MODULE 5 - PLACES+FACES: PERSON B
13-28+ year-old individuals who share the same passion for 90s vintage-style photography, and the hip-hop culture.
How to Improve Viewership/Brand Recognition:
Places+Faces can increase viewership by posting more photographic content on their Instagram page. Instead of exclusively using famous brand influencers, artists, or models in their photographs, the brand should take advantage of the various modelling agencies available in cities where they are most active (London, Paris, Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, etc.) given that they already have a good number of loyal supporters. Consistently posting quality content is a critical way to enhance a brand’s social media presence (10 Ways Small Businesses Can Improve Social Media Presence, 2019).
Places+Faces could increase brand recognition and visibility by actively engaging with their audience in a meaningful way, for example, engaging with their followers through direct messages, comments, and also interact with other social media accounts on Instagram. This approach increases the loyalty of the brand’s supporters and also increases the willingness of supporters to recommend the brand to friends/family.
Places+Faces regularly features rappers like Kanye West, Travis Scott, A$AP Rocky, etc. (Ekpoudom, 2016) in their photographs. The brand should start following artists that they normally feature on their Instagram page, and interact with their fans. This approach helps the brand gain new audiences through these artists’ Instagram page; audiences that may not have been exposed to Places+Faces.
One of the greatest strength of Places+Faces is its ability to influence and shape our current generation through their style of photography and story-telling. The brand started off in 2013 by taking pictures of artists during their concerts using vintage film cameras (Nwosu, 2016). This trend of using vintage film cameras caught on in early 2015 and Places+Faces was one of the brands that gave it the attention that it deserved. The love and passion that goes into creating these photographs inspired many other young creative individuals to try and experiment with new ways of seeing the world through their camera lens.
Person A’s Part Improved:
- Places+Faces has a unique style of photography that stands out.
- Places+Faces is not just a clothing brand, but a lifestyle brand. The two founders of Places+Faces are not just focused on the fashion-scene, rather, they branch out to other creative fields; they are DJs, photographers, videographers, and graphic designers.
- Places+Faces often experiment with different styles of photography; 3D-photography.
- Places+Faces has its own magazine where they showcase exclusive photographs.
- Places+Faces has an easy-to-navigate website.
- Places+Faces are on every social media platform, but they are most active on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
- Places+Faces do not post consistently on their social media pages.
This report outlines Places+Faces social media methods, strategies, and uses. It identifies how this company uses social media effectively and ineffectively, as well as suggesting ways in which they can improve their use of social media.
Places+Faces is a striking example of how a brand successfully manages to capture a target audience through the use of various social media platforms. What started as a photography project on Tumblr (placesplusfaces.tumblr.com), has grown into a worldwide creative company which focuses on combining art, music, photography, and clothing into a culture, or rather, a lifestyle. This report will assess Places+Faces use of social media through a consideration of their various social media strategies through the platforms it utilizes such as Instagram (placesplusfaces), Twitter (@placesplusfaces), Facebook (placesplusfaces), Tumblr, Snapchat (placesplusfaces), and YouTube (PlacesPlusFaces).
Places+Faces mostly use Instagram and Twitter to expand its brand recognition and reach their target audience of 13-28+ year-old individuals who share the same passion for 90s vintage-style photography, and the hip-hop culture. It is through these two main platforms that this report collected its information and conducted its analysis. The brand gained popularity through its style of photography; using famous artists/influencers as models for their cover shoots and video editorials, and vintage film cameras as their primary tool.
Firstly, one of the greatest strengths of Places+Faces is its unique style of photography and story-telling which they effectively showcase on its Instagram page to draw in, influence, and increase viewership from their target audience.
Secondly, the brand effectively uses Instagram and Twitter to both create a sense of urgency whenever a new issue of its magazine and a new season from their clothing collection drops. They do this by posting on both of these platforms in order to spread the word about the latest drop. Further, they consistently use the hashtag #placesplusfaces in their tweets and Instagram posts to increase the branding, visibility, and promotion of the brand.
Despite the brand’s largely effective use of social media, further research has shown ineffectiveness in their use of social media. They are ineffective in three ways:
Places+Faces does not post content consistently; specifically in platforms such as Twitter and YouTube.
Places+Faces uses too many social media platforms which leads to its inability to be more consistent and create more meaningful content for their primary social media platforms (Instagram and Twitter).
Places+Faces has 0 followings on their Instagram account. It matters who brands follow because similar to how backlinks work in regards to SEOs (Moz, 2019), it refers its audience to Instagram pages with similar content or content that followers of the brand may like; strengthening the brand’s ability to influence what is currently “cool” or “trending.
This report has assessed Places+Faces use of social media. It has discussed the strengths of its use of social media through its unique style of photography, spreading the word about its clothing drops, and using it as a forum to suggest new ideas. It also pointed to the ways in which the brand uses social media ineffectively through inconsistent posting, too many social media platforms, and lack of followings.
Suggestion for Improvement:
The online population has increased by almost 2 billion users in the past 9 years (Statista, 2019). With the predicted increase of social media use, the online population will increase as well. This makes it important to more post more frequently in order to increase the company’s online presence and not get lost in a user’s newsfeed.
This is a collage of Places+Faces’ editorial for their issue of “P+F Vol. 2,” shot in Tokyo; magazine available in select stores. This picture was posted on their Instagram page to advertise the release of their new magazine.
“10 Ways Small Businesses Can Improve Their Social Media Presence.” Digital Marketing Institute, Digital Marketing Institute, 21 Mar. 2019, digitalmarketinginstitute.com/en-ca/blog/10-ways-small-businesses-can-improve-their-social-media-presence.
Ekpoudom, Aniefiok. “Meet The London Photographers Who Turned Their Tumblr Into A Global Rap Brand.” The FADER, The FADER, 7 Nov. 2017, www.thefader.com/2016/03/08/placesplusfaces-ciesay-soulz-interview.
Nwosu, Amarachi. “Meet the African Duo Behind the Tumblr Blog-Turned Lifestyle Brand, Places+Faces.” OkayAfrica, OkayAfrica, 2 Oct. 2017, www.okayafrica.com/african-duo-lifestyle-brand-place-plus-faces/.
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