Grow the community through social trends

Discussion with community leaders

In this short post, I want to discuss the idea of using trends to catch interest in your community. A trend here is a surge of interest in a certain topic or thing. It is mostly social, and last for a limited period.

Convincing people with anything is something very hard to pull off. Unless it is directly beneficiary to them or there is natural interest around it. So I think your idea should fit this description to the highest extent. On the other hand, it is still challenging to catch the attention of your potential community members.

The idea is to first watch what’s going on in the social scene. Then go for growing the community with a relaxed attitude. One that allows taking steps that are not perfectly aligned with the end goal. By choosing trends that are somewhat pointing to the same direction you want to go, but not perfectly to the same destination.

In the circumstances of a social trend, the most fitting people are likely to be in it. Therefore it should be noted that if a certain trend carries bad implications on the overall community identity, this trend is not worth chasing.

Using the trend implies that you would unconditionally help people be in the trend through your platform. Without actively trying to engage them in anything other than the trend. you might ask, what do I get in return?

1 It gives you the ability to be consistent

2 It is crucial to be consistent. Your community members should expect interactions in a periodic manner. If it’s successfully managed, it will build up the momentum of credibility, reputation, and trust. And above all better member experience.

3 But, it is quite difficult to come up with new things every single time. Experience says that the best topics always come from community members themselves. Therefore, social trends will be manifested in one way or another. To embrace them is advantageous in this sense.

4 Increase awareness

5 Everyone out there is competing with you, for the mind share of your community members. Being consistent will help you keep a leg up. But doing it with trends allows you to spread your ideas easily, and don’t come across as selling something.

6 Naturally, the trend is much bigger than in your community. So by participating in it, people from outside your circle will discover that you exist.

7 bring you a new audience

8 Every time your community gets into a trend, more people will notice your existence. By consequence interest in your community will grow. If you regard a trend as an opportunity to spread your ideas, you will find ways to do so and grow the community step by step.

I figured there can be two ways you can convert people into community members. Depending on the compatibility between the nature of your community and the nature of the social trend.

Wind turbine analogy

This is when your community and the trend have very little in common. Other than you are both existing in the same society. It is like, when the wind blows in one way, the wind turbine faces that direction to pick up energy. Similarly, when something is taking off in society, you concentrate your attention on that particular thing. For example, for some reason, it became trendy to wear pink t-shits in your area. This analogy suggests that community t-shirts for that season should be pink.

River flow analogy

This is when there is a strong common ground between the community interest and the social trend. For example, if your community is for playing video games. And the trend for that season is strategic games. This analogy suggests that your community should target containing every aspect of that trend. To be the target place, if anyone wants to do anything about strategic games. Like a river contains the flow of water through it. This is a much more powerful use of trend and your community ideology can spread wildly in this opportunity.

The anticipation of a trend

Anticipating a trend is extremely hard to do. But the trend that comes as a reaction to a big event, can be predicted. You can feel the collective emotions of your community. Those moments are usually rare but as a leader. There be strong expectations for you to lead in a certain direction. To go against the direction of the community’s emotions, or not acting at all, will trigger distrust in the leadership or in the community itself.

You can anticipate the end of a trend easily. When the preconception of novelty is gone or it starts running out of a new audience.

WHERE this article was originally published ?

https://eyenbros.com/messages/content_thread/28ad2f15-9432-4c8d-84bb-5868acab310e/