Talking Social Media with Drew Elovitz

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Social media is a cornerstone of marketing. A solid social strategy is cost-effective but high impact. Social media puts brands in direct communication with their consumer base and allows marketers to gather information about their target audience. Social media is especially important in the fashion industry. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram regularly inform trends and launch influencer careers. We spoke to Drew Elovitz, Fashion Industry Essentials contributor and social strategist, about social media in fashion today.

Managing Social Outreach

“Being the social media director at Teen Vogue involves everything from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, Snapchat. I could go on,” explains Drew Elovitz. “We’re on 15 platforms right now. My job is to translate Teen Vogue content from print to web to social, and disperse it all over the internet for all of our fans to see.”

Social media marketing sounds easy; scroll, post, repost, and so on. But there are more intricacies to consider. “A typical day in my life rarely exists. I start most days by scrolling through Twitter on my phone, looking for news to share with our web editors. I love that we connect with readers all over the world.” Elovitz also points out that different platforms require a different approach. “We speak to Facebook users very differently than we would speak to Twitter users,” Elovitz says. “There are character limits to consider for every platform. We also convey the Teen Vogue message visually on platforms like Instagram and Pinterest, We Heart It, and Tumblr, which is a favorite of mine.”

Social Media and Print

Social media has influenced the way people read and consume magazines by making them more accessible daily and on a mass level. It can bring fashion, beauty, trends, and news to the masses in a way that traditional print products can’t.

“Social media for a magazine is different from other brands and very different from being an individual in that you are tied to a heritage project,” Elovitz explains. “It’s really important to me as the social media director that I am always adhering to the brand voice and aesthetic established in the print product.”

It’s important to stick to the language and the visual pillars of the print product in a way that a lot of other social properties, social brands, social individuals, and bloggers don’t have to do. So they can invent, innovate, try new things, and experiment on social media to find themselves.

“I think I’m really lucky to work with such a fantastic brand like Teen Vogue because it has a rich history for me to pull from and ask, is this the correct messaging? Is this what I want to be saying? What have we done in the past? And how can I translate this for our new digital-savvy audience?”

Be Innovative

Social media is also a great medium for quick and inventive promotional opportunities that would take longer to come together for print. “Most recently, we did our first ever cover reveal on Snapchat with Nat Wolff and Charli XCX in our June/July issue. That was awesome. We planted the seed by saying, ‘follow us on Snapchat.’ There’s something cool coming. We released the cover on Snapchat 30 minutes before it was shared anywhere else in the whole world,” says Elovitz. “If you were following us on Snapchat, you got a super exclusive sneak peek.”

For Elovitz, combining social media with traditional print builds something bigger for readers. “That’s part of what my job is. It’s to give you a reason not only to read the magazine every month but also to follow us on the 15 platforms because you will get something different everywhere. It’s all part of the same family, and there are connections between what we write in the issue, what we write online, and what we share on social. However, it’s all going to look different based on the platform’s strengths,” Elovitz concludes.

Interested in creating a social media strategy in fashion? Check out this fashion online course featuring Parsons and Teen Vogue.