Tips for tying your blog to what’s trending in the media

All of the popular social media sites offer the ability to show what’s currently trending, or the hot topic of the day.  You can save time searching the sites by setting up a Google alert to do this for you or looking at the homepages of sites like MSNBC or The New York Times.  But more importantly, how can you use this information to show your social, community-driven side?  Here are a few tips using the topic of Katie and Tom Cruise’s divorce announcement as an example…

1.  Write a thoughtful, well-researched blog entry about your take on the popular current event.  You can offer support or share why you are opposed to an issue.  For our example topic, we could write a blog entry on 7 ways to help save your marriage.

2.  Show your expertise on a portion of the issue.  PRNews did this with their blog entry where they discussed the PR blunders in the announcement.

3.  Retailers could offer condolences by suggesting Tom treat himself to a new outfit, dinner out, or something else that ties to their particular retail business.

4.  Write a blog entry about the importance of spending time with your loved ones so that you stay connected and in the blog, offer ideas for family night.

5.  Write a blog entry with narrative on the importance of remaining amicable for the sake of the child(ren). There’s a lot of great information supporting this topic!