1. Maeve Eggers
December 22, 2011
Graham Withers Clothing Company
and Social Media
Graham Withers is a Brooklyn-based men’s clothing company specializing in hand-
crafted neckties, bowties and pocket squares. In the four years since co-founders
Dave Roma and Paul Hanan started the company, they have enjoyed several
successes that Dave attributes largely to social media. “Since developing our online
presence, we’ve been getting a lot more press and write-ups from bloggers as well
as wholesale inquiries from retailers.”
Graham Withers has an active presence on many platforms and a small, engaged
audience that they are looking to expand.
Background
Dave and Paul started the company in early 2008, initially handmaking ties during
non-business hours in a whipped cream factory on Long Island. Paul, who works at
the family-owned whipped cream factory, and Dave, who works as a web developer
at a NYC ad agency, are longtime skateboarding buddies. Their involvement in the
New York skateboarding community has played a large role in the development of
Graham Withers.
Skaters were the duo’s initial market. Graham Withers began by selling their ties to
friends, and later at local markets and events in Brooklyn. Several skaters wore
Graham Withers ties in skateboarding videos and people outside of Paul and Dave’s
circle started to take notice, leaving comments on video posts and photos asking
where they could get Graham Withers ties.
Once they noticed a growing demand, Dave created a Graham Withers website
where people could order merchandise. The website links to the Graham Withers
Tumblr blog where Dave and Paul post regularly.
By 2010, demand for Graham Withers products exceeded the supply Dave and Paul
could produce themselves. They found a NYC manufacturer, an industry veteran
who works with some big names in the men’s fashion industry, to take over
producing their line.
Social Media Marketing

2. Because of the skateboarding scene’s overlap with the art, music and fashion
industries, Paul and Dave already knew photographers and filmmakers happy to
help produce marketing content and bloggers eager to disseminate it.
Friend, fellow skateboarder and filmmaker Richard Quintero shot and produced
many videos for Graham Withers which have been successful in terms of social
sharing, including a commercial for their 2011 Summer line. Several blogs reposted
the commercial including Guiness.com (one guy in the video is shown briefly
drinking a Guinness). While they post their videos on their website and across the
social media platforms they use, Dave and Paul have decided against creating a
YouTube brand page. “It’s important to us that the people that work with us also
benefit from the relationship,” Dave explains, “so we are trying to push people to our
website but also to Richard Quintero’s Vimeo page.”
The partners consider Graham Withers a lifestyle brand and they’ve been using
social media mainly to build their brand image. Dave maintains the Graham Withers
Facebook page and Paul handles the Twitter account where they post about things
that interest them as well as new product information. They are active on
Instagram, sharing photos of skateboarders, other menswear brands they like, and
places of interest in Brooklyn.
Graham Withers consider Twitter and Tumblr to be the most successful platforms
for them, with Twitter followers doubling in the last 12 months and Tumblr
followers, reblogs and interactions increasing every day. Facebook has been the
least beneficial in terms of user interaction, but Graham Withers feels it is an
important platform for developing the brand’s personality. “Facebook allows us to
connect to our personal Facebook pages which increases our exposure, and features
like photo albums cultivate the brands image.” They continue to regularly update
content on the Graham Withers Facebook page as well as use their personal
Facebook pages to post updates about Graham Withers.
How can Graham Withers use social media to increase brand awareness and
engagement? Should they concentrate efforts on increasing user engagement on
Facebook or focus on continuing to grow the platforms that have already proven
successful for them? Should different platforms be used to accomplish different
brand and marketing goals?

3. Website
http://www.grahamwithersclothing.com/
Blog
http://grahamwithers.tumblr.com/
Videos
http://www.grahamwithersclothing.com/video.php
http://vimeo.com/richardquintero
Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/GrahamWithersClothing
Twitter
http://twitter.com/GrahamWithers