The statistics are astounding…

• 500 million tweets are sent per day.
• To date, over 20 billion images have been shared on Instagram.
• 100 hours of video are uploaded on YouTube per minute.
• More than 30 billion pieces of content are shared on Facebook each month.

With so many messages competing for your customers’ attention, getting them to engage with you on social media is a real challenge. One solution is to leverage what they’re already talking about.

But like all content marketing trends, there is a right way and a wrong way to go about it. Follow these tips to create timely content that increases engagement:

1. Create a calendar, and plan ahead when possible.

   Holidays, trade shows, and scheduled events offer great opportunities to provide timely content without having to do everything in real time. You can create your content early and, using a solution like Hootsuite or Buffer, schedule it ahead of time.

   A content calendar is an effective way to organize and plan all your relationship marketing activities, including social media and blogging. Plus, it helps you commit to creating and distributing content on a regular basis.

2. Keep a lookout for breaking news or trending topics to increase conversations.

   Not everything can be created and scheduled in advance if you want it to be timely. But if you act swiftly, you can capitalize on the hot topic of the hour, like Oreo did with its well-timed tweet during the Super Bowl a few years back.

   There are several tools to help identify trending topics, including Google Trends, Twitter, and BuzzFeed, just to name a few.

3. Learn what resonates with your audience, but know when to turn it off.

   Identifying the issues and events that your customers care about can help you develop your content calendar. But just because a topic is popular with your audience, doesn’t necessarily mean you should get into the conversation.

   Kenneth Cole was criticized for tweeting that the uprising in Cairo in 2011 was related to his company’s spring collection. And he’s not alone. AT&T, ZzzQuil, and the Seattle Seahawks all found out the hard way that you can come across as exploitative when the message is not authentic.

4. Focus on delivering information that your clients want and need.

   People don’t engage with content at random. They engage when it offers them value. This gives you a great advantage, since you likely know your clients better than most. Address their desires, concerns, and beliefs by producing content that you can advise on, and rely on outside sources when you can’t.

   If you have a unique perspective or experience, why not blog about it? Educating clients helps them feel more involved and establishes a trust in you that they may not find elsewhere. In other words, it makes you their go-to expert.

   Share sources that you think your clients could benefit from as well. For example, ReminderMedia clients recently used recipes to provide timely information their customers could use for game day get-togethers and awards show parties.

And remember that social media is a component of relationship marketing. Continue conversations offline, and let common myths, concerns, or questions guide your online sharing. Each engagement will solidify your relationship—and your chance of a referral and repeat business.

Learn more about American Lifestyle social media shareables content, take advantage of the trends, and connect with your clients today.