I own. It's the place where I can expand on ideas. It's a spot that people can come back to and know they can find me. The other social media sites could shut down tomorrow or become as wildly unpopular as they were once popular (MySpace, anyone?), but Think Splendid allows people to subscribe, to stay in the loop, to grab a cup of coffee and get comfortable. I wanted the cards to have my website on them because that's the ultimate destination I want people to visit. From here they can find the other social media platforms where I engage in conversations. Just as you don't force everyone you know to be involved in every conversation you have, those sites aren't a fit for every part of your audience. I didn't want to clutter up my business cards with irrelevant information that might distract people from what I need to accomplish.

As you design your offline marketing collateral, consider why you use social media. Is it necessary to have every little detail on your materials? Or can less be more?

Why the Royal Wedding Matters :: Part 3

The trends that affect emotional ties are the ones that will have the most enduring impact on the business side of weddings.

Last week I mentioned that Kate Middleton and Prince William insisted that their wedding be accessible via social media, including YouTube. The wedding will air live on YouTube as well as traditional television. Streaming a live feed of the ceremony for friends and family who couldn't attend a wedding in person isn't a new idea, but it is one that will see a definite increase in popularity after Kate and Wills tie the knot this Friday. With the general public exposed to the idea, more couples will start asking for it.

If you're a wedding planner, you can prepare for this trend by familiarizing yourself with all the logistics that go into streaming a live ceremony feed. Will it need to change how you do your timelines or stage the bridal party for the processional? If you're a cinematographer, it would be smart to include this in your wedding services or as an add-on sale before couples even ask for it. At the early stages of its popularity, a couple will opt for the company that they perceive to be more skilled at handling this aspect of their wedding videography rather than someone who says "oh yeah, I can figure that out if you really want it."

Trends with the Royal Wedding aren't just about the wedding dress and choice of flowers. While these will be popular and much talked about, the trends that affect family and emotional ties are the ones that will have the most enduring impact on the business side of weddings.

Understanding Wedding Blog Advertising: CPM Ads

CPM advertising is a type of advertising that is becoming more popular with wedding blogs. It's a legitimate form of advertising, and it's important to understand exactly what it is and how it works if you plan on advertising online.

CPM stands for "cost per 1000" (with M being the Roman numeral for 1000). This means that it is the cost you pay for every 1000 impressions, or page views, your ad displays for. This is different from CPC, or "cost per click", in which you pay only if your ad is clicked on (the type of pay-per-click ad model that Google is famous for). It's also important to note that an impression is different than a unique visitor. A unique visitor can generate dozens or more impressions if they get hooked on the site and click through the archives and different pages.

A CPM is typically sold with a minimum purchase requirement for impressions. One of the industry standard buys for CPM's (for online advertising in general, not just wedding advertising) is 100,000 impressions. So, if you bought a minimum of 100,000 impressions, you would be purchasing 100 units of CPM.

With very few exceptions, ad rates in the wedding industry do not cost more than $10 per CPM for a prime ad spot. At a minimum buy of 100,000 impressions, you would be spending $1,000. There are some lifestyle sites that overlap with a wedding audience that may cost more, but those generally don't exceed $15 per CPM.

If you're thinking that $10-$15 per CPM is low, it's actually not. Several of the mainstream news sites charge $5-$7 per CPM. Granted, they have companies with deeper pockets that can make larger ad buys, but CPM costs are generally not some ridiculously high number.

Wedding and lifestyle sites can charge slightly (but not too much) more than mainstream sites because they have a more tightly focused audience. In the wedding industry, since most companies buying ads are smaller, more expensive CPM's are just not sustainable. How many planners, photographers or independent wedding businesses do you know can afford several thousand dollars per month in online advertising? Not many. The return on investment for a CPM rate higher than the already high $10-15 is just not there.

Some wedding blogs work with ad networks, which allows you to pay one price and have your ad showcased on several different blogs. Some ad networks also offer package deals and tiered pricing, where you can purchase a certain number of impressions on a high-profile blog as well as impressions on less popular blogs for one averaged-out rate. One advantage to this method is that your ad will show up in several places. A disadvantage is that you will run through impressions at a much faster rate. Given the popularity of the wedding blogs you choose, if you spent $1000 on 100,000 impressions (a $10 CPM), your ad will likely only appear on the sites for about a day.

Another option that more wedding blogs are starting to offer is CPM-based geo-targeted marketing. This means that your ad will only display to people who access the site in certain geographical regions. So, if you are in Washington DC and you buy a geo-targeted ad for your region, if someone reads the blog in California, your ad will not display for them. This type of ad allows you to target the regions you want and lets your advertising dollars stretch further. It also allows the blogs to sell more ad inventory because they can sell that space several times over. Win-win.

CPM advertising tends to work better with companies that sell a tangible product rather than companies that sell a service. For example, stationery and wedding dress companies do much better with CPM advertising than a wedding planner or photographer would. There are exceptions, of course, but this is a general rule of thumb with wedding advertising.

If you are considering buying a CPM ad on a wedding blog, here are some questions to ask:

*What is the minimum ad buy required? (100,000 impressions; 50,000 impressions for three months at a time, etc)
*How many average impressions do you serve a day? (If doing geo-targeted, how many for your regions of interest?)
*Which pages will my ad display on? (Front page only? All pages, including vendor directories? If within an ad network, which sites will it display on?)

Advertising on wedding blogs can be a good way to boost your brand exposure, so make sure you are spending your money in the best way possible for your business.

Always The Bridesmaid, Never the Bride? Maybe It's Because You're Fat.

Update, April 22: The brand development director at Slim-Fast emailed with an apology. Thank you to everyone who spoke out against this type of marketing. Here is an excerpt from the email:

We value feedback from key influencers such as yourself and everyone else who has participated in the dialogue. Given the nature of the ongoing conversation around our recent communications we wanted to reach out. We celebrate brides and certainly did not mean to offend anyone; if we did so, we are truly sorry.

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There are many royal wedding promos going around, some cute and some downright bizarre. For the ones that are a bit of a stretch, my line of thinking has generally been, "that's a bit tacky and out of touch with weddings today, but if someone wants to spend money on a tchotchke I don't personally care for, more power to them."

Slim-Fast's recent wedding campaign, however, crossed a line. It is not only tacky, it is offensive. Here's a look at a few of the many things they did wrong:

First, they broke the cardinal rule of wedding marketing: Never tell a bride she's not good enough exactly as she is.

This also applies to grooms, but I'll be using the term brides for this post since that is who Slim-Fast is targeting with this campaign. They make no mention of men who may want to get in shape. Their entire campaign comes across not only as sexist but misogynistic. Strike number two.

Always the bridesmaid, never the bride? Maybe it's because you're ginormous. A colleague emailed me this:

I went to their page and there was another one that really got me – about needing to get into shape to catch the bouquet so drink slimfast. Because bridesmaids are clearly single because they are so fat and out of shape they are not capable of lifting one arm for 4 seconds in the air to catch flowers that they need slimfast to help secure them their future husband.

God forbid your bridal party is immortalized in your photo album forever without being supermodel worthy! Now, I obviously have nothing against getting hair and makeup done for a wedding. Getting hair and makeup done is fun. It's fun to bond with your girlfriends while getting pampered and it's fun to feel a bit glamorous. Slim-Fast should have focused on these positive reasons rather than insinuating that the bridesmaids were all ugly and not worthy of a photo album without a little help.

To make matters worse, Slim-Fast employed an ill-advised social media campaign to help get this message out. Here are some of their mis-steps:

1. Their tweets probably would have never popped up on my radar except that they bought the "promoted tweet" spot in the Royal Wedding's official hashtag stream (#rw2011), meaning that their tweets showed at the top of that stream. The particular tweet I saw wasn't offensive, but was out of touch with today's wedding market, so I clicked on their page to see what their perspective on weddings was.

2. They had no one monitoring their Twitter page yesterday, so when I and several other people tweeted about them, they had no immediate recourse to fix things. Several thousand people who saw those tweets, who may have had no opinion on Slim-Fast before, now have a negative opinion of them. In social media, a plan for reputation management needs to be in place ahead of time and needs to have the ability to be executed immediately.

3. This morning, they deleted the tweets they thought may have been offensive (left the bridesmaid one up though!). Instead of owning up to the problem, they pretended it never happened. This tactic may work in traditional media but it does not work in social media. Pretending a conversation never happened in social media always makes people more angry, not less. The Internet is forever: several people got screenshots (like the ones above) before they were deleted.

If it sounds like I'm angry, it's because I am. Creating a marketing campaign that focuses on a bride's insecurities and tells her she is not good enough just as she is is disgusting. I have nothing against being healthy. I have nothing against wanting to lose weight. I have nothing against wanting to look and feel your best. I do have something against an entire promotion created to make a bride feel worse about herself.

I had an eating disorder for 15 years. I've personally worked with brides who developed eating disorders because of their wedding. I have colleagues who have worked with brides who ended up in the emergency room on the morning of their wedding because of last-minute diet tactics gone horribly wrong. I don't think Slim-Fast advocates any of these practices, obviously, but the "you're not good enough" messages their wedding marketing campaign suggests and the similar messages that society sends have the potential to do real damage. Brides have enough emotional pressures when it comes to planning a wedding. Slim-Fast could have developed a campaign that celebrates brides and healthy habits, and it would have been much better received. They chose to mock them instead and are not apologizing for it.

Why the Royal Wedding Matters :: Part 2

The Royal Wedding Encourages Bridal Daydreaming and Social Media Puts that Daydreaming on Steroids

After each Winter Olympics, there's an increase in sign-ups for ice skating lessons. Next week, after the Royal Wedding, there will be an increase in wedding-related Internet traffic. Whether it's soon-to-be engaged couples getting a head start on ideas, or simply people who are daydreaming, we are going to see a spike in the consumption of bridal information and inspiration.

Google has even gotten in on the Royal Wedding fever and has created a live blog that will synchronize with the live footage of the wedding, making it more interactive for people. In case you're underestimating how vast interest in the royal wedding is, a large number of non-wedding industry related people are asking their bosses for next Friday off so they can watch the wedding, either live on TV or live on YouTube (yes, YouTube - Kate and William insisted that their wedding be accessible via social media).

If someone were to find your wedding blog next week, would they find a stagnant blog or a current one filled with fresh information? While many of the people will daydream for a little while and then go back to their normal, non-bridal related lives, some will want to stay connected to everything wedding (royal or not) for much longer. Do you have an easy-to-find email newsletter sign up? An easy to find RSS button (should be near the top of the page) so they can stay subscribed to your blog? If you hate everything about the royal wedding and your typical client does too, does your blog provide a nice reprieve from the hype and showcase the exact opposite in weddings?

If you want an opportunity to capture the attention of people hungry for wedding inspiration, now is a great time to make sure your social media presence is up to date.

Why the Royal Wedding Matters :: Part 1

The Royal Wedding is coming up next Friday, and even if you don't care about it personally, from a business perspective, it will influence weddings for at least the next twenty years. Knowing how this one wedding will shape consumer behavior will help you plan better for your wedding business in the years to come.

The Royal Wedding is a light, but not shallow, break from a world filled with heavy news. 

The April 11th cover of Newsweek carried the headline: "Kate the Great: In a World Gone to Hell - thank God, a Wedding."

The college students turning 21 this year (they were born in 1990, nine years after Diana and Charles tied the knot, in case you'd like to feel old) have never known world news that hasn't included a war: Iraq under George Bush, Kosovo under Bill Clinton, Afghanistan and Iraq again under George W. Bush, and now Libya under Barack Obama. They lived through September 11th and its aftermath at a young age. Add to that the natural disasters: Hurricane Katrina, the horrific tsunami of 2004 and the recent earthquake/tsunami in Japan. Now that they're graduating college, they're trying to find jobs in a rebounding though still uncertain economy. It can seem at times that we are indeed living in a world gone to hell.

The Royal Wedding, which is not a shallow topic since it's an event celebrating legitimate joy, is a guilt-free break from a world filled with heavy news. In the next decade, as these students get married, their weddings will most likely reflect many of the same emotional values that they witness in the Royal Wedding. In addition, many of today's students grew up in families that didn't incorporate a lot of tradition into their daily lives and that is something that many want to change as they start their own families. Whichever traditions Kate and William choose to embrace will heavily influence couples looking to start new (to them) traditions in their own weddings.

Interview with Wedding Planner Mark Niemierko

My friend and colleague, Mark Niemierko, recently launched the Niemierko Academy, a course that provides the tools and contacts to students looking to have a career as wedding planners. As Britain's leading wedding planner, Mark's class is focused on UK wedding style, but is open to anyone in the world. Mark visits the United States a few times each year for business, and I asked him to share some of his insights on the wedding industry, both here and across the pond.

For people who may not be familiar with you or your work, can you share a bit on how you got started in the wedding industry? 

I worked in the Film and TV industry for a number of years prior to wedding planning, initially in operations and production managing on film and TV sets. I also did PR within film and really enjoyed the event organising part of my role. So I decided to start my own events planning company, which was supposed to have a small wedding planning arm. However, as wedding planning was an untouched area in London seven years ago, the wedding side of my business took off . . . and the rest is history.

What inspired you to start the Niemierko Academy?

Within a month of putting my wedding planning website live I think we had received around 30 or so CV’s. For what was then an unknown company and brand I was surprised. We now get 30 to 50 a week. There’s a large amount of people out there that want to work in the wedding industry. A large portion of them want to be planners, but have little knowledge, experience or confidence on where to begin.

I’ve also been shocked to hear how some wedding planners operate financially – and effectively aren’t making any money . . . well very little.

The Academy is about me giving back to people to ensure quality throughout the industry, and ensure it becomes a big business in the UK. Compared to the US, it is far behind.

You and I both know that there will be a bump in the number of people interested in wedding planning as a career because of the spotlight on the royal wedding. I appreciate that you are offering an educational opportunity for this new group of interest rather than turning a cynical nose at them out of fear of new competitors. What advice do you have for people regarding competition in the industry?

Firstly, yes I want to create competition for myself. Competition is healthy.

I recently spoke to a well known high-end wedding supplier in the US whose main (and only) competition closed. They are now competing with lower-end/middle market suppliers, which means the price comparison between what he quotes his customers to what the competition is quoting is so vast. He now has had to reduce his costs to compete for the business. Effectively losing his competition is nearly killing his business.

I know some planners in London charge as little at £5,000 for full planning on a wedding that can be up to a year away. I can’t compete with that fee . . . I have staff wages, office rent to pay, oh, and a wardrobe to upkeep!

But seriously, the Niemierko Wedding Academy will encourage its participants to be real and not live in a dream world. To think about this as a business career NOT a hobby. If you want this as a hobby go bake cakes, and leave the professionals to it.

What are the main differences in the wedding industry in the UK and the States?

New York first off seems to be on a whole other level compared to that of anywhere in the world, not just London and the UK. Budgets are bigger, weddings are grander and people want to overly impress.

The British clientele is much more subdued. For sure I appeal to a wealthy clientele but they also don’t want to shout about their wealth. They want the wedding to be wow and leave their guests amazed, but in an understated, elegant and effortless way. When in truth there is a huge amount of effort involved in creating that look.

We also don’t have as much choice and availability for table top, linens and glassware, etc. I tend to think the US has far more varied choices in that department. I mean just look at Martha Stewart Weddings – it's terribly inspiring.

The economic climate affected the U.S. wedding industry in a profound way over the past years, including the normally untouchable high-end segment of the market. To what extent did it affect weddings in the UK?

I’ll be honest I didn’t really feel it. People just spent their budgets in a different way. The guests numbers decreased but the per head cost increased on Food and Beverage for example. People spent money on putting guests up in hotels rather than spending money on over the top florals. Things have jumped back now however. I think there’s a number of wealthy individuals out there that have worked darn hard and want to celebrate their marriage in style. And why shouldn’t they!

What is the biggest lesson you learned your first year in business? What was the biggest lesson you learned in this past year of business?

In my first year I learned that being a wedding planner you have to be a confident and strong individual. And fast. There’s so much politics with ANY couple and their families, some on larger scales than others. And you will occasionally get the brunt of that. I soon learnt to juggle that and understand it has nothing to do with me, and just get on with the job and provide a great service.

In the last year I’ve learned I’m pretty darn good at what I do and so doubled my minimum spend requirement and starting fee. I want to focus on a hand full of fabulous weddings a year rather than 12 or so (I did 11 weddings and 4 other events such as birthday party’s last year). Less is certainly more in the high-end luxury world of weddings.

You can learn more about the Niemierko Academy here, and follow Mark on Twitter for your daily dose of British humor and on Tumblr for your daily dose of British wedding style.

Photo of Mark by Lloyd Dobbie

Introducing the Wedding Job Board

If you're anything like me, you often get asked if you know of anyone in the wedding industry who is hiring (or, more likely, you get asked for a job directly). While I try to retweet job openings when I see them, those can fall through the cracks and are difficult to remember later - Who was hiring an assistant? Which company needed an intern? Which wedding website was hiring an advertising executive? With the wedding job board, you can now send people directly to one location to search for a wedding-related job.

Even better, if you're hiring, you can use the board to post a job opening for free. All listings get featured on findaweddingjob.com as well as the Simply Hired database, which feeds listings into their main site as well as LinkedIn, The Washington Post and many other platforms that people search for jobs on. This will ensure that your listing gets in front of the most people so that you increase your chances of hiring the ideal candidate.

To use the job board, visit findaweddingjob.com, click on "post a wedding job", fill out the details and then use the code weddingjob to get the free listing. Once you click publish, your job opening will be posted within 90 minutes and will stay online for 30 days.

To stay up to date with the latest job postings, you can subscribe via RSS or follow Wedding Jobs on twitter.

Find a career you can marry. Find an employee you can't live without. FindAWeddingJob.com

Faith and Social Media

A couple weeks ago, I posted this on twitter:

I wanted to share a question I received about it here along with my answer (I am sharing it with permission of the sender).

Hi Liene,

I'm quite curious to hear more of your thoughts regarding your tweet today about faith and spirituality. This is an ongoing dialogue that I've been having with a handful of people for a year or more now, as I've been working within the wedding industry and developing skills to launch a business of my own. There seems to be such a fine balance between authentically incorporating tweets, blog posts, etc that pertain to faith/spirituality and, by extension, worldviews without it turning into or even being perceived as a marketing ploy. It is an emotionally-charged and often divisive topic, and people are attracted to people like them or those they can relate to in some way. The more social media and personalization of brands (and shifting away from impersonal, faceless companies) becomes the way of life, the more it seems like this will become an issue. When someone says "I believe XYZ" it very much relates to how they view the world and the realities in it...which then inevitably leads to conflicting beliefs. In my opinion, there will always be people that use anything they can to exploit for marketing purposes, but how do you believe faith/spirituality to be a part of an authentic social media presence?

Grateful for a response, when you have a moment!

With respect,
Stefanie Miles

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Hi Stefanie,

Thanks for the thoughtful email. I agree that faith/spirituality is an emotionally charged topic. I personally have no problem with people sharing their faith in social media as part of who they are. If people are offended by someone saying "I believe xyz", they have the option to unfollow or not read that person's blog posts. The beauty of social media is that it is completely opt-in. If you don't agree with someone or if they are rubbing you the wrong way, you can choose to not listen and/or engage with them.

What I personally find offensive is when people say "you should buy from me because I believe xyz." People should buy from you because you sell a quality product or service. If you believe that you are created in the image of or that you can harness the power of a creative god (or goddess, universe, lifeforce, inner spiritual being, etc) then your work should reflect that on its own. For me, faith is a sacred thing. My own faith shapes how I see the world and how I am trying (sometimes failing along the way) to live my life. For anyone to exploit something that is supposed to be so deeply sacred to them just to make a sale is, in my view, gross and manipulative. Again, in these cases, I can choose to opt-out of their conversations and try to tune them out (the retweets sometimes thwart this, but for the most part, you can tune them out).

What further offends me though, is when people sell a faith experience disguised as a business experience. Over the past couple of years we have seen more of this in the wedding industry. People will sell a workshop or class that attendees will be told is on the topics of business and marketing and then the class will include group prayers, channeling energy, and other sorts of spiritual practices that attendees didn't know would be part of the program. For people to push their beliefs on others this way is offensive and manipulative.

I personally have two twitter accounts - one for business and one that is more personally focused. I am personal and share my authentic opinions on my Think Splendid account, but I also recognize that people following me there may be tuning in for my perspective on the industry and not care about my passion for how faith and politics affect social justice. So my opinions on those are saved primarily for my personal account which I do not cross-post to Think Splendid. Some may see this solution as segmenting who I am, but I don't. I see it as being respectful of others and their reasons for choosing to listen to me. I also don't view it as "hiding" my faith or opinions. Many people in the industry who have met me in person know my beliefs and know that they don't always fit neatly into the conversations that 140 characters allow.

I do believe that people can combine faith and business into one social media presence and have it be authentic. I do think though that people need to be respectful of the fact that for any good its done, religion has also been used to hurt people deeply and many people bring those experiences to the table with them. I'd personally rather not turn those people off from my business right out of the gate because of deeply personal topics, especially given the lack of context social media can provide.

Social Media Guidelines: Comment Policies

A huge part of building a healthy blog community can be found in how you handle comments, both internally and externally. Here are some things to keep in mind as you write the section of your social media guidelines that addresses commenting procedures:

Comment Policy for Your Own Blog
In the United States, you legally don't own the comments left by other people on your blog, which means that you can't even delete them unless you have a clear terms of use clause stating your ability to do so. Will you moderate comments? If so, to what extent? Will you edit comments (for clarity, to remove profanity, etc)? This part of your guidelines should make sure everyone knows how comments should be moderated (and if you don't have a policies page on your blog stating you reserve the right to moderate comments, add one.)

Many blogging platforms collect the IP addresses of commenters. How will these be used? Strictly in-house in conjunction with analytics platforms? A few years ago, an anonymous commenter left rather rude comments on several high-profile blogs. One of the bloggers traced their identity and found their physical address, shared it with the other bloggers and some made real threats. You can run into huge issues with IP addresses, so make sure your guidelines address how they should be used. My suggestion is to treat IP addresses like a bank treats customer data: in-house and for professional use only.

Leaving Comments on Other People's Blogs
How often will you comment on other blogs? What will your commenting protocol be (positive, real compliments, are civil disagreements okay, is profanity okay?) How should the comment form be filled out (the company's name or the employee's name)? Is it okay for employees to comment anonymously? Who should be linked - the employee's company twitter profile, the company’s main page, etc? (Note: the majority of comment links do not help your SEO because of the way the comment sections are coded, but do consider where you want each comment to drive traffic of the people who may click on your name.)

5 Tips for Surviving Bridal Market

Our series on social media guidelines will continue tomorrow. Today, I wanted to repost this blog post from last Fall for those of you attending Bridal Fashion Week (also known as Bridal Market) for the first time this week. It's an event that has several unspoken rules and norms and knowing them will help you have a more successful trip.

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Bridal Market kicks off this week, and many of you are coming in from out of town for it. Market is one of those things that social media (primarily Twitter and Facebook) makes seem much more glamorous than it actually is. Still, it's a week that can be fun and beneficial, if you have realistic expectations going into it. If this is your first market, here are some tips and insights to help you prepare:

Dress Code
For the market shows, business casual/business chic is appropriate. Jeans are too casual and cocktail attire is trying too hard. If you are wearing heels, bring a pair of flats for your purse. You'll need them as you run between shows. Two more things to toss in your purse: an umbrella and your favorite brand of protein/breakfast bars.

Cab Fare
Bridal Market is spread out all across the city, primarily in hotel ballrooms or trendy warehouse spaces. There is no main cluster of tents like at Bryant Park or Lincoln Center for Fashion Week. All NYC cabs have to accept credit cards, but have some cash on you in case you get a driver who claims the meter is "broken". If it's raining, you'll have a tougher time catching a cab, so be prepared to wait or walk (you'll thank me later for the flats and umbrella suggestion, I promise).

Know Your Place
Bridal market is a trade show, just with fashion shows instead of row-by-row booths. The designers are there primarily to sell the next season's line to the buyers from various stores and boutiques from around the world. After that, they are trying to get press for their lines so that brides will ask the bridal store owners for a particular dress, enabling them to sell more. If you are not a buyer or a highly-trafficked press source, they do not care about you this week. Sounds harsh, but know your place. Imagine how you would feel if someone came and tried to talk to you while you were in the middle of a consultation with a potential bride or groom. You'd probably be upset that they were costing you booking that client. Same thing applies here. 

Follow Instructions
If you're annoyed that your seat at a show is actually standing room in the back, get over it. Don't switch seats to a better one (they will not think twice about making a spectacle of kicking you out of the front row for the tardy VIP) and don't complain. Again, if you're not a buyer or highly-trafficked press source, consider yourself lucky to be there at all. When the photographers yell "uncross your legs," just do it. If you don't, your feet get in the shot and mess it up. These shows are expensive to produce, and like a wedding, there are no do-overs.

Write It Up
Are you obligated to write or tweet about the different shows you attend at bridal market? Of course not. Do it anyway. Market shows are in small venues and space is tight. There really are waiting lists and people who would like to attend, but couldn't because all the spots were full. If you are able to attend, say thank you by writing about the designers and dresses. You may only have a handful of readers, but the links you post do help the designers (even if they don't realize it), so spread good karma and write about them.

If you're attending Bridal Market or just want to follow along on Twitter, the hashtags being used are and #bridalmarket and #bridalfashionweek.

Social Media Guidelines: Legal Considerations

I am not an attorney, obviously, so the advice below should not be taken as legal advice. I do however have an attorney who specializes in digital media to make sure that I and my clients are always in compliance with the latest changes in legal issues as they relate to social media. Here are some of the things I have learned from my meetings with him and the materials he sends me. As always, consult your own attorney for specifics as they relate to your region:

1. Disclosing Material Connections

How will you disclose material connections or connections that benefit you in some way? In the United States, you now have to legally disclose them under the Federal Trade Commission’s code 16 CFR part 255. So, if you conduct a site visit or attend a fam trip and a hotel comps your stay, you have to disclose it when you post about them online, whether on your blog, Facebook page, YouTube or Twitter. If you get anything at a “deep discount” that has to be disclosed, too. If you’re a wedding vendor who is getting married and a photographer is shooting your wedding for free, or doing it at a significant discount (doing it at cost is considered a significant discount), then it legally has to be disclosed by both you and the photographer if it is posted online.

In your guidelines, decide how you will disclose these types of things. Will you have a disclosures page on your blog? What if you tweet about a client or a trip? How will that be denoted? (I use *C to indicate a tweet about a client.) How will you disclose posts about sponsors? Putting the word “sponsor” as a tag on your site doesn’t work because tags only show up on the main site, not in feeds (using super light text is also not kosher according to the FTC). Write your guidelines to reflect how things will be disclosed on every social media channel you use: blog, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube, etc.

2. Libel, Slander and Defamation

Social media a great platform for openly sharing your opinion, but you still need to make sure you're not defaming another person or company when you post. Libel is written, slander is spoken. So libel would apply to any written form of social media, while slander would apply to any verbal form (YouTube, Vimeo, podcasts, etc). In short, the law says that you can't make defamatory statements that can be construed as factual but aren't. You also aren't off the hook just because you don't name someone explicitly - if someone can reasonably discern who you are talking about, your words can count as libel or slander.

You also can't make threats online: phrases like "I will ruin you" can be used against you in court (keep in mind that even if deleted, these posts can still be accessed). You also can't call someone a liar unless you have concrete proof that they are being dishonest. This isn’t as large an issue with blogs since they take more time to write, but firing off Facebook or Twitter status updates in anger or the heat of the moment can come back to bite you in the form of a lawsuit. Having your account set to private doesn't protect you legally, either. This section of your social media guidelines should make sure that your entire staff is aware of these legal issues so that your company doesn't get in trouble because of one employee.