Trendspotting 101: How to Stay Ahead in Social Media

What is Trendspotting?

Trendspotting, as the term suggests, focuses on identifying emerging patterns, trends, or tendencies in a specific field. In a business context, trendspotting plays a pivotal role in identifying shifts in customer preferences, industry advancements, and social media trends. 

Applied effectively, trendspotting generates essential insights, empowering businesses with the ability to envision and adapt to future changes before they become mainstream. For instance, envision a clothing brand identifying a rising fashion trend on social media and quickly designing its line to capitalize on it. By the time the trend hits peak popularity, the brand is leading the wave!

Social Media Trends

Engaging in trendspotting on social media keeps you on pace with industry trends and, when used properly, it's an investigative tool that aids in gauging customer trends. 

Trendspotting is more than a buzzword—it's a powerful tool for understanding customer behavior and shaping strategic content. By leveraging intuitive skills and diligent research, you can uncover trends that reveal industry insights and enhance your marketing efforts. 

Consider how Netflix times its show releases to align with peak online hours, capitalizing on viewer behavior. Jump in to discover how mastering this art can amplify your business strategies and integrate seamlessly into your approach.

Trendspotting Examples in Social Media

Four Seasons Orlando Baby

A mom's TikTok video featuring her baby enthusiastically responding "MEEEE" to the question "Who wants to go to the Four Seasons Orlando?" went viral, amassing 80.1 million views, 9.3 million likes, and 682.7k shares. This trending sound inspired numerous brands and creators to join in with their own versions. Recognizing the trend, Four Seasons Orlando invited the family for a stay and a content shoot, celebrating the now-famous 'Four Seasons Orlando Baby.'

Duolingo Character Reveal

Duolingo leveraged a trending sound from a Chappell Roan concert to introduce their lesser-known character, Lily, alongside their popular owl mascot. By engaging with this trend, Duolingo effectively boosted Lily's visibility on social media. The Instagram video featuring this interaction garnered 149,000 likes and 12.8k shares, successfully tapping into the popularity of both the trending sound and the upcoming artist.

Wendy's 'The Bear' Meme

Wendy's adeptly utilized a popular meme from the FX show "The Bear" in conjunction with a TikTok trend where customers mixed Frosty flavors. By humorously roasting their audience for thinking they invented the half-and-half Frosty, Wendy's created a memorable and engaging post. The show's official X page interacted with Wendy's tweet, further validating this trending moment and showcasing Wendy's keen eye for social media trends.

Types of Trends to Track

Pivoting from the previous section, we’ll take a look into the specific types of trends you should monitor: Social Media, Industry-Specific, and Customer. 

Social Media Trends are becoming the epicenter of trendspotting; they are characterized by the types of content gaining traction, emerging social platforms, reaching beyond original channels, and effective ad strategies. For instance, a tech startup capitalized on the meme culture that escalated rapidly on Facebook, increasing their product's visibility and acquisition rate exponentially.

Industry-specific trends differ greatly across various sectors. A deep understanding of industry trends allows businesses to position themselves optimally. The beauty industry, for example, caught on to the green and clean beauty trend quickly, leading to new sustainable and toxin-free product lines. It's imperative to have a pulse on these industry trends to tailor your strategies.

Tracking Customer-Specific Trends is your key to engaging and retaining your customers. Utilizing customer feedback and reviews, plus observing trends in consumer behavior, proves instrumental. A restaurant chain, for example, saw a rising trend in plant-based diets and introduced vegan dishes, which were well-received by their customer base.

How to Identify Trends

Identifying trends is a crucial aspect of trendspotting, one that involves continuous monitoring using various tools and platforms like Sprout Social, Google Trends, and TikTok Studio. Monitoring industry keywords and hashtags is the first step in spotting social media trends. These platforms provide an overview of what's gaining traction, offering valuable insight into evolving preferences and industry advancements.

Analyzing sentiment is crucial for identifying customer trends. By thoroughly examining customer conversations, comments, and public discussions, and observing their buying patterns, we can discern the direction of these trends.

Competitive Analysis complements trendspotting, offering a comparative view of competitors' campaigns and growth. By continuously monitoring the initiatives of the competition, you pinpoint gaps and opportunities in trend adoption.

Lastly, data-driven insights tie everything together. Leveraging analytics helps reveal which content performs best, letting you see audience engagement and metrics. Iterating based on these metrics gives an up-to-date understanding of current trends, making trendspotting in social media a dynamic and fluid process.

Benefits of Trendspotting

• Secure a Competitive Advantage: Early identification of social media and industry trends allows businesses to position themselves effectively, gaining an advantage over competitors. If you're the first to jump on a viral social media trend, you might get the chance to stand out in the highly competitive digital arena.
• Refine Strategies: Catching a trend before it hits its peak facilitates refining your marketing strategies and ironing out any kinks in advance. So when the trend fully arrives, you're ready with highly targeted and tested strategies.
• Enhance Brand Relevance: Trends reflect what's current and relevant in the market. So, tuning into customer trends and implementing them into your operations can boost your brand relevance.
• Optimize Audience Engagement: Businesses thrive on engagement! Trendspotting enables you to resonate with your audience's preferences - let's say through a trending social media influence campaign– leading to improved engagement rates.