KEEPING UP WITH SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS & TRENDS

In the age of social media, trends come and go in the blink of an eye. One minute everyone is doing the “Cuff It” challenge on TikTok, and the next, everyone is using a popular meme on Twitter and Instagram for almost every post. And as marketers, it's important that we can keep up, not only for our own brand, but for clients as well. But with the way trends come and go so quickly, it can be hard to do that. So, here are some tips that will help you stay on top of all the latest and greatest when it comes to social media:

Manage Your Time

When scrolling social media to see the latest trends, it’s easy to fall down a rabbit hole, no matter what platform you’re scrolling. Thirty minutes of scrolling can turn into three hours of scrolling if you aren’t aware, so it’s a good idea to block out some time to dedicate to social media. That way you can monitor trends in real-time, while also completing other tasks. Blocking out some time for social media will also allow you to turn any current trends/news into content for your own social media pages. This will allow you to produce content that is not only relatable to your audience but also relevant to readers as well.

Focus On Your Business Priorities

With social media constantly evolving, there will be changes and updates almost every day across all platforms. While all of these updates may not be relevant to you and your business, there is no need to implement all of them. However, by recognizing and accepting this, you will be able to formulate a clear business plan all while staying focused on your business priorities. You can still be aware of social media updates and trends on the backend, but it shouldn’t overwhelm you so much that you aren’t tending to your audience and advancing your business.

Use Credible Sources

When using news on social media as content for your own platform, it’s very important to use credible sources. This may seem hard as most “viral” news on social media is not reliable (or even true, for that matter), so be sure to check the platforms themselves, industry reports or credible news pages/sites.

Set Up Alerts

Making sure you don’t miss out on news or trends can be stressful, so to overcome this, you can set up notifications such as Google alerts around keywords you may be interested in. You can also turn notifications on for social media pages you are interested in.

Utilize Communities

In addition to monitoring trends and news on social media feeds, it’s also a good idea to monitor what your audience is consuming as well. See how they react to certain images and videos on social media. Doing this will help you engage with your community by posting content that is not only relatable to them, but content that they react positively to.

Social media is never-ending, so it’s imperative for the marketing world to stay on top of it.

Happy Advertising!