Every day, our feeds are full of: 

“Try this trending audio!” 

“How to get x trend on your feed” 

“Use this filter to find out x”

and on, and on, and on…

So the question is, should you be trying to do videos that follow the latest trends, include the latest dances, have trending audio?

The answer is: it depends. Here are some things to consider:

Your Audience

You don’t have to follow every trend in order to remain relevant with your audience. In fact, you could end up alienating your target audience if you try to jump on trends with which they don’t relate. If you’re not sure who your audience is, this can make deciding which trends to pursue even more difficult. With that said, before you jump in on any trend, spend some time identifying who your target audience is on a given platform. Find out how they consume information, and then consider trends through that lens. You don’t want to alienate or confuse people in the name of jumping on a trend!

Relevance

Not only do you need to consider whether the trend will connect with your audience, you also need to consider whether the trend is relevant to your line of business. Thinking about how a trend fits with your overall brand is the first step in making the decision whether or not to jump on a trend. Not every new trend is a fit for every brand–a fact not everyone realizes.

While leveraging one trend might work well for a particular brand, trying to incorporate the same trend into another brand’s strategy may not have any impact at all—or worse, it might damage a brand in the eyes of consumers if the effort doesn’t feel genuine to its story and ethos.

-Forbes

If it feels relevant to your brand AND to your audience, it might be worth exploring. But, if it’s not… don’t.

Time

If you tried to jump on every single trend, you’d never have enough time in the day. And some trends are more time-consuming to jump on than others. Decide if the time required to create the content is really worth it. Another time consideration: how long has it been since it started trending? If you’re coming in at the tail end of a trend, you’ve probably missed the boat, unless you can put your own spin on it and start a new conversation.

Here at Imprint Branding, we’re very choosy when it comes to jumping on trends. Honestly, trends take off so fast, your feed can be inundated with a lot of copy-cat material quickly. We find that good original content can gain more traction than a video with the same trending audio or format as 100 others.

Your story is unique. You don’t have to follow the trends to stand out. Don’t fake it or do stuff just because it’s what everyone else is doing. You don’t have to jump off a bridge to make a statement. 🙂