Recognizing and Capitalizing on Viral Trends Like Pokemon Go!

Have you ever tried Planking, or The Cinnamon Challenge? Perhaps you mimicked a favorite touchdown dance at a tailgate party? In light of what the wildly popular Pokémon app is doing to social media marketing, now would be a good time to talk about recognizing and exploiting viral trends for your purposes.

Trends such as the Pokémon Go app are not always as obvious, and it can be chancy to identify with something that isn’t really trending at all just because you see just a few people doing it. Viral trends are extremely random events and can catch on at any time and move like brush fire. They can happen overnight and last an undetermined amount of time - in this day and age, social media undoubtedly drives and connects everyone and helps fuel the fury. In a recent ReCode article, it is estimated 9.5 million people are playing the game each day - To create such an event is nearly impossible, but predicting one - that's a different story.

Keeping up with trends can be beneficial in the professional environment by touching base with today’s common rhetoric and buzz words. The world is filled with people trying to make something happen, and by their very nature these consumers are infectiously intrigued by the latest fads. In other words, the trend becomes trendier just because it is trending. (Say that five times fast...). In order to key into the next big thing, look at for these factors:

• Unusual news stories that seem to gain traction by spreading out to traditional media outlets.
• Pay attention to your kids - they are always in the loop.
• Pop culture items that seem to cross generational barriers. Is your Grams talking about it?
• Is it an original idea, or a clone of an existing concept?
• How can you use it to make your concept viable?

In the online marketing world trends equal traffic, and traffic equals business. When everyone is in constant contact through social media apps like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat they discuss how and where they are participating in these viral events. Keeping this in mind, it is important to stay on top of a social movement to utilize it and to keep up the momentum as much as possible while attracting and retaining your client base.

The perfect example is how local coffee shops have capitalized on the Pokemon Go craze. Using in game features such as lures, coffee shops made their location attractive to players. Once the players stepped through the doors to capture a Pokemon, the shops had upgraded their tech to include rapid cellphone chargers to entice the players to remain for a cup of coffee or two. Some locations have reported sales increases over 600% by trying this little trick.

Any way you can use social media to propagandize your business, the smart money always says to do it. Recognizing a trend is the first step to drawing up more business, and coming up with a clever way to make it work for you is the fun part. Using the trend as a brand booster provides a tie-in that can be alluring to customers.

Another way small businesses are capitalizing on the craze is encouraging customers to share photographs taken that also showcase their branding. By sharing these Pokemon captures in conjunction with images associated with the business, the picture ingrains a sense of branding. If the app, in essence, uses the location of your business to enhance the game, why can’t you use the game to enhance your business as well?

For more information concerning viral marketing strategies and where to find the next rare Pokemon, visit us at Spotlight Publicity for a free consultation.