Rosa Clara Group Embraces Social Media to Deepen the Connection with American Brides and offers Social Media tips to Local Businesses

NEW YORK and BARCELONA, Spain, July 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The North American division of Grupo Rosa Clara is embracing an entire Social Media platform to connect earlier with brides-to-be in their decision making process and support their distribution network by providing Social Media advice for Bridal Stores, which can be adapted for any local business.            

For over fifteen years Rosa Clara has been a sought-after fashion brand in Europe, so creating an online following came easy. On entering the US however, Dominique Debroux, VP North America had a different challenge: "Here the brand is still young and our competition is well established, so we had to find out where 20-35 year old brides-to-be spend most of their time, and today that's on social media. We discovered they were announcing their engagements or posting their wedding ideas, so by being relevant and helpful, we can reach them as they make those decisions and also direct them to stores who carry our collections." www.rosaclarabridal.com

Social Media Manager, Brianna McGraw, had to first address the language issue. "I knew most American brides would be searching in English so I created Twitter and Facebook accounts in English to spread the word on these very popular networks." Next came an Instagram account, enabling her to capture brides with beautiful bridal gown images accompanied by hashtags and keywords. The # symbol is used with keywords to mark or tag a post helping people who are searching for those keywords or topics to find your content as it categorizes those posts into search groups.

"We participated in the #mayweddingphotochallenge and in just one month, we gained over 700 followers and that's doubled now," adds McGraw. By using hashtags on Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram, she was able to reach out to brides thinking about their wedding day on a much broader level. "For example you can use destinations like #beachweddings, #lakeweddings and popular themes like #Gatsbyweddinggown or #Vintagewedding. Any business can also use hashtags to make posts highly localized to their city or state such as #Atlantabride, #CAweddingflowers and #BigAppleweddings. To reach brides earlier you can re-post content about the engagement with tags such as #engagementRing, #heProposed or #weddinginspirations."

McGraw says that contests are very smart to have on store's social media pages by announcing that people can tag pictures with an @yourname.  "Ours is @rosaclarabridal and the best pictures were featured on our Instagram page." She advises that contests help to build a following and provide great exposure for local businesses. "Your customers will definitely share a contest where they can win free items, for example a #RosaClaraVeil @yourBridalStore."

Rosa Clara was the first bridal designer on Vine, the app that allows you to create and share six-second video; the perfect length for showing dresses in movement. Their online presence is also growing with a beautiful Google+ page and a new Tumblr page, which has really helped Rosa Clara images circulate more on Pinterest.

"To further help stores, we are launching our English blog which goes live with our new, easier to use Rosa Clara Bridal website on July 1st. It will feature translations from our Spanish blog and posts written by myself that our store customers can use to populate their own sites and link to their social media accounts."

About Grupo Rosa Clara: Since 1995, Grupo Rosa Clara has become one of the most important companies in the Wedding sector by producing exquisite bridal gowns and accessories and now adding cocktail gowns and home goods. Headquartered in Barcelona Spain, Rosa Clara distinguished itself and became an iconic brand in the European bridal industry by emphasizing fashion, creativity, quality and exquisite attention to detail. With 150 individually owned and franchised stores and selling to 3000 multi-brand stores worldwide the group is committed to serving its customers, who share this philosophy and vision. Facebook/RosaClaraUSA  | Twitter.com/RosaClaraBridal  |  Rosaclarabridal.tumblr.com  |  Google+

Contacts: Kate Rolston Tel: +1(917) 523-8701 [email protected]

Dominique Debroux Tel: +1(917) 721-4845 [email protected]

Address: Grupo Rosa Clara - Exponovias USA INC., 22 Industrial Road Lodi, NJ 07644. www.rosaclarabridal.com

TEL: 1-973-777-7223  | FAX: 1-973-777-6328

SOURCE Rosa Clara Group