Are you in construction? Do you want to build up your following? Are you looking to connect with the Architectural, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) community?
You’re in luck!
Joining our weekly Twitter Chat may just be the right thing for you.
Construction Chat is on Thursday mornings at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time.
How to Join a Chat:
1. Follow the hashtag on Twitter (but don’t forget to add #ConstChat manually after your tweet or we won’t see your tweet).
2. Use Hootsuite or TweetDeck and make a column for #ConstChat (but don’t forget to put #ConstChat manually after your tweet).
3. Go to the Twubs page for #ConstChat.
4. My preferred method is using TweetChat. Just go here and log in with your Twitter account. You can even highlight the moderator so you don’t miss questions.
This week’s chat topic is about trend jumping.
Jumping on trends is very controversial. Is it real marketing or yellow journalism?
Gary Vaynerchuk in this post tells marketers to ride the wave of a trending hashtag but I say it’s a fine line.
[youtube=https://youtu.be/7JDopkobUy8]
The Dress
When the debate about whether The Dress is black and blue or white and gold (I saw periwinkle and taupe) filled up Twitter and Facebook, people were either jumping on the trend or raging against it.
Personally, I thought this Madea Meme was awesome.
Madea says mention #thedress one more time. pic.twitter.com/jYEycUhQqK
— Rob Sanders (@robsanders80) February 27, 2015
But as a marketer, shouldn’t we want to be clever?
Shouldn’t we want to grab attention any way we can?
Adweek highlights some marketing wins here.
The Salvation Army in South Africa used this trend to highlight domestic abuse. “Why is it so hard to see black and blue?” I thought it was clever but there are some who are offended.
Is it so hard 2 see black & blue? 1 in 6 women are victims. #StopAbuseAgainstWomen #blackandblue #whiteandgold pic.twitter.com/HoYNXBQRIE
— TheSalvationArmySA (@SalvationArmySA) March 6, 2015
This is what makes jumping on trends tricky. Is it appropriate for our industry in general? Is the specific trend appropriate for our company? Does it match our online persona? If the timing is too late does it show you’re out of touch?
What about the Construction Industry and The Dress?
Behr paint jumped in on The Dress with this tweet.
Technically, #thedress is French Melody PPQ-17 & Eagle Rock S-H-730. Check it out on our app! http://t.co/gifE3xp8B8 pic.twitter.com/jUk1JDvxv0
— Behr Paint (@BehrPaint) February 27, 2015
Sean Lintow wrote a blog post reminding us as builders should invest in color swatches and samples to show clients in person. The Dress debate reminds us that you never know how someone will see color online.
The Questions:
Q1: How do you first hear about trends?
Q2: Should marketers jump in on trends?
Q3: Is it harder for the construction industry to jump in on trends?
Q4: When is it too late to jump on the trend?
Q5: What’s the ROI of jumping on a trend?
Do you have a burning question you’d like answered? Feel free to add it in the comments.
See you at the chat!