How Your Content Planning Can Help You Follow Trends

One of the things we love about social media is how dynamic it is. It’s a powerful medium that keeps pace with customers and technology – but keeping up with it as a business owner can be daunting.  

Every online platform including social media outlets (Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest and TikTok); marketplaces (Amazon, Ebay, Etsy and Airbnb); and search engines (Google, Bing and Yahoo!) update their algorithms, software, policies and procedures to keep pace with their customers’ ever-growing needs and preferences. The changes are endless.

Sure, it can be frustrating but once you get in the rhythm of spotting trends and planning social content that connects you to your key audiences, it gets easier to take advantage of changes rather than feel overwhelmed by them.

Here are some tips to help get you in that groove…

Don’t just update your posts. When you’re on social media, intentionally look at images to see how they’re styled. Also, look at videos to see what’s popular. If you write out your observations and review them, you’ll see trends for yourself. Don’t forget about hashtags! 

When you spot something that’s unexpected, write it down. If you see something in your notes a few times, you’re on your way to becoming a trend-spotter! Being in the know prepares you to participate in the trend, if it fits your brand.

A Warning…and a Safeguard

Social media tasks can easily hijack your considerable To Do List and consume copious hours.  Planning ahead is the key to taming social media tasks.  

Set a time budget for each platform and stick to it! Use your time to dive in and research what is trending and what other users are doing. Evaluate what fits your brand, decide what you want to share and write your plan.

Content planning is a respected discipline. One benefit is that it empowers social media marketers to quickly jump in and participate in fast-breaking trends. They don’t have to wait for the trend to build their posts. Think about it. When the majority of your content is planned and you spot a new trend, you have 3 options:

  1. You can quickly check your content calendar to find a post that supports the trend .
  2. You can tweak planned post to be on-trend. 
  3. You can start from scratch with a new, trend-right post because the posts for the next 3 weeks are already set to go.   

Posting to social media may be your primary social media task. We all started there. That said, when business owners follow trends and study other creators, the quality of their posts increase because they’re applying newfound insights.

For more on improving productivity, check out our blog on How To Simplify Your Business With Automation

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