Trends on Twitter is a quick snapshot of the most tweeted about topics. From sporting events to movie releases to political events trending topics collect what is newsworthy at that present moment. Trends for those of you who may be new to Twitter are created when user’s add hash tags to words relating to a topic. For example, the Formula One championship was decided in a final race on Sunday. Topics such as #Vettel, #Alonso, #F1 started trending because of the global popularity of the sport.
Getting your topic to trend can mean a great deal for organizations:
- It shows a healthy awareness of your brand/topic
- It shows that people are actively discussing topics relating to you
- It shows that you are popular or engaging
The challenge is how to tap into the trending resources to benefit your campaign. Here are a few suggestions:
Be aware of the real time environment
To get a theme trending on Twitter you need willing users to include a hash tag in their tweets. This takes significant effort so you will need all the help you can get. Leveraging the popularity of a major event is a good way to assist your hard work. If have the resources to create your own event this would be ideal.
Choose your hash tag wisely
The hash tag needs to be relevant, easy to understand and easy to apply to anyone’s tweet. Take inspiration from popular hash tags like #greathingsaboutfriends or #holdmyhand. These demonstrate how to make a useful hash tag and can be applied to many situations. Keep the hash tag in mind when conceptualizing your campaign to make sure there is a natural fit between the two.
Draw together a group of like minded people
It matters not how many times you tweet the hash tag but how many different users tweet the hash tag. This is not to say that tweeting a lot with a hash tag will not help you, it will when it comes to generating awareness of the hash tag. The point I’m trying to make is that you need to seed other users and get them to use your hash tag. For this you will need to draw from a group of like minded people who share similar views, a community so to speak. For this to be successful you need to:
- be clear about what your brand or reason for engagement is about
- be clear and relevant about why people should share a sense of belonging to your brand – people who share the same values as your brand are the people you want
- earn the hard yards by engaging and rewarding these like minded people to gain their trust.
To conclude, topics trend for a reason. Unfortunately they can’t be faked or bought. Be relevant, be interesting and be creative. Having topics trends is kudos for a job well done.
Read more posts by Ettienne Mostert
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- Golf Case Study: Integrating Twitter & other social media tools with your value offerings
