In a world where people are spoilt for choice on the content to watch, brands are going out of their way to get noticed. One of the most popular ways they do this is by jumping onto trends. From TikTok challenges like 'TikTok Made Me Buy', Get Ready with Me TikTok trend to Instagram trends like 'Le Freak', there is no shortage of viral trends that brands can jump into.

This can be an effective strategy for enhancing your brand’s visibility and gaining recognition. It can also help you connect with your audience at a deeper level and make your content go viral. However, it also comes with its downsides. One of these is that it can kill your brand’s identity. Focusing on going viral is also not a social media strategy. In this article, we will examine how chasing after trends can harm your brand identity.

How Viral Trend Hopping Can Help Brands

When done right, viral trend hopping can enable your brand to increase engagement on TikTok and remain relevant. When you leverage some timely trends, it makes your brand feel fresh, relatable, and aligned with your audience. It enables you to inject some timeliness and personality into your brand identity.

For instance, when your brand utilizes a popular TikTok challenge or sound, it can experience a boost in interactions and reach, as users tend to engage with viral content. Additionally, when you align with trends, your brand can reach broader cultural conversations. This enables it to have a more contemporary messaging that is aligned with the brand's interests.

According to Convince and Convert data, when brands participate in relevant trends, they can easily connect with their target audience and show their human side. This can result in higher brand loyalty when a viral trend is well-executed.

The Negative Aspects of Chasing a Viral Trend

Despite the positive aspects outlined above, chasing a viral trend can have various engaging elements such as:

Attracting the Wrong Followers

If you have the right people watching your viral trends, then the results can be amazing. However, going after viral trends often results in having passive spectators rather than potential customers. For instance, if you are an executive coach and you post a joke about corporate jargon, this may provide you with followers. Unfortunately, the followers may not be decision makers interested in coaching. Instead, they may just be following you for the jokes. Engagement works when it is about the people who matter to your business.

Loss of Credibility

If your audience realizes that you are only posting to go viral, they will stop trusting you. Imagine a corporate trainer posting a meme about a woman on a beach in a bikini with a dolphin. While that funny joke may increase your views, it might leave you looking less like a thought leader and more like a content creator.

It's also essential to remain consistent in your messaging. If you are jumping from one TikTok trend to another, you can easily lose the authority that has taken you too long to build.

Results in a Burnout

There is no doubt that creating trendy content can be exhausting. Since viral trends don’t usually last long, you will have to keep jumping on the next big trend. You will keep trying to catch up with what is trending every week. You will ask yourself if a particular meme is already dead. At last, you will be left wondering whether you should abandon your entire content calendar.

In other words, trying to hop into a viral trend can be unsustainable. It may leave you distracted from the genuine efforts that help a business grow. From the authentic and strategic messaging, you can speak to the right audience.

How to Stay Relevant When Hopping on a Viral Trend

We already noted that viral trends can increase the visibility of your brand. However, you need to understand how to follow trends and be controlled by them. To avoid getting controlled by trends, consider the following options:

Understand Your Audience

To succeed with viral trends, it is essential to understand your target audience's demographics, including age, gender, race, and location. Once you know these details, it will be easier to focus on trends that appeal to your primary demographics. One way to understand your audience is by asking internally.

For instance, you can have staff members who fit into one of the target demographics. You can ask them questions such as why people in their circles interact with the brand, the kind of content they would like to see you produce, and their pain points. 

If no member of your audience is part of your target audience, you can put the question to your customers. You can ask your social media followers what they love about your brand. Ask them if there is a brand tone they would like to see more of or a product they think would better serve their needs. 

Understanding Your Core Message and Brand Values

Before you get into a trend, you want to ensure that the trend aligns with your brand. For instance, if you are a B2B Saas business, sharing the latest Kanye West drama gossip may look out of place. Similarly, a bank COO doesn't have to post their hot take on job losses resulting from AI simply because that is what everyone else is posting. 

There are several tips to ensure that a trend aligns with your social media trends. This includes:

• Assessing the relevance of the trend. Ensure you only join a trend that is relevant to your audience and aligns with your brand values.
• Analyze the potential for engagement. Check to determine if the trend is meant to foster an interaction with the target demographic.
• Stay authentic. Ensure your brand voice remains consistent, even when you participate in trends.

Every piece of content should align with your long-term content strategy rather than just increasing the number of likes, shares, and comments.

• The ‘finance bro' meme trend can be a good choice for a financial consulting business as it illustrates to their audience the poor investment habits.
• If there is a trending viral law, a legal firm can take advantage of it to explain its impact on small businesses.
• The 10-second attention span trend can be suitable for a leadership coaching business, as it emphasizes the importance of focus in the workplace. 

Trends should be viewed more as a tool rather than a replacement for your brand's voice and values. 

Focus on the Long-term 

Viral trends don't often last long, but authority content does. Instead of getting obsessed with the latest trends, focus on clarity. You can do that by consistently posting valuable content, whether it goes viral or not. 

Ensure you also select evergreen content that will remain relevant and shareable for many years to come. Rather than trying to be the loudest online voice, focus on engaging with your audience. By doing that, you can build trust. Therefore, focus on creating great content that will keep people coming back.

In Conclusion

There is no doubt that brands are doing everything within their means to go viral. At times, they end up changing trends that often affect their brand identity. When that happens, it becomes more difficult for them to establish long-term credibility. 

While viral trends can be tempting to join and may even increase your brand's visibility, it's advisable to focus on establishing sustainable authority that yields real business impact, sustainable growth, and brand authority. To achieve this, focus on creating in-depth content consistently while employing strategic storytelling. After all, the best content is the one that makes people listen rather than the one that gets the most news.