Viral ≠ Valuable: Social Media Trends & Your Brand

Trends are much more than just TikTok dances now. In the last few months alone, our feeds have been full of a song from 1962, the latest season of Love Island, semi-maniacal rabbit dolls, and much more.

Just keeping up with these trends can be exhausting – much less using them in your brand’s social media strategy. Here’s the good news: you don’t have to hop on every trend.

Here’s how to decide which trends are worth your time, and which ones should stay on your FYP.





How do I keep up?

Trends emerge and change at lightning speed, but there are resources to help you stay up to date. Bookmark and consult these resources:

Then what?

Now that you’ve identified a trend you want to try, use this quick three-step gut check to determine whether it works for your brand:

1: Set a timer for five minutes. If you can’t think of a way to make the trend work for your brand in this amount of time, you're probably forcing it. If you can think of a few ideas – even if they’re not fully formed – it’s on to step two!


EXAMPLE: I immediately knew how to make the “oh, that’s not bad!” trend work for the community college account I run.











2: Ask yourself if your target audience will understand it. Some trends are universal, but others require knowledge of pop culture and Gen Z parlance. If you’d have to explain why it’s funny to your target audience, it’s probably not worth posting. But if it resonates – even with just one segment of your multi-generational audience – go ahead and move on to step 3!


EXAMPLE: The “sorry we’re late, someone was throwing a fit” trend likely isn’t the move for a life insurance brand, who lack both a distinctive outfit to show off and an audience that understands the double meaning of the word “fit.” But it could work great for a youth-oriented fashion brand or even a college mascot.







3: Consult your brand voice/guidelines. Would it make you uneasy if your boss, legal team, or board of directors saw the post? You know your brand best – if it feels like too much of a risk, it probably is.

EXAMPLE: A brand with a snarkier brand voice like Duolingo may be perfectly comfortable posting a Fortnite dance, but it doesn’t fit the wellness-forward, minimalistic aesthetic of a candle brand.










In short: trust your gut and trust your brand.

Trends can boost visibility and reach, but audiences sniff out inauthenticity fast. If a trend makes you hesitate, skip it. Damage to your brand identity is never worth a fleeting algorithm boost.

Want more social media advice that’s off the beaten path? Follow Melissa on Marketing, follow me on X and connect with me on LinkedIn.

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