Over the past few years, social media has had an effect on many parts of our lives, from personal to professional. Whether you tweet, regularly update your Facebook status or use one of the other popular social media platforms, you probably come into contact with social media in one form or another on a regular basis. Social media has impacted many different industries and professions and t-shirts are no exception.

Facebook in particular has affected the way t-shirts are promoted with designers and retail companies taking advantage of the opportunity to connect directly with their customers and inform them of upcoming launches, new releases and promotions. By building a Facebook following, designers have a receptive audience for any information about their t-shirts and can communicate directly with their customer base at a minimal cost.

Facebook also allows followers to share information with their friends via ‘like’ and ‘share’ buttons which can help to exponentially increase awareness of new t-shirts and interesting promotions. Due to the viral nature of the internet and social media in particular, awareness can spread extremely quickly with it being possible to achieve thousands of new followers overnight.

As a designer or seller of t-shirts social media means you can increase your following with little effort on your part. The more people are aware of your new t-shirts or special promotions, the more chance your sales will increase. If you can build a community and foster discussion on your business page through comments, your customers can not only be aware of your Facebook page but feel like they are active members of a community. A Facebook page is a great way to interact with customers and build your brand, whether you are selling t-shirts or anything else.

Another great feature of social media for promotion of t-shirts is the ability to target your advertising to a specific audience. Whatever your potential customers’ gender, age and interests, you can tailor your Facebook ad campaign to the people most likely to want to buy your product. If you are promoting t-shirts that feature a particular movie such as The Hangover or celebrity such as Charlie Sheen, you can target your advertising specifically at fans and those who have an interest in that specific person or film. This can save a lot of unnecessary time-wasting and expense.

The versatility of social media platforms like Facebook mean that sellers of t-shirts can even build a store into their page and sell directly to their customers through their social media page. The convenience for both business and customer of being able to purchase t-shirts instantly can streamline the whole process and increase sales.

Whatever the future of t-shirts may be, it seems likely that social media will play a strong part in getting the word out about everything from special sales to the launch of new labels and designs.