As the Summer 2020 Olympics drew to a close over the weekend, it’s safe to say that these Olympics have been nothing less but extraordinary. A year late, but the pandemic didn’t stop our athletes achieving greatness. Tokyo 2020 was Team GB’s second most successful overseas Olympics. With Rio 2016 taking the first place spot.
65 Medals for Team GB. 22 Gold Medals. 21 Silver Medals. 22 Bronze Medals. But ironically, it wasn’t the Olympic Rings in Tokyo that will be remembered by the British public. It was the Olympic Rings knitted poolside by Tom Daley.
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Tom Daley’s passion for knitting
Any glimpse we caught of Tom Daley this summer was either him knitting or diving. On Monday, 26th July, the day we first caught a glimpse of his knitting skills, ‘Tom Daley’ was searched over half a million times. With the majority of the articles all writing about his passion for knitting. But how did his passion for knitting encourage businesses to capitalise? Simple really. They became part of the trend.
Just like any other craze, understanding how you can get involved is essential in helping your business grow. Craft shops became the solution for everyone’s knitting queries. Whether they were looking to buy knitting equipment, or looking for design inspiration, the answers could all be found online.
But how could you capitalise? Understanding the life cycle of a trend is vital. Short term trends need acting on them quick. As the saying goes; blink, and you might miss it. So what’s your plan of action? When it comes to increasing sales, and you feel as if your company would capitalise on a short-term trend, get involved.
Understanding people’s needs as these trends occur can be greatly beneficial for your online business. Directly after seeing Tom’s poolside hobby online searches around knitting and crocheting increased. This provided opportunity for a quick acting craft shop to create short-term Google Ads campaign for knitting patterns, needles, wool etc. to maximise on the trend and increase new visitors to their site.
What about social media? How can I jump on these trends? Increasing your knitting/crochet related content could optimise social media engagement and raise your profile with new audiences.
Here are 8 simple ideas for things you could do:
1. Think about posting ‘how to guides’ or tutorial videos.
2. Increase special offers on knitting related items.
3. Produce a ‘starter pack’ for new knitters and promote over your social channels.
4. Encourage your followers to enter giveaways and competitions like ‘Send us your best knitting masterpiece to be in a chance of winning a prize’.
5. Share benefits of Knitting and how they can improve Mental Health.
6. Set up and promote on-line and off-line events e.g. ‘an introduction to knitting’, ‘how to knit your first bobble hat’, ‘beginners knitting course’.
7. Encourage sign-up to your Facebook groups so you’re part of crafting conversations.
8. Utilise trending hashtags #tomdaleyknitting so your posts get picked up in popular social searches.
Some Examples:
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As you can see, if you’re quick of the mark like our Olympic athletes, capitalising on these short term trends can be beneficial for extending your reach to new audiences and building your customer base.
These are all just simple ideas, that can be tailored to the next craze coming our way. If you’d like more ideas for how to give your social media the Olympic treatment, just drop us a line for help and advice.
