When Platform Trends Lead You Off Brand

Social media is a sea of trends. What's "in" this week is so last month next week. Businesses jump on bandwagons all the time, trying to go viral or get more attention. Imagine an old accounting firm starts doing TikTok dances to "reach the kids"; it just looks bad. It is not good if the company doesn't really know how social trends will play out from week to week, as it ends up costing them a lot of time and energy with no tangible benefit. This is called an "off-brand."

Losing Yourself in the Algorithm

The big problem is that chasing trends risks losing what made the brand special. Brands have a voice, personality, and what people like. To build a brand is to build the thing that it is; all of that hard work ends up going down the drain when businesses start doing trendy things that don't truly fit. It can cause confusion. Will the business follow this strategy for a while, ditch it, then end up getting something else confusing? Or will old loyalists see the business changing and leave because they don't like it?

The idea boils down to whether customers truly believe that an accounting firm should be doing TikTok trends. Sometimes trends just don't fit. Jumping on board with some goofy trend doesn't make sense if the brand personality makes the business seem responsible, serious, and mature. It looks fake! A company also runs the risk of alienating its established user base.

Social Media Fads Can Be Very Risky

So, how does a business avoid becoming a slave to trends? A business needs to first remember, what is its message? How is it authentic? A brand should also plan ahead with what type of voice it is going to use. Should the voice be funny? Serious? Friendly? Deciding early on allows a brand to have a North Star to guide how many trends it can use.

One way to do it is with content calendars. If a business plans its content far enough in advance, it won't have to scramble to jump on the latest stuff; it can carefully do research. With careful planning and research, a business isn't really reacting haphazardly to whatever random video or hashtag is in the spotlight.

Not all trends are bad, though; some trends can give a brand a more personable feel to the content involved. The trick is to find ways to use trends that actually reinforce the business's core values. Now coming to the content, it's a delicate thing; a business has to be smart about it! If the business follows the gaming space, then the business has to see what content streamers use and test their relevance and viability.

Testing the Waters Carefully Though

A/B testing is a tool that is very valuable for brands looking to experiment with different trends. A/B testing is where a company puts the current trend side-by-side with a new experiment that the company is trying. This is where the different things need to be tested; all of these help the company figure out more about what content needs to be added or tweaked.

For real instances, there is a gamer that buys Twitch views and puts out some content on one social media, then puts another type of content with more trends on another account; this gives it a way of seeing what sticks. An advantage that some businesses have is that they already know what trends do and what type of language is needed. Another option is to use the business' employee to act as a guinea pig for trying out all the different things.

Listening to Your Followers - It's Vital!

The way that you tell if you are off-brand is by simply listening to followers' messages or comments on the posts. Now, every comment is a valuable comment, and they will just trash the post. There will be other comments by more established people who love the brand; it is vital to hear what they have to say, or if they are worried about the brand going the wrong way.

Another good thing is to hire people who know the brand that will post on the account; the thing is that sometimes they will not know what to say. Hiring people who also know trends is something vital since they can help keep the accounts more up to what other people want. They know what to talk about in the posts, and this is a good thing for these positions.

Conclusion

There's no secret code for social media. A brand has to be honest with itself, and with the clients coming; it has to know what it stands for and what stuff actually matches those values. Don't do anything just because "everyone else is" doing it. Authenticity pays off way more in the long run than a quick viral moment; a brand should really think about what type of brand they need to be going forward.