One of the MANY great things to come out of BlogHer Business last month for me was my discovery of a really cool site, the DC Goodwill Fashion Blog. You may think, what does Goodwill have to do with fashion? Ah, my dear, that saddens me, because you are missing out on some incredible potential finds. A lot of people give a lot of things to Goodwill, and among those things may be diamonds in the rough! As a veteran thrift shop shopper, I know first-hand the joy that comes from finding that $400 designer purse for $25, or the vintage dress for $50.
And so does Em Hall. As the writer of the DC Goodwill Fashion Blog, she shows how you can be fashionable, while staying in your budget and helping others all at the same time. I met Em Hall at BlogHer, where she spoke about the creation and growth of her blog, as well as DC Goodwill's Ebay store and am thrilled that she consented to be interviewed for "WhatGives!?" - she was so kind, and generous, that this is going to be a two part interview - here's the first part...
IT Girl: How did you get started at Goodwill, and how did you come up with the idea to create the blog?
EH: I originally began as a volunteer at Goodwill, way back in 2005. I then was hired as the Corporate Development Assistant, a position which I held for a year. In June of 2007, I became the Retail Marketing Manager and stepped into a department where the VP of Marketing already had the idea to have a blog for Goodwill. We just weren’t sure initially what it would look like or what it would do. When I suggested a fashion blog, our VP loved the concept and thought that it would fit in perfectly with some of the other elements of our web 2.0 strategy that were already in development.
IT Girl: How are you using the blog to position Goodwill in a different light?
EH: Oh, wow. The blog does so many great things to introduce Goodwill’s mission of training and employment, PLUS our great merchandise, to a new audience. Our online audience is decidedly younger and more affluent than our typical shopper, which is a great new market for us to tap into as shoppers for both our eBay and our brick-and-mortar stores. Additionally, the blog has been of great interest to the media, who enjoy the sometimes tongue-in-cheek approach it takes to shopping at a resale store like Goodwill. Other fashion bloggers have gotten really excited about the blog, too, and many of these online interactions have gone offline, resulting in new relationships and a greater presence for our organization in the greater DC community. We’re getting to the point where it’s becoming hip to shop at Goodwill, especially for vintage and one-of-a-kind pieces one can’t find anywhere else.
IT Girl: Did you encounter any resistance from the higher ups in the organization when the blog was getting started?
EH: As I stated above, my boss actually already had the idea of a blog in mind when I joined the marketing team, so there was no resistance on his part! Certainly there was a discussion with the CEO about blogging and how it could be used as a valuable marketing tool. I don’t want people to think I sit around surfing the ‘net all day, although there is definitely great utility in the online social networking in which the DC Goodwill Fashionista participates! And that gets to another fun part of the blog, which is that it’s all about a persona, and not about me as Em Hall. This allows for more fun and creativity in the writing and also means that the blog can carry on after I’m gone, while also reinforcing the Goodwill brand. It’s cool to have a more fashionable alter ego out there raving about Goodwill.
IT Girl: Some bloggers find themselves struggling for content, but you get to use the clothes as content. How did you come up with that strategy?
EH: When we first determined that the blog would be treated as a product, we decided to schedule out the blog content for each of the days of the week that I blog. Monday is general fashion information and trends. Tuesday is the Goodwill Good Buy of the Week, which is a piece or pieces that are featured in depth, then sold on eBay. Thursday is more of an editorial day, when I pontificate on some topic relation to the fashion industry, or retail, or even our mission more generally. That day has generated some of the most passionate comments and I really enjoy writing it. And Friday was added in January with a feature called Blog the Blogger, in which the DCGF interviews another fashion/lifestyle blogger. That’s a popular day, too. Whenever I’m a bit stumped for content, I go back to that schedule, think about the mission of the blog and of Goodwill and something comes to me!
Check out part 2 with Em Hall later in the week!
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