Hey everyone! 👋 Happy Wednesday and welcome back to Stronger Social - the cheat code for social media professionals. Ah, we’re so close to the Holidays…keep pushing ya’ll. We’re almost there. However, we have a fun topic for today. If you love jumping on trends, then today’s issue is for you.

In today’s issue, we will go over the following:

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Trends are great and serve as a wonderful opportunity for social media teams. The benefits are countless. You can insert yourself in cultural moments, drive awareness, maximize engagement, generate earned media, drive follower growth, and much more.

But “jumping on trends” is not a strategy.

We need to understand that.

It’s an opportunity and a tactic for social media teams - not a strategy. Trends come and go. They fade. They are temporary.

Instead, you should put your time and effort into cultivating a social strategy and social DNA that enables your brand to become an always-on brand & community building engine. Focus on that…and then you can start jumping on trends.

But how do you hijack (and win) trends? Keep reading and let’s dive in.

Trends are great and provide an awesome opportunity for brands. But just because an opportunity is presented, doesn’t mean you should jump on it. The thing I have learned and realized over the years is that your social media strategy is an extension of your brand strategy. Therefore, everything we do needs to be rooted in and a reflection of your brand.

So before you jump on a trend, it’s important to take a step back and ask yourself if this opportunity and trend is truly “on-brand” for your brand.

I have passed up countless trends just because it wasn’t on-brand, and that’s just the reality of working in social media. You don’t have to swing on every trend and in some cases, jumping on a trend could potentially damage brand perception.

So take a minute, analyze the situation, and make sure that the trend is “on-brand” before jumping on it.

This is probably the most important tip of all. If you take away anything from this todays’ email it should be this: don’t just jump on a trend to be a participant. Jump on a trend because you are able to innovate and add to it.

Far too many brands jump on trends just to participate and say “Hey I jumped on this trend!” without innovating at all. Don’t just be a participant of a trend, be an innovator of the trend.

When a trend is approached - you should be asking yourself “how can I innovate with this trend, add to it, and make it memorable in a way that other brands cannot?”.

This is how you stand out from the noise and drive incredible social performance.

You do not have to be the first brand to jump on a trend…you just need to have the best and most creative take on the trend.

It’s not a race to see who can jump on a trend the quickest. It’s a race to who can have the most creative angle and execution of the trend. This is how you win a trend and drive maximum social performance (across likes, comments, shares, impressions).

So take a breather.

Timeliness is important, but you don’t have to jump on a trend within the first hour and be the first.

I would rather you post 24 hours later with a more creative take on the trend that stands out, is memorable, and is more creative (remember tip #2?).

It’s another week, let’s get after it! Here are a few things top of mind that I want to share before you go.

📲 Did you see Instagram is rolling out story reshares? Like…you can reshare stories without having to be tagged. This could be huge in expanding reach for stories and further shows Instagram’s dedication and prioritization of shares.

✍️ Keep Learning. View the full archive of previous issues here.

🤔 Do you have a topic that you want to see addressed in a future issue? If so, respond to this email and let me know!

Thanks for reading and hope you have a great week!

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