Black Milk Clothing Social Media Marketing

Give me nylon or give me death
Nothing like a night out downtown and the entire night you are being complimented on a unique and yet very astonishing pair of purple galaxy leggings. Yes, I said it, purple galaxy leggings from the one and only Black Milk Clothing created by James Lillis from Brisbane, Australia. Black Milk Clothing (BMC) is only an online store that specializes in unique crazy-printed nylon leggings, swimsuits, and dresses. The reason why BMC is such a unique company is because it only uses social media and their customer base for marketing. The goals that James Lillis made for his clothing company of BMC is to make girls happy all around the world while wearing astonishing and unique pieces and to discover BMC brand only through social media. With these goals of a company, this is what makes BMC so much more different than any other business.
Black Milk Clothing uses various amounts of social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, Vimeo, Pinterest, and Tumblr. BMC does not use any fashion magazines, banner ads, or advertisements to promote their clothing. BMC wants to keep their brand less commercial and more organic. BMC continues to have a $0 marketing budget since the creator James Lillis was broke and also knew social media would be free and the cheapest way to get his clothing discovered. After a purchase is made through BMC, each package has one card with all the social media available associated with BMC to let the customer know where to share their new piece of clothing. Unfortunately unless you have heard or seen these unique pieces of clothing that is the only way you will know about BMC. BMC wants their business to grow not by banner ads, but by women all over the world discovering their pieces only by social media.
What makes BMC so unique is the passion and obsession of their customers. BMC targets geeky girls interested in science related, cartoon comics and hit movie style nylon clothing. BMC does not follow any seasons or trends, they solely base their clothing on what the customer wants by learning about their customer needs through their social media. BMC emphasizes that anybody could wear their pieces and dress however they want and share it to their personal social media and also BMC social media. The growth of BMC is related to the massive amounts of followers, friends and the community behind the brand. All the marketing for BMC is done all through their customers who share their pieces on social media. This is what makes BMC the one odd of success for social media marketing. Although their strategy of marketing is working, BMC should consider taking time and tagging the customer who helps market and promote their clothing on the picture they posted on their social media. This is important because without their loyal customer base sharing their clothing, BMC would not be where they are today.
One of BMC strongest outlet of social media would be Facebook. Facebook is the main social media platform which Instagram, Twitter and Tumblr are linked to the page. James Lilli loves to interact with his customers or so called ‘Sharkies’ on a more personal level by responding to each person who writes, posts, or messages him. A Sharkie, is anybody who buys BMC. James decided to join Facebook because he wanted to learn more about what his customers wanted. Facebook allowed a personal interaction between the customer and James which then helped the business to grow from 1,000 friends to over 150,000 friends and growing with 1,000 a day and almost 5K-7k a week (socialsell.weebly.com). BMC uses Facebook to release new lines, and engage their followers by promotions and listen to what their fans are looking for in styles and new pieces. The Facebook page has styling tips which are all linked to their website for people to buy. By using such unique marketing strategies, it has allowed BMC to grow organically. Friends of friends are able to see the unique pieces, which allow people to get on to the growing trend. Although, James wants to keep his business focused on personal relationships with his brand, BMC is falling short with keeping up with comments and pictures on their page. BMC should consider possibly hiring people who will be able to help James reply back to his customers and by ending the conversation with a signature of who responded. This technique will keep the personal relationship strong and make the customer feel important and recognized regardless of the huge amount of friends that BMC has on Facebook.
Another outlet for Black Milk Clothing is Twitter. Twitter, a lot like Facebook, lets their followers know new releases, lines and promotions daily. With 40,000 followers and growing, it is easy for customers to feel up-to-date with the brand. BMC is constantly re-tweeting photos and tweeting back to them. This has been a great way to continue that personal relationship that James looks for in his brand. Downside of Twitter for BMC is that it is based on Australian time, which means for people with American and European clocks, are behind by 20 hours. By the time USA/EUR following base head to bed, BMC is just getting up and tweeting for the day, which means a huge amount of their followers miss the chance of a personal relationship and promotions. The reason this is so important is because according to Alexa.com, The United States stands as number one for visitors of BMC website with 30%, following United Kingdom with 12.7%, compared to their home country, Australia, which is ranked third with 7.1%. In order for BMC to grow even more, they should focus on the times of their two leading buyers/visitors of their website. In order to fix this, BMC should hire someone based in the USA and Europe to be in charge of Twitter to share what will be tweeted during Australian time.
Lastly, the third most important social media that BMC uses for marketing their product is Tumblr. On February 24, 2009, James posted his first pair of leggings to his blog, which then turned to the very reason for the start of BMC. Due to the huge hit on his blog, James decided to run all of his marketing via social media and online 100%. Tumblr is a blog used with many pictures that show past, present and future of their pieces. The Tumblr page is now linked to their website which can also be accessed through re-blogging of people pictures wearing their clothing. Unfortunately, as their social media continues to grow larger, the maintaing and monitoring of their blog is slowing down. As they continue to grow, BMC should work on fixing their blog by hiring someone full-time to keep the blog up to date on a daily basis. Blogging for BMC is more than creating and showing a brand, it is a relationship between the customer and the business that presents the passionate and friendship related to the basis of BMC brand.
In conclusion, BMC efforts with social media are the reason why the business has grown so successfully. Social media helped James Lillis get his product discovered, and to this day, he bases his whole business on the discovering and sharing of his clothing marketing strategy. BMC understand that being emotionally involved and on real-time with social media creates a feeling of being authentic and not commercial. By creating a brand dedicated to the passion of his fans, this lets his customers to feel apart of the brand, rather than just wearing it.

Works Cited
Saborido, Julia. "Too Much Love." Too Much Love. Too Much Love, 1 Feb. 2013. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.

Lillis, James. "About Black Milk Clothing." Black Milk Clothing. Black Milk Clothing, 2009. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.

Rezab, Jan. "Black Milk Clothing Facebook Page Statistics." Socialbakers.com. Social Bakers, 17 Mar. 2014. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.

"Blackmilkclothing.com." Blackmilkclothing.com Site Info. Alexa Internet Inc., Mar. 2014. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.

Lillis, James. "Too Many Tights!" Web log post. 'Too Many Tights! ' Tumblr, 24 Feb. 2009. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.

http://blackmilkclothing.tumblr.com/

Cited: Saborido, Julia. "Too Much Love." Too Much Love. Too Much Love, 1 Feb. 2013. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. Lillis, James. "About Black Milk Clothing." Black Milk Clothing. Black Milk Clothing, 2009. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. Rezab, Jan. "Black Milk Clothing Facebook Page Statistics." Socialbakers.com. Social Bakers, 17 Mar. 2014. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. "Blackmilkclothing.com." Blackmilkclothing.com Site Info. Alexa Internet Inc., Mar. 2014. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. Lillis, James. "Too Many Tights!" Web log post.  'Too Many Tights! ' Tumblr, 24 Feb. 2009. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. http://blackmilkclothing.tumblr.com/