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When there are many people who are talking about the same thing, it’s an opportunity to get their attention with an interesting take on that issue. If you do contribute to the conversation, your post could also be seen by persons monitoring the trending topic—even if they aren’t commenting on it. It’s one of the best ways to generate publicity for your purposes.
What Kinds of Trends Should You Get Involved With?
If you’re going along with a trend, you’ll have to be sure that it’ll work for you. Here are some questions you should answer before going along with social media trends.- Are they in any way relevant to your brand, industry, or purposes? Can you tie the trend to these things in a way that’s reasonable or logical?
- Do the trends align with your brand’s statements, image, and culture?
- Will the trend last long enough to be worth jumping on?
- Is it appropriate to use the trend? (You may want to avoid exploiting trends that relate to a sensitive issue).
How to Make Trending Topics Work for You
These are a few ways to ride the wave of trending topics to your advantage:Post an Interesting Take on the Issue
What constitutes an ‘interesting take’ will depend on the nature of the trending topic, and on the type of audience you’re trying to reach.Sign up to the Connect Nigeria daily newsletter
Let’s say your business operates in the mobile technology space, and there’s a trending topic about a new smartphone that’s just been released to the market. If your target audience is quite tech-savvy, you could attract their attention with a post reviewing lesser-known features of the phone.
Link the Topic to What Your Brand Offers
Following up on the example we just presented, you could also drop a word about how your product or services will improve the user experience of a person who might use the new phone. Sometimes, the trending topic may not be directly related to what your business does; it could be about something outside of the sphere of business. In this case, you could come up with a creative way to tie the topic to what you do. You’ll find many examples of this on Twitter. However, this second example may not be suitable for brands targeting an audience that prefers a formal communication style. If you operate in this type of industry, you may be better of sticking to industry-specific trends.Add a Relevant Image, Infographic, or Video
Text-only posts could be sufficient sometimes. But your post will likely get better engagement if it is (or is accompanied by) an image or video that’s relevant to the trend. In some instances, an infographic with a short introductory note may do the trick.Use Relevant Hashtags
Trends often come with corresponding hashtags. If you include these hashtags in your posts concerning those trends, the posts will be easier to spot by people tracking the related trends. This translates to more views of your post, and hopefully, more shares, follows, and conversions.Final Words
Social media trends are an interesting phenomenon on their own. But as tools in your social media marketing arsenal, they can help you boost engagement levels. You just need to take advantage of the trends when they come up and use them to attract as many targets as you can. Featured image source: Montgomery Municipal CableGot a suggestion? Contact us: editor@connectnigeria.com
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