Social Media Trends: Good or Bad?
We all know social media trends come and go in the speed of light, and when an opportunity arises, as a brand, you want to make the most of it without being impulsive and distasteful. The way to go is taking a step back and reflecting before getting your creative team to put something together.
Adding Value Without Compromising the Brand’s Voice
A lot of brands try hard to speak like its audience, and although it’s good practice to be audience-centric, we must keep a balance between the brand’s voice and something that might be trending. Ask yourself, what does your company look like in the eyes of consumers? If you think it’s trying too hard, you might be right. Let’s look at this attempt from Hillary Clinton to get millennials to talk about student loans. Obviously, not an easy conversation to have, and people would rather leave emojis out, but Hillary’s team thought it was a smart move.
Why Is It Trending?
Always make sure to check why something is trending and if using hashtags, what is the meaning of it. Can you imagine assuming you got it and embarrassing the brand in front of millions of people? Your post might trend for all the wrong reasons, and it has happened before. Remember the DiGiorno example using the domestic violence hashtag #WhyIStayed? What about how Cinnabon distastefully posted about the passing of Carrie Fisher? If they had done this while she was alive, could be a hit, but fans weren’t impressed with this tweet.
Go or No Go?
Deciding whether or not to post, shouldn’t take a lot of time. You must ask yourself questions like why, how and when you are using the trend. If the content is not original, you want to make sure there’s a strong connection between the brand and its audience, and it should help achieve a goal. If you find yourself trying to justify the use of a trend, maybe you should reconsider.
Successful Stories
There are several successful examples of how a brand can succeed using social trends, here are two of my favorites:
Jamba Juice — Swishy Chug
Back in 2016, Ellen DeGeneres sent Adele with an earpiece to Jamba Juice to play a prank, and whatever Ellen said, Adele had to repeat. When Adele asked the server to explain what Jamba Juice was, Ellen told her to respond “we have something similar in England called Swishy Chug.” Zimmerman, the agency managing Jamba Juice’s social accounts, came up with a plan to create a brand from scratch, Swishy Chug, with a complete website, Twitter handle, and 5 signature smoothies. The use of earned media, in this case, was managed seamless and the results were phenomenal, with zero spent — the rest is history!
Wendy’s Chicken Nuggets
In April 2017, Carter Wilkerson was on a mission to get Wendy’s chicken nuggets for free for a year. He sent a tweet to Wendy’s, and to his surprise, the brand replied and people just went crazy. Wilkerson didn’t get the 18 million retweets Wendy’s asked, but it was the most shared tweet in history, setting a world record of 3.57 million retweets. It also led Wilkerson to create a website #NuggsForCarter which sells t-shirts, and all the proceeds from the merchandise sales are donated to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. Wendy’s ended up giving him the free nuggets for a year, and also pledged to give $100,000 to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.
In conclusion, social media professionals must have a goal when sharing content in digital channels, and trends shouldn’t be an exception. Knowing the brand’s audience and applying best practices may help to filter content before clicking post and avoid getting into a major PR crisis.
