We are constantly keeping our ears and eyes open for innovative social media strategies embraced by the world of fashion. Every week we pull together a few of the top stories that really stood out, made noise, and caught our attention.

JCPenney Lauches “Haul Nation” video blogging for teens

JCPenny has announced a contest which gives teens the opportunity to video blog to win a trip to New York and tour of Seventeen Magazine’s offices. The contest is hosted on the jcpTeen and Seventeen Facebook pages as well as in malls across the country. Teens will create 3-5 minute fashion-related videos for the chance to win. jcpTeen fans can vote for their favorite videos. The grand prize also includes guest blogging opportunities, a JCPenney gift card and an iPad 2. Read More.

J Brand Revamps its Site To Embrace Social
J brand has launched a new website that simplifies shopping online. The “Style Notes” section showcases outfits and trends, including an option to “Shop this style”. Also added to the ecommerce section are Facebook and Twitter sharing features. The “J World” section allows users to upload a photo of themselves wearing their favorite pair of J Brand jeans and add it to the collage – the more “likes” a picture gets, the bigger it appears on the site. Read More.

Zappos Goes Digital In Latest Campaign

Never shy of the unusual, shoe and clothing retailer Zappos will launch a fall campaign featuring naked models doing everyday activities around the streets of Manhattan, their bodies censored by QR codes. Once scanned, the QR code takes the customer to a mobile site which features fictional videos of what happens to the women. They can then choose Zappos products to clothe them. The ads will feature in magazines such as Lucky, InStyle and Cosmopolitan. Read More.

Guess Launches Mobile App for VIPs

Guess is launching a mobile app for loyalty card members to offer deals based on purchase behavior, what they have Liked on Facebook and their location. Guess is encouraging members to download the app by offering points for a download. The brand is also looking into mobile payments and Google Wallet commerce. Executive Vice President CIO Mike Relish said that Guess aims to build up 250,000 “superfans” – ie. the most loyal customers – over the next year. Read more.

Macy’s celebrates back-to-school with social

Next week, Macy’s will launch a campaign on its Facebook page called “raise your thumb”. Users who become a thumb and nominate their school will get the chance to win a $25,000 classroom makeover. They’ve also partnered with DoSomething.org, an organization that helps young people reach out to causes. Customers can scan a QR code found at mstylelab departments in Macy’s stores to have Macy’s donate a dollar. For every “like” on the mstylelab Facebook Page, Macy’s will donate another dollar. Both campaigns can total up to $250,000 in donations. Read more.

Last night we covered a range of topics related to optimizing your social network, including:

1. How to Optimize Your Facebook Post Effectiveness

2. How to Use Video on Facebook As The Center of Your Next Marketing Campaign

3. How to Track & Manage Sentiment On Your Facebook Page

4. How to Target Facebook Ads for Engagement

5. How to Promote Your Promotion

If you want to learn more, please join us for the workshop on 8/3/2011. Also, if you have any follow-up questions, feel free to tweet them to us at @enternewmedia with the hashtag #enm10x60. Special thanks to everyone who attended and participated – the event was a huge success!

Translation: the new privacy settings are unlikely to jeopardize the efforts of brand marketers and managers using Facebook to promote their products.

The singular objective of the Facebook security enhancements has been to protect the consumer, not to impede the efforts of marketing users. Consequently, brand marketers shouldn’t be alarmed by the new privacy settings: expect little net change to your marketing operations.

According to All Facebook, five major security enhancements were announced:

1. A new button has been introduced that users can use to opt out of applications from the entire Facebook platform.

Marketing Impact: Tune your marketing activities to prevent end-user frustration. Over-solicit, and you could wind up pushing your target market to opt out of all applications. Further, it’s now imperative to deliver value in every interaction. Do so, and a frustrated user may remember that the connection to your brand is worth preserving.

2. Users can now hide their lists of friends, likely impeding fan and friend recruiting.

Marketing Impact: If you’ve been sifting through the lists of fans and friends to find more targets, it’s time for a new strategy. Brand marketers using this approach to recruit audiences, though, were overdue for a change anyway! The goal of your Facebook marketing efforts should be to trigger this behavior among your fans and friends. Design applications and develop content that users will want to spread for you.

3. Users can hide their interests, making it more difficult for you to ascertain which people would be most receptive to your brand.

Marketing Impact: There’s virtually no change as a result of this. Since interests were only released when community pages were rolled out in April, it’s unlikely that any transformative social media marketing practices had time to emerge.

4. Past status updates can be hidden, constraining brand marketer research.

Marketing Impact: This development looks more significant than it really is. Unless you’re working with a small number of highly targeted Facebook users, it’s unlikely that you’d sift through this much content. Past information is concealed from searches, which can be limiting, but it should have no impact on a referral/viral growth strategy.

5. With only one click needed, privacy is getting much easier for users.

Marketing Impact: Again, there’s virtually no impact. Facebook users can easily restrict access to “Friends Only,” “Friends of Friends,” “Recommended” or “Everyone.” Unless you’re sifting through users to find targets, which is inefficient and time- and resource-consuming, this shouldn’t change your on-platform marketing activities.

Despite the magnitude of the changes, particularly in regards to personal privacy control, brand marketers shouldn’t be impacted too severely … as long as you’re using well-planned, properly executed social media marketing practices. If you suspect the privacy changes could disrupt your Facebook marketing efforts, contact us now.

[Thanks, All Facebook]