Online trends are a major part of internet culture, which always results with a bandwagon of people that want to participate in them because they are fun and easy to do.
As a brand, participating in trends can help increase your relevancy to an online audience. Staying relevant online allows for your brand to consistently interact with.
Internet trends are usually easy to follow, and fun to do. It can be effective for businesses to incorporate internet trends into their own social media accounts to reach out to younger demographics like Genz and millenials.
These younger audiences are all about internet trends, when brands jump on them, it helps give the brand more of a personality which younger audiences seem to enjoy.
While this seems like an easy thing to do, it is important to keep track of the trends as well as current events in order to not appear tone deaf or “slow” to your audience.
Here are a few useful tips to keep in mind when you are considering having your brand jump on fun internet trends.
- Be mindful that all trends have a shelf life – There are millions of people on the internet constantly, many of which will participate in online trends like the ice bucket challenge, or the mannequin challenge.If you have looked around on social media sites recently, you will notice that nobody is doing these challenges anymore. This is because all trends have a shelf life, people will only enjoy it for so long before the main audience gets tired of the trend and move on to another trend.Sometimes, many large companies are often late to internet trends, which causes the younger audience to disregard what the company has to say since they are behind on what the new trend is.This results in a wasted opportunity on the company’s part for showing up late to the party. Knowing that certain trends will not last forever should keep your brand aware of what is and is not popular.
- 2. Be active on more than one social media page
- There is a wide variety of social sites that provide users with different ways to create and share information. Because of this, different trends will work only on specific sites.For example, if a trend involves music, it will likely be more popular on Tiktok, but if it involves something with images or just text, it may thrive better on places like Twitter or Instagram. By increasing the amount of sites your brand is active on, you also increase the chance to find trends that will best fit your brand.Using more than one social media site also gives you a better perspective on a wide variety of trends that may or may not work to implement with your brand.
3. Look at the trending tabs on places like Youtube, TikTok, and Twitter
These different social media platforms all have their own version of the trending tab. This is an easy way to look at what is currently trending on the site.These tabs will give you a reflection of what a majority of users on the platform are discussing/sharing amongst their peers. YouTube categories their trending tab into subcategories like music, gaming, and news for people to find content specifically in that area.Other places like TikTok and Twitter usually rely on shared content with hashtags to reflect what is trending. Looking at these hashtags and seeing what people post using the hashtag helps you see different examples of the content that is trending.
Looking at the creative ways others have done the trend is a great way for you to figure out how to add your own twist to the trend in order to implement your brand with it.
- Pay attention to what popular influencers are sharing onlineOnline influencers are always on top of internet trends, it is part of their job to be in touch with their online audience and internet culture.Many of them are able to profit off of collaborating with brands while also participating in trends.By taking note of how influencers interact daily with their audience, you can gather a good idea of what your brand could do to get the attention of online users.Influencers usually have great timing on internet trends, so it’s typically a good idea to jump on trends around the same time these influencers do it.
- Pay attention to current eventsCurrent events have a significant impact on social media.This means that some trends have the intention of raising awareness of important issues, not because they are fun.For example, #blackouttuesday was a recent event that encouraged people to go silent on social media, and stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. This resulted in many people participating and raising awareness for the movement.Brands that participated with #blackouttuesday were able to show their audience that they are aware of issues that are going on with the world.
It’s important to pay attention to current events so as to not appear tone deaf to reality. Showing that your brand is sensitive to issues going on outside of your company shows people that you care about them, which is appreciated.
Managing social media seems easy on paper, but in practice, it can feel like a daunting task when you are struggling to get people engaged with your brand. These five tips are a great starting point for understanding internet trends and staying on top of new content that the majority of users enjoy participating in.