Um, so, I guess this is it. Hi, my name is Ana and I’m addicted to shopping. What’s worse, social media made me do it!

Like the rest of us, the first thing I do before going to bed or after waking up is scroll through all my social media platforms. All of them. Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook…the list goes on. And what I always see is beautiful flatlays, #ootds and, more recently, snapchats of poised models parading the crème de la crème of haute couture at London Fashion Week that make me yearn for a luxuriously fashionable lifestyle. Retail is funny like that; it makes you want to buy into an ideal lifestyle that, admittedly, makes you very happy, if only temporarily, and social media is proving to be the perfect marriage between business and aesthetics.

Like many celebrities, shops and fashion brands now use the far-reaching and customisable powers of social media platforms to keep their existing fans in the loop and reward their loyalty as well as to increase their numbers. Think of it as a virtual army of disciples, ready to pounce on every online sale preview, giveaway competition and the like. And who wouldn’t?

While an advert in Vogue or Cosmopolitan would set back a pretty sum off any publicist’s budget, posting regular, fun content on Instagram or Facebook is the cheapest and most effective way of promoting a brand. But even so, there are some campaigns that stand out from the boring tweeted links and mannequin posts.

One of them is Mango’s S/S 2016 campaign featuring Kendall Jenner that took Instagram by storm. Just one Instagram post featuring her sees 50 per cent more reddened hearts and, with strong high street competitors like Zara and H&M, Mango sneaks into the lead in terms of cool points just by merging with the social media royalty that is the Kardashian clan.

Another example demonstrating the reign of the almighty hashtag and clever promotion is the Marc Jacobs campaign during New York Fashion Week. They had opened a pop-up store in Manhattan (talk about chic) to launch the new line of the already popular Daisy fragrances. Customers who came in could tweet and Instagram about the collection with the incentive of free gifts, including perfumes, jewellery and accessories. Naturally, this resulted in 13,500 mentions on Twitter and 4,300 ‘grams – a veritable social media takeover and great ‘word of mouth’ publicity. And while we’re on the topic of Instagram I’ll just mention the cool way in which Nine West made every girl’s dream of becoming a bonafide model true by having Instagram posts of their customers wearing their shoes digitally displayed in-store.

However, there are many traps to be aware of in this social media game. 33 million followers come with great responsibility and a huge comments section, as Victoria’s Secret found out last season during the #PerfectBody campaign. A line-up of smiling, toned, Amazonian-looking models just in lingerie sat atop the hashtag inviting other women to try on the bra collection and find their perfect fit for their #PerfectBody. Or at least this is what the intention was.

It created a social media frenzy with sizeable backlash at the disregard of body types other than the ‘VS angel’ and implied fat-shaming. Explanatory and apologetic press releases followed but the post was out for everyone to see and to judge the lack of Mattel-style revamp.

Love it or hate it, fashion social media is here to stay and likely to take over not just your Instagram, but Snapchat and Twitter too. I suggest you save up, go out and get hashtagging. You never know, you might win a Marc Jacobs competition or star in the next Burberry YouTube video…