International menswear retailer Perry Ellis is holding a discussion on Twitter with prominent male bloggers about the industry to increase brand awareness.

For one hour only, bloggers with large followings on social media will be conversing with the brand about men?s style with questions from fans and other information for consumers. Twitter users must use the hashtag #GentChat to get in on the discussion.

"Social media channels, like Twitter can be an amazingly effective path for creating brand awareness and engagement," said Michael Becker, managing partner at mCordis, San Francisco. "Especially when you're engaging in a conversation with prominent influencers that have a following that may find the brand's messaging, ideas and mission relevant to their personal and commercial interests. 

"This program absolutely has the potential of being a big success for them," he said. "That is, it can help them achieve their goals and increase their fame and prominence." 

The twitter event will take place today from 5p.m. to 6p.m. and is the first of a series of chats the brand plans on holding.

Blogger benefits
Brands partnering with bloggers is now a staple in mobile and social media marketing for a reason. As bloggers become more popular so does their influence on consumers. 

Accessing the blogger fan base can really help create a much larger audience for brands like Perry Ellis.

Syed Sohail from Canada and Travis White are two of the bloggers featured in the live twitter chat. Mr. Sohail is known as "the Prep Guy" on his blog and social media and is a stylist and accounting student who's fan base has grown tremendously.

Mr. White is a model turned blogger based out of Houston, Tx who focuses on bringing a more tailored style to menswear in the city.

Although this is its first live twitter chat, a campaign such as this is not rare for Perry Ellis. The brand is known for its strong social media presence.

Recently the brand held a contest on Instagram offering consumers a chance to win a $200 gift card.

Instagram users followed Perry Ellis's page and upload pictures of themselves wearing an item from the brand?s suit line with the hashtag #SuitUp. The contest promotes its up-coming semi-annual suit sale.

Images of celebrities and big-name personalities sporting Perry Ellis merchandise can be viewed on all social media accounts of the brand. It also is in constant conversation with its fans and followers with answers to customer service questions and stirring up brand awareness.

The brand has over 15,900 followers on twitter, 12,100 Instagram followers and 911,000 likes on Facebook, where there is an event promoting the live chat. The brand is likely attempting to spread its followers across all social media platforms. 

Productivity with mobile
In January the retailer also started running mobile ads on Esquire.com and ESPN.com to drive engagement with its spring campaign Very Perry. To spread the word, Perry Ellis chose top publishers in the industry on the mobile channel (see more).

Similar to Perry Ellis's blogger discussion, apparel and accessories retailer Coach invited Insta-famous personalities to customize pictures of bags in their own manner to celebrate consumer individuality (see more).

All of these campaigns are important tactics to marketing through mobile.

"Social media is one leg to the media table, the others are paid, earned and owned media," Mr. Becker said. "The table top for these legs is content. 

"Relevant content can generate mobile moments that matter, moments that last and make a difference in a person's life," he said. "Critical to a social media marketing program is establishing an owned media causeway, that is marketers must make sure that their content has a reliable link back to the brand's owned media properties."

"By establishing this link the marketer can direct consumer engagement back to their properties in order to engage people in deeper, more meaningful and enriching conversations."