How to Leverage Trends for Brand Awareness on Social Media

Every business person wants their business to generate more income and grow beyond the teething stage.

They exploit every opportunity that lean towards this end and make the best of gains out of them.

Savvy business people do more. They go the extra mile to ensure things happen, including spending on marketing using social media. And adequately maintaining a successful social media account for a business comes with some handsome budgeting, but leveraging trends for your social media marketing efforts can get your business an organic viralty that can compete with its paid counterparts.

The good news is, the Nigerian society and its political arena presents on the steady, tons of trends that can be leveraged by businesses to drive massive social media awareness for their brands and save social media marketing costs.

An example is the story of the snake that swallowed 36 million naira which many businesses latched on to create conversations around their brands.

A good example leveraging a trend for social media content

Here’s how you too can do same.

#1. Understand your audience

We know that you already know your target audience, but when a trend surfaces and you wish to jump on it, there’s the need to remind yourself of those basics again.

Ask yourself, who’s my audience? Will this flow with them? How are they going to perceive this? Before you proceed.

#2. Be hyper sure it’s a trend

Trends are ongoing conversations and opinions about an issue of massive common interest. Not every noise is qualified to be a brand.

You need to be able to decipher which conversation deserves the trend crown before integrating them into your brand conversation.

The easiest way to do this is to pay attention to the trend section on Twitter, and check out for real time conversations on Twitter surrounding the identified trend.

#3. Play by audience location

Consider the location of your audience before jumping on trends.

The trend should match with your audience location. This is because trends in countries foreign to your audience will only generate snubs and no engagements. Engagement is needed to be able to drive awareness using trends.

#4. Twist narrative to suit your brand offer

When you notice a trend that suits your brand and fits in with your audience, the next thing to do is to create and weave a message that is in tandem with your brand’s offer around the trend before sharing them with your audience.

#5. Be creative, make it fun

One basic truth about marketing on social media is this, the audience wants to be either educated or entertained.

For this reason, any message with a touch of fun easily gels with online audience and sparks them into engaging with them.

So, make it fun.

Good intentions gone sour: A social media post weaved around a trend that triggered a customer’s ire.

#6. Scrutinize for offensiveness

Even when they have checked out on all the other criteria, social media content meant to leverage a trend for brand awareness still needs to be cross-checked for offensiveness.

Share the post with a friend or colleague who shares similarities with your target audience how they feel about the content before you post.

#7. Share with appropriate hashtags

This caps it all.

When you’re done with every other thing, share your post with industry hashtags that match with the topic of the content you wish to share. Then post.

Bonus

Of all the other social media platforms, trends go more viral on twitter. Consider using Twitter for posts weaved around trends.

Posting on the social media when your audience is offline may limit the performance of your post, so note when your audience is online and make your post to meet them at the point of their visit to your social media handle.

5 Most Creative Valentine Season Campaigns of Recent Times

 

Every February presents communications departments in many organizations an opportunity to creatively weave love discussions around their brands.

When their meals are done we get some good, some bad, some ugly and some really dope campaigns serenading the airwaves.

Every February presents communications departments in many organizations an opportunity to creatively weave love discussions around their brands.

When their meals are done we get some good, some bad, some ugly and some really dope campaigns serenading the airwaves.

Well, we’re focusing on the dope side of the campaigns today.

Our article here chronicles five of the campaigns that brought the wow factor to the valentine’s season celebration in recent times.

 

#1. Cocacola’s couples’ happiness machine 2012

In a tweaked version of its first “Happiness strikes” campaign which was hosted in a New York University in 2010, Cocacola treated couples to a valentine’s day surprise by installing a remote-controlled vending machine specially made for couples in a busy New York shopping mall on the valentine’s day of 2015.

People had to do only one thing to have access to drinks from the vending machine.

And that was to prove that they were actually a couple, viola! they’ll be rewarded with cans of Cocacola drinks from the vending machine.

Awesome creativity, isn’t it?

 

 

#2. Flower Council of Holland’s #Cupidrone Love in the air 2015 

In 2015, Funnyhowflowersdothat.co.uk, an initiative of the Flower Council of Holland an organization in the Netherlands which promotes the use and selling of flowers.

In order to make people aware of the importance of flower to the celebration of valentine’s day, the organization organized the Love in the air campaign, in which #Cupidrone a real drone stealthily dropped red roses to couples.

When the drone spots his target, he drops them a red rose.

The campaign was set in Verona, the Italian city made famous by William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

 

 

#3. Coca Cola’s #LoveIsInTheAir 2013

The Cocacola brand never ceases to amaze with awe inspiring creativity for its valentine’s season campaigns and this one was not different either.

Seeking ideas for its 2013 valentine’s day campaign, Cocacola threw open a contest challenging filmmakers around the world to come up with a creative advert to celebrate the day.

At last then 23-year-old Hugh Mitton’s idea was chosen.

The ad was simple but intriguing. Really intriguing.

The idea entailed dropping cans of Cocacola from a height to unsuspecting couples hanging out in a busy cityscape.

Aw! Such a lovely sight to behold.

See the video below.

#4. Swatch’s #ThisIsLove 2015

For its 2015 valentine’s day campaign, Swiss watch making giant Swatch wanted to generate a buzz and sales for its brands and that was how the #ThisIsLove campaign emerged.

For the campaign, Swatch positioned remote controlled display boards in select busy malls at Paris, Zurich, and Madrid.

To get to participate to win a 2,000 euros worth of travel voucher, fans had to find a key hidden in a heap of love themed pictures on the display board; by repeatedly moving their bodies in front of the board while the pictures are picked out to finally unravel the key.

When the key is unraveled, the fan gets an online access to pictures of themselves snapped by the display board when they log in to a portal.

They were expected to send the pictures to their val. When this is done, they get an access to enter for the promo proper.

Not a bad idea at all.

Check out the video below to see the campaign.

 

#5. Dominos Pizza on Tinder 2014

In 2014 Dominos Pizza decided to do something different from normal for the valentine’s season. Guess what they did? They registered on the dating site Tinder!

Registering a presence on Tinder, Dominos promoted its valentine’s day campaign offering Tinder users an opportunity to swipe right and win delicious meal deals.

This is how they did it.

First, they registered and next they kept swipping right and liked many individuals on the app. At last they got matched to hundreds of Tinder users whom they engaged in chats and made meal deals that finally got delivered to each of the individuals at their doorsteps.

What other thing could be more beautiful than that?

 

Now you have our five most creative valentine campaigns of recent times. Which other valentine season campaigns do you think is creative enough to grace this list?

Send us your comments.