Alex Bowen, CEO of Oscar De la Renta, once said: “We could not have been more wrong in our expectation of the internet.” This was his jaw-dropped response to selling an $80,000 dress online.

But with Burberry having just announced some impressive trend-bucking sales (29% revenue increase in the first half of its financial year), and crediting them to digital campaigns, the luxury sector is waking up to the power of digital. Burberry is now dedicating 60% of its marketing spend on digital channels – roughly three times as much as the average digital spend.

The luxury sector is really beginning to wake up to the power of social media. Last month I gave a presentation at the inaugural ‘L2 Social Graph’ event in Paris. Curated by Scott Galloway (Clinical Professor of Marketing at NYU Stern School of Business, Founder of L2 Think Tank and publisher of the luxury sector’s performance bible – the L2 Digital IQ Index®), the conference was attended by some of the biggest names in luxury – Calvin Klein,  Gucci and Hermes – all hankering to get a slice of the digital action.

And rightly so. Digital – or, more specifically, social media – is an ideal platform the luxury sector. Consumers are increasingly concerned with ‘brand me’. They want to self-broadcast, everything from what they had for breakfast to what they’re watching, reading… and, more crucially for marketers, what they’re buying. You only have to go to a gig to realize that nowadays sharing the experience – or, in the case of luxury, sharing the purchase – across social media platforms has become as important as the experience or purchase itself.

People are social animals. And innovative social media campaigns allow luxury brands to tap into people’s innate desire to share, engage and interact. Once the consumer has been engaged in this sociable way, they start investing emotionally in the brand and this is then more likely to lead to a financial investment. Or, to put it more crassly, social sells.

This engagement element is social media’s killer benefit and it’s a tactic that can thankfully be exploited by most sectors. But what’s particularly pertinent about social media for the luxury sector is that it provides a free and accessible medium for consumers to self-broadcast their conspicuous consumption. Like pairing Christopher Bailey with Burberry, Sarah Burton with Alexander McQueen… social media and luxury is a match made in fashion heaven.

Lloyd Salmons is founder at social media agency, Outside Line (www.outsideline.co.uk)