The Instagram Reel That Changed My Life
It all started on a Sunday afternoon, right after I had the third mid-life crisis of the weekend, and I was about to quit everything and become a monk in the Himalayas. Right at this moment, when I was doing a mindless scroll to validate my present situation, I had a light bulb moment.
A Duolingo reel came to my feed with the dancing owl. I clicked on their page and saw a million followers, and a distant memory hit my mind of me laughing at their content and telling myself, “What sort of silly marketing strategy is this?”
Now, months later, Instagram had still not forgiven my account, and Duolingo’s account had hit A MILLION FOLLOWERS.
That’s when I realised where I am lacking. I am living in the stone age era of digital marketing, and I need to buck up in following digital marketing trends or say goodbye to my brand forever, and actually start looking for monasteries to become a monk.
If you have also felt like me, I have prepared this cheat sheet after learning from the best Digital Marketing Firm, how to follow trends in digital marketing and stay ahead in this game of ever-changing algorithms.
Why Digital Marketing Trends Matter?
Digital Marketing trends are more like a double-edged sword. One wrong step and it can do more harm than good. So why do they still matter? Because if you follow them correctly, you can actually grow very fast.
Following digital marketing trends is not about following every trend blindly. It’s about understanding what all trends are getting popular with your potential customer base and then tweaking them to make your own.
Blindly following any trend won’t help you get reach or customers. You need to be smart about it, and once you do, your low engagement on social media would be a thing of the past.
How I Spot Trends Without Completely Losing My Mind?
In this section, I am going to reveal the ultimate secret and share with you my personal playbook, which I prepared after closely following top Digital Marketing Companies over the years:
- Google Trends and Exploding Topics
If you are not keeping a tab on this, are you even serious about exploding on social media yourself by following trends? Keep a close eye on what’s gaining momentum by checking keywords like “zero-click content,” “AI prompts,” or “social SEO.”
- Social Listening, Identify The Gold Mine For Your Niche
The Instagram trends might not be relevant for your business; it could be Reddit or LinkedIn. You need to be clear about where your audience is and then casually follow what real humans are talking about, and not just what your fellow brands are doing. That’s the real gold mine for you!
- YouTube Comments (I am not kidding!)
Some of the best content ideas that might work in the future come from real humans commenting on platforms like YouTube and not what your fellow brands are posting. Follow the content that is relevant to your niche and then scroll through the comments on those posts. That’s where you might find the trends you failed to follow in the past.
- Newsletters (I love following)
Are you a newsletter person? I have always been a fan of newsletters and follow the ones that are relevant to my niche. Find the experts in your field and follow their newsletter. They can give you some valuable insights much earlier than they will show up in your feed.
You don’t have to be on the internet 24*7 to explode your social media. You just need to be smart about it.
A Question We All Must Have Asked At Least Once to Ourselves – “Should I Jump On That Trend?”
After answering this question WRONG so many times, I have finally learned my lesson and have prepared a checklist for you that will help you learn from my mistakes:
- Know your audience and always ask yourself if a particular trend is relevant to your audience. If the answer is a clear YES, only then move ahead with it.
- Can you mould the trend in a way that it aligns with your brand voice? Following every trend that is storming social media right now is so tempting. But only by using it properly can you get the maximum ROI out of it.
- Can you add a twist or value to the ongoing trend? It’s always good to have an element of surprise in a predictable trend that a content consumer is tired of watching. So, try to brainstorm in that area and you are golden.
At the end of the day, don’t overthink it. The more time you spend on thinking it through, the more chance that the storm has passed already, and now your post doesn’t make sense anymore to most. Sometimes, a reactive, imperfect post can be much more useful than a well-crafted post that has passed its prime.
Use Tools To Track The Trends Easier and Faster
Ok! A Confession – “I don’t manually track or predict the trends that are going to explode or work for my brands.”
I have backing in the form of my favourite go-to tools:
- Glimpse to check real-time Google Trend alerts inside Google itself.
- BuzzSumo to understand the shareability of the content.
- AnswerThePublic to understand the questions my relevant audience is secretly Googling at 2 a.m.
- TrendHunter for visual trend inspo.
Last but not least, I use good old-fashioned Google Alerts to help understand what Google Papa is liking at the moment for my niche’s keywords.
Habits That Help Me Stay Aware In The Upcoming Trends
Let’s accept it! It is not easy to predict trends and get them right every single time. Over the years, I have developed a few simple habits that help me keep sane in this ever-changing landscape of digital marketing trends:
- Morning Scroll
Yes! Guilty of spending a good 20 minutes on social media channels with a “What’s hot or going to be hot” lens. This is my passive research time, where I don’t have any goal in mind. Just simple, mindless scrolling, and I only stop if something extraordinary catches my eye. This usually becomes the base of my research for the rest of the day.
- Weekly Trend Recap
Every Friday, I screenshot the 5 best things I noticed on social media over the week. I call them my “Inventory of WOW things.”
You Don’t Need A Special Trend Goggle To Spot Trend, You Just Need To Be Aware!!!
Now, you know! There is no secret sauce. It is just good old-fashioned research meticulously done by Digital Marketing firms.
I know, all this sounds overwhelming, but we can help. We provide digital marketing services that are relevant to your brand and can help you explode on socials with the right amount of trendiness.
So if you have been looking for a Digital Marketing Company that can help you bring your brand out of the ghostland it has been stuck in, CONTACT US.