Overview
- Chasing viral trends can lead to short-term engagement but may not support long-term business growth.
- Balance trending content with value-driven posts that align with your brand’s core values.
- Focus on long-term goals and audience needs when developing your social media strategy.
- Consider your brand’s tone and voice to maintain a consistent message across platforms.
- Blend timely content with evergreen posts for a well-rounded social media approach that drives business growth.
Across all social media platforms, content trends that go viral garner a lot of attention, both in terms of visibility and other engagement metrics such as “likes.”
However, is building a company’s social media presence by solely focusing on trending topics the best way to go?
Below, we share insights into ways you can balance your social media content between short-term “viral” topics with content that contributes to sustainable business growth.
The Pitfalls of Chasing Trends
Before we go any further, it’s important to note that we’re not saying you shouldn’t post any trending timely content. It’s about striking a balance between sharing your brand messaging, tapping into short-term viral trends, and delivering content that provides value to your audience.
Viral trends on social media can often spark a lot of engagement and derivative content that plays off the original post’s idea. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with leaning into these trends, but it’s important to keep in mind the short-term gains versus long-term impact.
These one-off viral posts can net digital marketers a “quick win” and potentially get increased engagement and visibility for your brand page, but it’s not what keeps social media users engaged with your content or brand over the long term. On our sister site, Influential Executive, we shared an article about the #DollyPartonChallenge meme that swept across social media for a brief period. At the time, brands, executives, and other social media users were all sharing their own versions. However, the trend died out after a couple of weeks and for brands that took part in the viral trend, like Nissan, it likely didn’t translate to any major outcomes other than increased views.
What trending posts can do for your company’s social media pages is position your brand as being “in the know” — you’re up to date and aware of popular topics. It allows marketers to be a part of a conversation that has the eyes and ears of millions of users online. But limited-time trending topics that aren’t core to your brand identity and values aren’t going to support long-term business growth. We mentioned that visibility and engagements (such as likes and comments) may increase, but these types of posts don’t really drive toward your company objectives. A one-off meme may win you style points, but it’s not going to help you generate leads or revenue for your company.
When creating a strategy for your brand’s social media page, consider what you want visitors to know about your brand and how you want them to perceive your company overall.
Building a Timeless Marketing Strategy
If we think about the different layers of social media content, short-lived viral content comes and goes, but the real “meat” of your strategy that never changes is content that speaks to your brand values. It’s audience-centric, meaning that the content you develop has significance for your target audience and their needs.
That’s why it’s crucial that when building a digital marketing strategy from the ground up, marketers focus on long-term goals and the type of content that can help them reach these objectives — rather than focusing on vanity metrics (like “likes”) and short-term trends. A strong foundation contributes to long-term success, while also ensuring your content aligns with your core brand values.
That’s not to say your content won’t change as time goes on. As your company grows, so too will your social media content and digital marketing program evolve. Ultimately, your audience-centric approach should dictate the direction. What are their pain points? What solution does your product or service deliver to your customers? What do they want to see on your social media feed? These are just some of the questions that help steer your social media content.
What Is Your Brand Tone and Voice?
Another important aspect to consider is your brand’s overall tone, voice, and the industry you’re creating content for. Industries like fashion, beauty, and consumer goods often (but not always) have more approachable social media content that focuses on building a relatable relationship with their social media followers.
On the other hand, what about the financial industry? While most marketers wouldn’t think about posting memes on their company’s social media pages, there can be times when tapping into trends can work. For example, Thornburg Investment Management shared this LinkedIn post referencing the Roman Empire meme. That being said, the majority of the company’s posts lean towards thought leadership content. The post is also less about the meme and more about highlighting Thornburg’s capabilities.
It ultimately comes down to balancing your brand tone and voice, the messaging you want to convey, and how you want to portray your brand to your social media followers. Casual or buttoned up? A focus on approachable (but potentially unbranded) content or educational thought leadership content?
Long-term Substance Over Short-Term Style
What’s often the case is that marketers will have a social media content mix that blends the two: approachable content that utilizes current trends alongside evergreen content that is core to their brand identity and objectives.
Below, read a case study about one of our clients in the pharmaceutical industry. When developing the digital marketing strategy for the company’s organic Instagram and Facebook feed, we allocated a higher percentage to educational and brand-related content, while still devoting a decent chunk to sharing trending content, such as relatable memes for new moms and pregnant women. Click below to read the article and results!
Read about our award-winning marketing program!
Frequently Asked Questions
Is chasing viral social media trends good for long-term business growth?
Chasing viral social media trends can spark short-term engagement and visibility, but it does not support sustainable long-term business growth on its own. One-off viral posts may earn a quick win in views, likes, and comments, yet they rarely keep users engaged with a brand over time or drive toward company objectives like generating leads or revenue. The stronger approach is to balance short-term trending content with value-driven, evergreen content that aligns with a brand’s core values.
How do you build a timeless social media marketing strategy for sustainable growth?
A timeless social media marketing strategy is built on long-term goals and audience-centric content that speaks to a brand’s core values, rather than on vanity metrics like likes and short-lived trends. The foundation should answer questions about the target audience’s pain points, the solution a product or service delivers, and what that audience wants to see in the feed. While the content will evolve as a company grows, an audience-centric approach should always dictate the direction, ensuring a strong foundation that contributes to long-term success.
Should brands post about trending memes on social media?
Brands can post about trending memes, but the key is striking a balance rather than relying solely on trends, because limited-time topics that are not core to a brand’s identity do not drive long-term growth. Trending posts position a brand as in the know and let it join conversations watched by millions, which earns visibility and engagement. However, a one-off meme may win style points without helping generate leads or revenue, so it should complement, not replace, evergreen content tied to brand objectives. The #DollyPartonChallenge is an example: it swept social media but died out within a couple of weeks, and for participating brands like Nissan it likely did not translate to major outcomes beyond increased views.
How should a brand's tone and voice shape its social media content?
A brand’s tone, voice, and industry should determine how casual or buttoned-up its social media content is and whether it leans toward approachable, relatable posts or educational thought leadership. Industries like fashion, beauty, and consumer goods often use more approachable content to build relatable relationships with followers, while industries like finance tend toward thought leadership. Even in conservative industries, trends can occasionally work when they highlight capabilities rather than just the meme, as Thornburg Investment Management did with a LinkedIn post referencing the Roman Empire meme amid mostly thought leadership content.
What is the right mix of trending and evergreen content on social media?
The right social media content mix blends approachable content that uses current trends with evergreen content that is core to a brand’s identity and objectives. For a pharmaceutical client’s organic Instagram and Facebook feeds, Spark Growth allocated a higher percentage to educational and brand-related content while still devoting a decent chunk to trending content, such as relatable memes for new moms and pregnant women. Weighting the mix toward substance over short-term style keeps the strategy aligned with long-term business goals.