As any other person in the world who frequently visits sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube, I have noticed that a lot of people tend to pick up on quick-passing trends.
I’m talking of course about things like Confused Travolta Meme, The Ice Bucket Challenge, The Harlem Shake, internet quizzes, glitter hair roots, etc.
Although these trends are known to hit the internet by storm, the question that we, content marketers, tend to ask ourselves is: “Are they actually worth the hustle?”
Well, it all depends on how you approach them and what you want to achieve.
Confused?
Don’t be.
Let me break it down for you.
As I already mentioned once on this blog, every 60 seconds, 510 comments are posted on Facebook, 293,000 statuses are updated, and 136,000 photos are uploaded.
Pretty scary numbers, huh?
These digits indicate a lot of things, but above everything else that Social Media sites generate A LOT of traffic.
When I say A LOT, I’m talking about millions and millions of hits per minute.
Considering the volume of content that gets posted on these web addresses every 60 seconds, it’s quite logical to think that you should jump on that HUGE digital wave while it’s still up? – Well, that’s not easy. If you have any interest in standing out from the crowd in such a saturated space, you need to create something truly exceptional.
For example, to produce an interesting The Harlem Shake video that has even the slightest chance of going viral and initially standing out from tons and tons of other videos, one must invest a certain amount of brainpower, creativity, time, and even money.
This is where the problems start.
Since its rise to stardom, content marketing has experienced a lot of turbulence. Quality written texts don’t really cut it these days. It’s all about adapting to new technologies, adding format diversity to your content marketing mix, and your ability to connect with an audience across multiple mediums.
Although piggybacking on projects and ideas that have a solid potential to double your investment has always been an essential part of almost every marketing strategy, today we cannot afford to just jump on to every wagon that passes our way.
No, we need to ignore the hype, choose our battles, and approach quick-passing trends from a highly precise and analytical angle.
It’s difficult sometimes to ride the crest of the initial wave of a trend, but that is an enviable position in which we find ourselves very often.
There are ways to take advantage of short-term trends beyond selling tee-shirts and launching trendy websites.
In order to make these short-living trends work for you, one must consider the following things:
Don’t Just Chase Clicks and Likes, Follow Up On Trends That Could Actually Improve Your Branding
Although corporate brands try to take advantage of quick-passing trends all the time, there’s only a small number of companies that actually succeed in making a certain fab work for them on a higher level.
A lot of brands get a few hundred likes from a certain fab and think that they’ve done great while completely ignoring the fact that they actually failed to make any new sales.
In order for a quick-passing trend to bring some real benefits to you and your brand, you need to think outside of the box and actually figure out how to monetize a certain hot topic.
If you don’t create any new conversions, you’re basically wasting your time.
The food industry is great at cashing in on quick-passing trends.
Wherever you turn now, all you can read is “gluten-free” and “organic” recipes.
People are obsessed with fitness these days, so it’s quite understandable why we see a growing trend of food companies jumping on the bandwagon on to remove harmful ingredients from articles.
But, how does this concern me? I’m a blogger, not a food distributor or a restaurant owner. Where do I cash in here?
Knowing that the theme is eating healthy, as a small time player who writes content for a living, you should ask yourself: “What are the emerging fads that may be profitable that you can get ahead of and build up your site as an authority?”
Look For The Right Kind Of Traffic
Anyone who knows anything about SEO, knows that it takes a week before Google ranks your page. This is not great news for those who plan to capitalize on quick-passing trends.
Even if Confused Travolta Meme ends up in the top 10, it could be too late for you. Your site won’t get any traffic because people will lose interest in that specific topic.
However, if you’re generating traffic via social media, you can jump on a trend much sooner, depending on what it is.
In this case, if you’re actually jumping on that whole flash trend wave – it would be a lot better to seek value from it on a platform where information travels fast.
Over the years, I have seen a lot of brands use these quick-passing trends to gain a lot of new social following. Naturally, you have to play it smart here. If you just participate, the chances are – you won’t get you very far.
Write About Them As Case Studies
As I already said on this blog, although these trends are known to generate some significant attention, once the tide settles – they quickly fade into oblivion.
Their lifespan is extremely short.
That’s why most content marketing experts try to avoid them and focus solely on producing evergreen content that will never stop bringing in new leads to their website.
However, there’s a way on how you could ride the fab wave, and still create content that stands the test of time. All you have to do is approach it from a different angle.
Mentioning trends and how they may impact your niche could help you as a content manager get more exposure and clicks on your website.
Being able to discuss particular trends, put them in lists, make all sorts of videos, blog posts, infographics and podcasts – all these things could actually help you rank higher on Google than if you actually made, for an example, a Harlem Shake video.
By being conversant and knowledgeable about the latest trends shows your audience (and subscribers) that you are an active, engaged, and concerned about the current state of affairs.
Thank you for reading this blog posts. I hope it helped you see how you could easily get a lot of exposure from quick-passing trends. If you have anything to ask or add on this subject, feel free to write your thoughts and questions in the comments section below, and I’ll do everything in my power to reply as soon as possible.
That’s it for now,
See you soon again,
Goran @ AltusHost B.V.
The author is highly qualified and writes blog posts weekly.
