Sample Brand Guide: ModCloth Best Practices — Instagram
Below is a sample brand guide created to outline what a best practices guide for ModCloth’s Instagram presence could include.
*I do not represent ModCloth in any way, this is a sample for educational purposes only. Screenshots have been edited to remove usernames except for those used in captions by ModCloth.*
As a company, ModCloth is all about expression, uniqueness, and inclusion. Instagram is a very important platform for us due to its highly visual nature. It is a great way to show off our pieces and share user-generated content from our wonderful fan base!
Voice
Any time you write to represent the ModCloth brand, think of the 3 C’s:
Cheerful, Casual, Caring
There is also a 4th C, consistency. No matter the type of content being used, aligning with one or all of these tones will “…boost engagement, trust, and reliability.” (York, 2017)
We fully embrace emojis and puns in our Instagram captions. Emojis make captions more visual and emulates the fun and eccentric prints and patterns in our products. But don’t go overboard with them! Emojis shouldn’t be used in place of a caption, just sprinkled in to make a caption pop.
When it comes to wordplay and puns, the more the merrier! If you are ever in doubt about the kind of wordplay that conveys our brand and tone, study some product names, like the “Annie Get Your Fun” dress featuring a cowgirl pattern or the “On Cloud Mine” dress with clouds and rainbows.
Tone
Sometimes, Caring will need to be the focus; we don’t want to be too cheerful or casual if we are discussing more serious topics. A commitment to diversity and inclusion is a core value of the ModCloth brand, so we can’t ignore topical events and issues. This is a time to put a caring tone above all else.
Aesthetics
Color, color, and more color! All of our collections feature bright and vibrant clothing and accessories. We fully embrace color, and we combine both brights and pastels. Ensure that the grid doesn’t ever look monotone, either from lack of color or only having one color.
Types of content
The majority of posts are photos of people wearing our items, and of those we use a lot of User-generated content (more on that under #MyModCloth). We sometimes use text-based graphics, like the “We Celebrate You in Every Way, Shape, and Form” graphic below. The graphic still uses color and supports the brand values.
Another example is the below illustration for #mentalhealthawarenessmonth. If there is a celebration or trending hashtag like this that aligns with our brand values, post about it. This illustration is a collaboration, and it’s always great to find artists to work with on posts like these.
#MyModCloth
User-generated content! Our biggest advocates are our loyal fans, and they love to show off their newest looks. Often, this content fits our aesthetic perfectly and is a great way to show love to the fans while giving followers ideas on how to style our pieces.
Our feed should remain at about an 80/20 split of UGC to our own content. We encourage fans to use the #MyModCloth hashtag when posting photos. Be sure to check this tag regularly. Engage with the photos by leaving a like. This will be a great place to find new fans to reach out to and ask to share their photos.
It will also keep our engagement up. 2 surefire ways to fail our audience is to be antisocial and ignore our followers, so make sure to engage both on our pages and with others mentioning us! (Walker-Ford, 2019)
The Nitty-Gritty
Customer Service Issues
While it is important to engage with all types of comments, customer service issues and questions are the most important to respond to! This is another time we need to focus on a caring tone. “…people will often come to your brand for a simple question or concern. The key is to be consistent with your brand’s messaging and voice.” (York, 2017) Always strive to reply within a few hours, but never more than 24 hours. There are 3 types of comment responses that you will need.
- Simple IT issues: The best response, like the one below, includes a short suggestion on a solution to try. Then, provide information for how to get in touch with the IT team for more assistance. If this is a new problem, show empathy by apologizing for the issue, and let them know our IT team is working on a solution. If you have not been informed of an issue (like the site being down) go through the appropriate channels to alert the IT team.
2. Questions: If a customer asks a specific, like the shipping question below, check with the customer service team first. If it is a question that we can provide a short answer to, do so in the comment. Then provide contact info for the CSR team for potential follow-up.
3. Complaints: If a customer is upset about a specific order/issue, show them sympathy. Then, direct them right to the CSR team or to the DMs for more information. Do not attempt to resolve their issue in the comments.
Customer service issues are extremely important to address. If you need some more information and clarification on how to respond to them, this is a great quick guide: Customer complaints on social media? Here’s what to do!
Caption length
Keep captions short. With few exceptions, a short and fun caption is the best way to capture our audience’s attention, especially when using fun and punny captions. The exceptions to this are contests, where we need to spell out the rules of the giveaway. Another is when we simply need to convey more information. This is information our fans will care about, so this is a time when we can use longer captions. It is recommended to not make a caption any longer than this; if there is more information link back to the website where they can read more.
Contests
Be sure to specify the criteria for giveaways in the post, including actions they need to take, the deadline, and how winners will be notified. In the case of our ‘Name It and Win It’ giveaway, by far our most popular giveaway, it is also very important to update the post after the giveaway has closed with the winning name and user. You need to also mark it as [CLOSED]. This accomplishes three things:
- This shows that this is an authentic giveaway, not a ploy.
- Our fans can keep an eye out for items they like when they are released.
- Marking it as closed ensures audiences don’t get upset if their comment is not seen or liked by others.
This list is not exhaustive, but if you follow these guidelines you will surely maintain a high level of engagement with our loyal and loving fan base!
About Us. (n.d.). ModCloth. Retrieved June 12, 2021, from https://modcloth.com/pages/about-us
Hermann, F. (2018, March 29). A Guide to Managing Customer Complaints on Social Media | Birdeye. Birdeye Customer Experience Management. https://birdeye.com/blog/customer-complaints/
ModCloth (n.d.) ModCloth. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/modcloth/
Walker-Ford, Mary (2019, April 9) 15 Ways to Fail at Social Media Marketing [Infographic]. Social Media Today. Retrieved June 12, 2021, from https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/15-ways-to-fail-at-social-media-marketing-infographic/552280/
York, Alex (2018, May 7). 5 Social Media Best Practices Every Marketer Must Follow. Sprout Social. https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-best-practices/
