Fashion retail giant Inditex, which lists Zara among its global chains, recently found itself in the middle of an online spat with bloggers over the use of images used by its outside designers for t-shirts in its stores.   The designers used pictures posted by fashion and style bloggers for a series of t-shirts, which have now been withdrawn.

It was a spectacular PR own goal by alienating bloggers who are extremely influential in the fashion world and are often taken on as brand ambassadors, advisers, even designers, for an industry when tomorrow is out of date.  Inditex missed a golden social media opportunity to run a design campaign with the bloggers on side.   Michèle K, who runs a Swiss fashion blog, said that she would have been happy to give permission for her image to be used.

The retail chain is getting some of its social strategy right.  At the beginning of the month, figures from famecount.com placed Zara fourth among the top ten brands on fan engagement.

But, just not this time.