Social media trends are like fireworks. They look good when they first come out of the box, they whiz, they boom, the crowd goes ahh, and within a short time people have forgotten it. The same is true of social trends. But, just like fashion trends, it is better to stay with them rather than lagging behind and looking foolish. Plus, some trends change the way that social media functions, so it is always good to keep yourself up to date on such matters.
Cat Bread-ing (as seen on South Park)
This may have been around before South Park ever ran their “Internet Meme” episode. Suffice it to say that the trend is here now. It involves taking photos of cats with bread around their head. It has overlapped the short-lived “pet humiliation” trend where pets were seen with written notes explaining why they had been naughty. The number of cat-bread images online has soared, and many of them are being shared on a regular basis.
Complimenting celebrities on Twitter
This is another mildly absurd trend. People on Twitter are sending Tweets to celebrities wishing them all the best. This sort of fan-based love have been around for years, but for some reason a lot of celebrities are receiving thousands of compliments per day, with people complimenting them on their new child or how well they look.
Social media as a primary form of online entertainment
It has long been know that a lot of people go onto social media for a little bit of entertainment. That is one of the reasons why Facebook installed their new little mini games into the site. But current figures are showing that people are starting to log onto social media for entertainment as a priority. Instead of playing online games or commenting in forums, people are going online and having their fun with social media first, before moving on to other fun activities. YouTube is currently the biggest player in this market.
TV episodes on YouTube
Staying with YouTube, more TV shows are being hosted on YouTube. The viewers are allowed to watch them free, but are forced to watch the mandatory adverts at the beginning and in between. The adverts are un-skippable, so if the user wants to watch the show, then he or she has to see the adverts.
Tweeting national emergencies
National emergencies are currently the most Tweeted about events, and the most re-Tweeted events. For example, the Russian meteors that occurred recently has massive amounts of people talking on Twitter, and not just in Russia, but all over the world.
Window shopping on social media
There has been a growing number of women joining image sharing social media sites, and lots of companies are using this as a reason to upload their inventory onto these sites. The trend is continuing to grow, so one may only assume that they are achieving a reasonable amount of success because of it.
Using social media as a questions and answers forum
Some companies are using Facebook as on online forum for questions regarding the company or products. Conversations online are being used online as the basis for FAQ sections.
Content Curation
Some webmasters are taking the best elements of their pages and uploading them onto social media sites in the hopes that it will bring them more traffic. The amount of people doing this, suggests that the idea may be working.
Social media being used to maintain an online reputation
Many people have tried to do this, and some have succeeded. The market for this sort of thing is growing, to the point where social-media-monitoring tool sales have never been higher, and the trend is still growing. It seems that a lot of people and businesses are concerned about their online reputation, and are trying to fix it with social media.
Home made TV series
People are using YouTube as a way of getting their own TV series on the air (ala the Waynes World movies). This new trend will probably be around forever, but is set to become more popular if one of these online shows ever becomes a real TV show.
About the Author:
Kate Funk coaches individuals in SEO and business networking skills at Tutortop .
This is an original article from WP Cypher Copyright 2012