Fall into Fashion

    It happened fast. You woke up one morning and noticed there was a chilly wind and chose your leggings over your norts. There was talk of the return of pumpkin spice lattes and harvest festivals. Just like that, summer is gone and fall is here. And with the new season, comes the need for a new wardrobe. Here are some of the trends that I have noticed from the social media sites of some of my favorite places to shop:

1) It's All About Boots

Photo courtesy of Red Dress Boutique's Facebook page

Short boots, long boots, riding boots, cowboy boots, combat boots. This season boots are EVERYWHERE. You may be thinking, "I've been wearing boots during the fall for forever, why is this different?" That's because this season, you'll be seeing a lot less of flats than usual. Knee-high boots have always been a fall staple but booties and combat boots are on the rise for this season. I for one was always scared to try the more trendy bootie due to my shortness and the army-chic combat boot but these styles are easier to pull off than you might think. Pair a bootie with a dress and tights to help transition you into being comfortable enough to wear them with jeans or even shorts. And wearing combat boots does not mean you have to go all out retro. Instead try wearing them with jeggings, piko shirt and a bulky scarf. Your normal prep look can be easily modified to include combats.

American Eagle Knit Jeggings

American Eagle Jegging Sweater

2) Burgundy is the Hot Color

American Eagle is one of the few major chain stores that I still shop at (although that might be because I also work there). The store is known for taking classic closet staples and giving them a new twist or updated look to fit new trends. Their new fall floor sets so far have included a LOT of burgundy. Most likely inspired by the color of changing leaves, burgundy is a great rich color that will flatter everyone, much like navy or black. The knit jeggings would look great paired with a white or cream lace top and chambray button up. The jegging sweater is made to be long and therefore would look fantastic with some leggings, boots, and a scarf or necklace. Both of these items can also carry into winter to help out your cold weather closet.

3) Florals

Photo courtesy of Dress Up Boutique's Facebook Page

Don't give up on your bright summer floral prints just yet! It looks like the trend is continuing into fall fashion. The colors are more muted and the clothing offers more coverage so as to keep you cozy as the weather changes. Tribal and geometric patterns seem to be continuing as well. Add a floral top with some jeans and flats and take a typical drab fall outfit to fab. Just because summer is over doesn't mean you have to let go of fun prints and colors.

4) Crops and Hi Rise

Photo courtesy of Entourage's Facebook Page

Your crop tank and high waisted shorts of summer is undergoing a transition for fall. The early 1990s throwback look is still in with new crop tees and tops as well as high rise jeans. Paired together, even the most modest girl won't have to worry about showing her midriff. Being short, I personally love this look as it balances out my short legs but longer torso. The look can also be made to look boho, prep or a combination of both if you so choose.

You can take inspiration from these fall fashion trends or start your own. The most important rule of style is to make something your own and be confident in what you wear. And if you're ever in need of more help, I guarantee that your favorite retailers provide a lot of great content and outfit inspiration on their social media sites. So get ready for Fall, it's going to get colder before you know it!

Living a Pinterest Perfect Life

My name is Hannah Young and I am guilty of having a wedding Pinterest board. Before I knew it I had over a hundred pins of dresses, flowers, venues and so on. There came a point when the only thing I was pinning were wedding ideas and SURPRISE I'm 21 years old with no intention of getting married anytime soon.

So why did the madness start and where did it begin? My mom would tell you that it started when I was 3 when I would cry that I hadn't found my husband yet. To say that I was a planner at the wee age of 3 may sound hilarious but also sadly true. The most important thing to me for so many years was to graduate college, get married, have 2 kids and then live my Pinterest perfect life. The closer that I've gotten to graduation though, the more that has changed.

Me and my little brother. Even at a young age I was planning way more of my life then I needed to.

More and more I've realized that the life I want to live should not be defined by my Pinterest boards, but rather inspired by them. The days I spent pinning that wedding dress could have been spent with friends or more likely studying for the test that I was procrastinating on.

Don't get me wrong, Pinterest is a great tool for planning events like your wedding, what you want to fill your closet with next, or finding that great new recipe instead of eating Kraft mac and cheese another night. But don't get so sucked into the site that you forget your purpose of pinning.

That salmon  recipe may taste horrible but you won't know until you make it.

I still have my wedding board with it's cute "I do" title but I have sworn myself away from pinning on it. My time in college is too short to spend it planning what's ahead except for my career that is! Which naturally, I have a board for that too.

So what is my point? From this moment on, I challenge you to complete a Pinterest pin activity for each one that you pin. Crazy? Yes. But fulfilling? Definitely. Use the site for how it was actually meant to be intended. You'll never know how amazing that waterfall on your travel board looks until you visit it in real life or how great those homemade cookies taste until you make them yourself.

The Great Smoky Mountains, on an early winter morning. One of my favorite trips since I started college inspired by Pinterest.

So go on, stop planning and start living your Pinterest perfect life.

Pinterest for Small Business

In my first blog I talked about one of my favorite stores, Dress Up Boutique, and its social media strategy. While Dress Up was succeeding in some areas of social media, they were desperately failing in the Pinterest department. Which actually is not very surprising. Pinterest is a quagmire to a lot of businesses. How do you communicate your brand, mission, and core values within some random pins with short captions and boards? Rather than leave the Pinterest predicament as I did before I thought I would go into more detail as to how Pinterest can benefit small businesses.

Stores like Dress Up Boutique, Red Dress Boutique, Pitaya, Encore, Cheeky Peach, Entourage (the list could go on) and all other small business boutiques, Pinterest is the place to be. Pinterest is a social media platform that is largely dominated by millennial women ranging from the ages of 15-29. This just so happens to be the same age range that most boutiques target. The first step of any similar type of business that does not currently have a Pinterest profile is to get one. Otherwise they are missing out on a fantastic marketing opportunity.

Businesses should be thinking about the content they're putting out and the visual appeal when pinning. Being a very image-centric website, professional and content related pictures are key. Content that relates back to a blog, article or other interactive forums have been proven to have more "clicks" than those that relate back to a shopping site. Marketers should also use Pinterest as a way to generate positive consumer sentiment and loyalty to the brand rather than to increase sales. As other social media sites, one should always adhere to the 80/20 rule.

Pinterest can also be used to understand your typical customer better. Have a follower who is constantly repining your content? Check out their boards and interests. Even follow them back. After a while your home Pinterest page will be full of your potential customers and the content that they're interested in. It's almost like free market research!

Boards should be relevant and on track the the business' mission. It is very easy to get "pin happy" and want to start a new board with every new trend on the runways. The biggest mistake businesses make is having an overwhelming Pinterest profile with over 30 boards. Keep it simple. Have a board that relates to each new season's outfits. After a year evaluate which products had the most repin interaction and then delete! Yes you heard me right, take care of some Spring cleaning. Product that is no longer available or in season should be taken off Pinterest boards in order to keep a polished and up to date page. Can you imagine a small business that starts a new board every time they get new product in and never deleted anything after 5 years of business? Followers would be so overwhelmed that they may not even take the time to look through your more relevant pins. So keep it simple, on point, and on track with the business mission.

When in doubt, talk it out. Reach out to your fellow marketers and coworkers at your small business to see how they might feel about a pin or new board idea. What may seem like the next big Pinterest epiphany to you might actually not correspond to your business values and goals. Enjoy Pinterest but keep it relevant.

And when Pinterest is done right, this might happen:

Customer repins dress they like on Pinterest and get involved with the brand....

And then they buy it themselves. 

There goes my paycheck again. Some tips taken from: http://www.godigitalmarketing.com/pinterest-effectively-market-small-business/.

Facebook Etiquette and Bless Your Heart Moments

My southern girl attitude comes out when I see some things that my "friends" post on Facebook that I can only shake my head and say "Bless your heart" to. It amazes me the crazy and sometimes mortifying posts that I see on social media. The worst part is, even the website has failed to give some kind of etiquette guideline to follow. But have no fear, for I am about to share with you my Facebook "Bless your heart" moments.

1) Don't like or comment on old pictures unless you're best friends.
We all know that creeper. They just became friends with a person so they sift through ALL their old photos. Then they do the worst thing possible. They like or comment on a picture  more than a year old and everyone else can see it in their news feed. This is completely different than the close friend doing so to be funny. This is literally someone that you just met who you now know has seen every aspect of your Facebook profile. We are all guilty of Facebook creeping but at least leave it unknown.

2) Don't post questionable articles or facts.
Listen to your professor on this one. Always check the source or validity of a shocking or too good to be true article before sharing it. Sometimes we get caught up in the game of social media that we forget that what we post represents us. When I see that obviously fake Facebook hoax headline "Elvis Presley has been found alive in Kansas City!" I doubt your education and whether or not I should even keep you on my friends list. Before you re-post, always check Snopes or Google to make sure the article is actually true.

3) Don't post visually displeasing pictures.
So you broke your leg? Please do not share the picture of the bone jutting out of your skin with red flesh everywhere. The last thing I want to see when scrolling down my news feed is a photo of the spider you found in your house, your cat giving birth, or the latest injury you procured. A simple written status update will suffice and if I really want to see pictures I will message you privately. Just because you can handle the sight of spiders, doesn't mean your Facebook friends can (arachnophobe right here).

4) Use spell check.
The days of text speak on social media are over. While a lol or haha is appropriate at the end of comments, "IDK my BFF Jill" days have come to an end. Correct spelling and grammatical errors are also a no-no. The amount of people on my friends list who still don't know the difference between they're/their/there and a part versus apart makes me feel as though the public school system has truly failed us. Remember that employers check your Facebook for professionalism and how you choose to post a status says a lot about you. (Side note: As writing this tip, I had the sudden fear to spell check this blog five times.)

5) Manage your relationship status like an adult would.
I would really rather that you just did not have your relationship status on your profile than to change it to "It's Complicated" every time you and your boyfriend have a fight. Do not publicly air complaints or fights with your significant other for all to see. Just broke up? You can actually choose rather or not you want it posted to your news feed if you want to keep it private. Have respect for yourself and choose the high road before giving out all your divorce/ break-up details in a status update.

6) Keep sensitive information to yourself.
Don't post a vague status about your horrible night if you do not want people to ask for details, because they will ask for details. The status at midnight that says "I can not believe this is happening" is slightly worrisome and concerning. Call your close friends to talk out your problems before sharing only tidbits on your Facebook.

7) Have respect for those experiencing a tragedy.
This is probably my biggest pet peeve of all and probably a more personal request. Nothing irks me more than people who put themselves in the middle of a Facebook friend's tragedy. So many times a person will experience a death in their family and all of a sudden everyone and their mother are posting about it. Did you know this now deceased person? Do you know their family or close friends? No? Then shut your mouth. This time is not about you and nothing infuriates me more than people who jump up and say "I knew them and I am so sorry for this loss!" on social media when they really did not. If you truly wish to share your condolences take it offline and do it in person.


I could spend all day writing more tips but instead I will leave you with this: Use your common sense when posting on Facebook and think through your actions. Do not use it as a forum to air your personal drama but rather to connect with your friends and share fun, meaningful experiences. And most importantly, when in doubt just don't post it and save me from saying "Bless your heart."

Let's Play Dress Up

Fashion and style were not my main focus in high school. The majority of my wardrobe consisted of sweatpants and t-shirts. Growing up in a small town there was not much to choose from as far as shopping goes nor did I wish to spend my hard earned Ingles cashier paycheck on clothes that I felt I did not need. All of that changed when Dress Up Boutique opened in downtown Gainesville. The store offered a great selection of styles for affordable prices and that was when my love of boutique fashion began. While it may sound dramatic to say that I was tomboy turned girly-girl because of a local boutique, Dress Up played a large part in the pride I took in my wardrobe.

The result of my most recent shopping trip. 

Dress Up has grown tremendously since opening its first store in Dahlonega, GA. The small business now has 10 locations and an online store that you can view on their website, http://shopdressup.com/. To say that I have spent most of my work savings at their store is an understatement.

Since opening in 2009, I have seen Dress Up's social media morph from the jumbled content that is typical of a new start-up small business into what I believe to be a success story of what happens when social media is done right. Despite posting six times a day on their Facebook page, every post is relevant and showcases a new outfit from one of their collections. Dress Up has done a fantastic job of constantly bringing in new inventory and properly displaying it on its media platforms. It uses Instagram in a similar fashion, constantly posting new inventory and encouraging interaction with it's followers.

Dress Up does a wonderful job of always acknowledging its followers and even re-posting photos of customer's wearing their styles.

While Dress Up has mastered Facebook and Instagram, I feel that the store's Pinterest page could use some reorganization. Pinterest in itself can be a harder platform to grasp at times. In a few boards and pictures, a business must attempt to completely convey its brand without losing a potential consumer's attention. And unfortunately for businesses, repins do not always turn into sales. However I see great promise in Pinterest for small businesses like Dress Up. Unlike other platforms that require the consumer to follow their pages for content to appear on news feeds, Pinterest is a platform of exploring. A small business in Arkansas can have a pin go viral and lead to pinners around the country being aware of the business. In contrast to the astounding 119,799 followers Dress Up has on Facebook, the company only has 3,332 followers on Pinterest (as of September 1, 2014).

So why does the Pinterest page have so few followers compared to Facebook? I believe that Dress Up has lost sight of it's purpose on Pinterest. The store has 33 boards, some of which are completely unrelated to what the business offers such as "The Red Carpet" and "Celeb Style." But somehow the store stands for self esteem with their Mend Campaign, see http://shopdressup.com/pages/our-cause. I don't exactly see how celebrities that are society's image of perfection can be put onto the Pinterest board of a company that is trying to boost self image of girls. The solution for Dress Up's Pinterest is simple, go back to basics and look at what the store really stands for. More boards doesn't always equal more followers. I believe that if the less relevant information is removed and the boards that have potential are really invested into, Dress Up's Pinterest could be as successful as its Facebook or Instagram.

Dress Up is only a 5 year old company at this point, and it has already taken tremendous leaps and bounds with its store growth. I have no doubt that the store will continue to refine its social media presence and create a sense of flow between the various platforms.

Want to learn more about Dress Up Boutique? Visit them on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShopDressUp
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShopDressUp
Instagram: http://instagram.com/shopdressup
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/shopdressup/