The Art of Trends: Doing It Right While Avoiding Pitfalls

With how quickly trend cycles move, trying to keep up may make you feel overwhelmed or motivate you to find ways to connect with your audience. Whichever side of the spectrum you fall on, it's not hard to get caught up in the moment and find yourself in a tough situation.

But don’t worry, in today’s blog post we’ll be describing two types of trends to be careful with, how to navigate them, as well as how to safely hop on trends and how to navigate backlash. 

Before we get started, let’s define a trend. In this case it’s content or ideas that the general public agrees to or enjoys. For example, “underconsumption core” is the idea of encouraging people to reconsider how much they consume. Another example is the Pepe the King Prawn template. Many users on social media use his photo to tell a story.

Now with that out of the way, let’s dive in.

Two Types of Trends to Tread Carefully With & How to Navigate Them

1. Trends that Hurt Your Audience

We all know that we need to treat our customers with respect -that’s obvious, but sometimes underlying messages in trends are hurtful. Take the popular trend in 2023, “Girl Math”, for example. Women would share unconventional ways they rationalize money. Common sayings like “if I use my credit card, it’s free” or “if I don’t spend $50 on something new then I earned $50” were shared across social media platforms. While it is fun, this trend not only promotes bad financial advice, but it also reinforces the idea that women are making these decisions. 

This would be great for a financial business to jump on, so how do you navigate it? Start by addressing why it’s problematic and then break down why the rationalization is bad and provide countering good advice in an engaging format. 

2. Trends that Support Communities

With the political shift you may feel like it’s not the right time to be speaking out about what’s important to you. In reality it’s the perfect time. 

Up until recently, sharing your stance on social justice causes was easy because everyone was doing it. Now, people are paying more attention to who is being genuine and who is not. So continue to show your support even during tough times. To take it one step further, share available resources and show your support throughout the year.

How to Safely Hop on a Trend

Start by seeing where the trend originated from and ask yourself:

• Does it project any stereotypes towards a group of people?

• Is this trend used by a specific demographic and is it culturally significant to them?

• How is this trend being used by the general public?

• Does this connect with your audience?

How to Navigate Backlash

Unfortunately, mistakes happen and just like in real life, doing nothing doesn’t always make the problem go away. Always start by apologizing to your audience, explain why your actions were wrong and how you will move forward as a company.  

You’re Almost Ready

Before you get started, remember that trends are not meant to be the only source of content but they are meant to help you be a part of a larger conversation, so don’t be afraid to make it unique to your audience or even make your own content. If you need help getting started, we’ve got an incredible blog post: Entering the Matrix: 100 Social Media Post Ideas