Use Social Media Trends to Join the Party

Adopting the latest social media trends is about more than just trying to stay current with the times and the competition. Social media is a means and mindset to find people who care about you, your ideas, your products, or your services and connect with them on a deeper level than possible through traditional forms of marketing. Marketing almost isn't an appropriate word, because it's about communication more than anything. Fortunately, social media does help the bottom line. It's more than rainbows and unicorns. If properly used, adapting the latest social media trends can lead to loyal customers .

An analogy

Let's say you were throwing a party in a week and were given $1000 to promote the party in any way you please. The objective is to get as many people to the party as possible.

Your options are: A) Create a poster and plaster it up all over the city. B) Hire someone to stand on a street corner and pass out invitations. C) Run a promotions spot with a local radio station ($1000 wouldn't buy you anything, but pretend that it would.) or D) put an ad in the local paper. What option do you go with?

Option E. You save the $1000 for a catering company and go out and promote the party yourself. Get out and talk to people. Go to other events that are happening throughout the week. Shake hands. Make friends.

Take this scenario and imagine it online

Start getting active with social media trends and use channels to reach out to people. The direct communication to promotion ratio should be a minimum of 10 to 1 to begin with. In other words, speak directly to people a lot more often than you promote yourself. Send 10 @replies on twitter and then 1 tweet about yourself. Comment on 10 other blogs before you expect someone to comment on yours. Email 10 people and say "hey, I like what you're doing". It doesn't matter who that person is, as long as it's genuine.

A method to the madness

When you reach out to other people and show interest in them, they will show interest in you. It really is that simple. Social media trends are important to latch onto, because it gives you an avenue to show that interest. Cold call someone at their house and they might get upset and they have every right to be. If you call 1000 people, you'll find someone who will give you the time of the day, but the other 99% have a negative image of your brand. Reach out to me and show genuine interest on a social network and now we're going places. It's relationship building 101.

You wouldn't walk into a party and shout at the top of your lungs "LOOK AT ME!" "I'M IMPORTANT" "BUY NOW!"
You wouldn't do it in real life, so why are you doing it online?

It's a big party and your invited. Current social media trends are your ticket. Don't ruin it for yourself. Make the most of it. Grab some customers. Make some friends.

Photo Credit: Flickr