How To Make The Most Of A Trending Topic On Social Media
There’s always something trending. Whether it’s a celebrity, news story, event or anniversary, you’ll always find a topic trending on social media.
A trending topic is a subject that experiences a surge in popularity on one or more social media platforms for a limited duration of time. There's no limit to how long a topic stays popular, though trending topics tend to have a shelf-life of one day to one week.
The right post at the right time can make a world of difference when it comes to attracting people to your brand. Here are our top three ways we think you can make the most of trending topics.
1. Stay Ahead of the Trend
Ok, so some trends are hard to anticipate (not even a crystal ball can help us here), however, some trends are staring us right in the face and we can easily prepare for this. If you want to be ahead of the trending game, think ahead to upcoming events or occasions that make sense for your brand, such as holidays, sporting or entertainment events, anniversaries and more. Take some time at the start of a new year to research what’s happening throughout the year and pull together a planner.
There are loads of ‘Days of the Year’ to incorporate into your social media content planner too, from ‘World Chocolate Day’ to ‘Read a Road Map Day’! If three topics all fall on the same day of the year, pick the one most relevant to your brand. The one that would make more sense for you to post about. If you can combine them, go ahead – there’s no rules that says you can’t. For example, 1st October is both ‘Coffee Day’ and ‘Vegetarian Day’, if you’re a café that sells both these products, a post combining the two days would be a great way to advertise these products to your audience.
You don’t always have to wait for holidays or popular events to come around to jump on a trending topic. There are some already made up that you can use on a regular basis including: #MondayMotivation #TransformationTuesday or Throwback Thursday (#TBT).
2. Make it Relevant
The key to making the most of trending topics is to make them work for your brand — not the other way around. Aim to add something new to the conversation. Stay relevant while adding value or fun to trending topics. Ask yourself, “How is this topic relevant to my audience?” If the topic can relate back to your business and target audience, try to find a subtle way to throw your brand into the mix. If it doesn’t, it’s best just to leave it trending for others to pick up.
For instance, the trending topic about “Albert Einstein” might not seem relevant to your boat-selling company, but seeing as Albert Einstein loved sailing, a post on “How to Make Sailing a Hobby” would likely generate some buzz and give you relevance for your content. It’s fair to say, that from first glance trending topics may not always appear relevant, however after a little research you’d be amazed as to how you can make them work.
Unfortunately, trending topics won’t always work for your business, but simply joining in on the discussion can be enough to engage your audience and raise awareness about your company and product.
3. Get on Board Early
The thing about trends is they come and go. Sometimes they can also be a bit like buses, you don’t see any trends for a while and then three will come at once!
However, a missed trend can mean missed opportunities for your company. For any trends that are particularly newsworthy, join the conversation early. It’s all about planning and keeping up to date with what is going on in the World – make sure you always have one eye on the ball and a finger on your local and national news page!
Maybe the idea wasn’t originally part of your social media or content strategy for the month, but don’t let that stop you, you have to be prepared for ad-hoc posts in the World of social media.
So, there we have it. Three plain and simple ways to make the most of a trending topic on social media. Remember, if you are looking to post about a trending topic, to always use the relevant hashtag to allow you to jump on to the trend. Whether this is #WorldChocolateDay or #TipTuesday it’s important to include them so other people can find your content, linked to the trend. To find out more about how to use hashtags read our ‘It’s all about the hashtags #justsaying’ blog here.
If you have any questions regarding trending topics, why not see if Social Soda can help? Contact us at hello@socialsoda