Social media trends are a great way to boost your brand and expand your reach. Consumers’ use of social media to follow trends grows every day, so should yours. According to Sprout Social, 90% of consumers use social media to keep up with trends, and 44% of social media users said they want brands to use Instagram more often.
Identifying which trends are right for your brand can be scary, but don’t get spooked; we’re here to help! At Devaney & Associates, we’re experts in trend analysis and social listening, so we can deliver the results you need to grow your business. Follow our 3 tricks and treats to finding which trends fit your brand’s voice:
1. Identify your niche
Shared passions, hobbies, or interests connect people into niche communities. On social media, this could look like formally organized LinkedIn groups or even simple hashtags on Instagram.
There is something for everyone in the digital space; it is just a matter of finding your niche. Understanding where your brand fits online is incredibly important to building consumer loyalty, reaching your target audience, building cultural relevance, and, of course, promoting your brand. Whatever your place may be, we can help you identify it.
Your niche is the hyper-specific user profile that will connect with what your brand has to offer. For example, if your company sells yoga mats, your niche community could be moms who like yoga. If your company sells accessories for dogs, your niche community could be urban dog owners. To find your niche, ask yourself, who is your audience? What are they passionate about? Once you answer these questions, you can identify their channels and communities.
2. identify their channels & communities
Where does this niche community hang out online? Who do they trust on social media? Your niche community is your audience, but understanding where to find them, who they interact with, and how is just as important as understanding who they are.
Your community may use specific platforms or subgroups to communicate about products and services they use. For example, you can find these niche communities in their unique online environments, like:
- R/MatchaEverything on Reddit
- Adults in Disney on Instagram
- Graphic Designer Lounge Group on LinkedIn
- The Phoenician Scheme Scavenger Hunt on Letterboxd
When working with a language learning platform, like Duolingo, in step one, you might find that your niche is people who are interested in etymology. In this step, you could discover that they use Instagram the most and frequently interact with short-form videos explaining the subject by influencers like Adam Aleksic, also known as @EtymologyNerd. Having found an influencer in your niche, you can continue to explore who they follow, what brands they promote, and how their audience engages with their content.
Knowing where and how your audience exists online will help you understand what content they consume and who they consume it from, leading to a better grasp of trends that are present in that community.
3. conduct social listening
Once you have established your niche and understand what channels they use, you can start social listening. Social listening entails researching what is currently trending and culturally significant. You can conduct social listening by researching competitors’ content and what other people in your niche are posting. For example, if you’re conducting social listening for Duolingo and notice that an influencer in your niche, like @Etymologynerd, is using a specific hashtag, you could use the same one in your captions.
From there, you can go further by clicking on the hashtags you see and monitoring the content and people who use it. You can use this trick to find more hashtags, trending audios, and what works for brands like yours. Following these steps will ensure your content is not just on brand but on trend as well. Maximize your use of social media and take advantage of the opportunities for marketing through your niche community.
Tips and Tricks in Action
Now that you know where your brand fits, who your audience is, and how to reach them, it’s time to start creating content. Write your blog post, create your Pinterest board, or film your Instagram reel. The possibilities are endless; you can have your interns do a TikTok dance or create a LinkedIn post spotlighting your employee of the month. The world of social media is extensive and full of opportunities, so don’t wait to take advantage of the trends that work for you.
case study
Garage Clothing
One example of a brand successfully utilizing trends that fit them is Garage Clothing. They cracked the code with their employee influencer strategy. With this strategy, they:
- Pay in-store employees extra to create content, instead of outsourcing to influencers.
- The employees create on-brand content, like ‘Get Ready with Me for Work’ videos showcasing merchandise.
- In exchange, employees receive extra pay, event invitations, and even tickets to Coachella, like a normal influencer would!
They understood that their audience overlapped with their own employees and utilized that to meet the trends that their customers paid attention to. They save on the effort and time that it takes for them to research their niche, find their audience, and create content themselves by utilizing internal sources who already understand the trends that work for the brand. They figured out that for them, there was no need for outside influencers when they already had that resource in-house, and their employees get extra rewards for successful content, like any other influencer would. Not only does this save the company time and money, but it also creates a positive work environment for employee influencers. While they still create guidelines for their employees, the employees do most of the work for them, while getting compensated as such.
This is just one example of a brand working smarter, not harder, to find the trends that fit their voice and identity.
let d&a find the right fit for you
These steps can seem time-consuming when you also have an organization to run, but Devaney & Associates is here to help! Our team members are experts in what’s trending and know how to identify what would work best to reach your target audience.