Fashion Social Media and Branding Consultant

By Bennett Marcus

Meet Sofie Mählkvist, a 24-year-old fashion social media consultant. Mählkvist currently is working to get her master’s degree from Harvard University in Fashion Marketing Management, and she spent her undergrad at Regent’s University London, where she graduated with honors in Fashion Marketing and Global Management. She divides her time between London, Paris and New York. Still in her early 20s, Mählkvist is wielding the tools of her generation, establishing herself as a consultant to fashion companies on how to utilize social media to increase brand awareness and drive sales.

Mählkvist’s clients represent a wide range of fashion industries, and she is deft at developing strategies for branding and marketing that are unique to each situation. She offers various levels of service to suit any firm’s needs and budget, from a simple plan on what to post that the client can carry out themselves over a period of time to full-on creative consultancy on every facet of a business.

Fashion footwear

For Paris-based footwear company Iindaco, a start-up at the time, its founders were talented designers who admittedly knew nothing about marketing and were not prepared to spend money on advertising.

Mählkvist began by looking at who their customers are, posting to Instagram and engaging with them, and then reaching out to celebrities and influencers with whom they might identify.

To this end, Mählkvist employed more traditional methods of public relations, persistently reaching out to stylists with the product. A paparazzi photo of Miley Cyrus wearing their shoes helped to jump-start interest, and later Kendall Jenner and others were seen in them, all without spending advertising dollars.

Keeping tabs on the changing social media landscape

“Platforms nowadays are made for growth; you just have to help them help you grow, doing things that are popular and trendy at the moment,” said Mählkvist. “And if you have a brand, you don’t have time to keep up with that, we’re researching these trends. So, it’s a time-saver, and for someone who doesn’t know the platforms, what I do is also educational.”

Social media is constantly changing. The shoe brand strategy took place a year ago, and now, Mählkvist explains, the Instagram and social media community is somewhat different in general because of the growth of TikTok and the influence of reels.

TikTok replacing Google for searches

Increasingly, people are searching on TikTok rather than Google because they get a visual sense from people they follow and trust. Say you want to look up restaurants in London, you see where people are on TikTok. “You’d rather see your favorite influencer recommending where to go and where the cool crowd is, and you don’t really know who is giving those reviews on TripAdvisor or Yelp,” she said.

And with short attention spans, people are using TikTok to learn how to do something in 10 seconds rather than watch YouTube tutorials.

“People don’t really go nowadays to Google and YouTube to search for those things, so that’s what you have to do now as a brand because that’s how you can also grow,” Mählkvist said.

B2B AI healthcare tech brand

For a B2B AI healthcare startup, Mählkvist came in for a one-time consultation, preparing a three-month calendar to get the brand started on social media. “I created a project package for them, saying, ‘October 25th, you’re going to post this and use this hashtag,’ so they can just look at that and don’t have to think about it,” Mählkvist said. The company wanted a presence on social media but didn’t have the need for someone full-time and they can call on Mählkvist when questions arise. They’re not selling a product to the public, like shoes, they’re selling their software to other businesses. “They’re engineers and didn’t want to have to create a TikTok or know how to cut a reel, and don’t really have time for that,” she said.

Customized strategy for each client

There are so many possibilities now to try to score that algorithm, said Mählkvist. “That’s what I am trying to focus more on when I work with a brand now: how do you actually work the algorithm so people stumble upon your profile?” Of course, she also advises on strategies for paid ads. “But you have to do those right as well.”

Philanthropic Work

Mählkvist is a chair member of the Junior League’s London branch and works with charities in Latin America supporting child and animal welfare and environmental preservation.

Instagram: @sofiemahlkvist