7 Essential TikTok Trends Every Creator Needs to Know
There’s no doubt TikTok is an app built on trending content. In fact, TikTok trends heavily influence popular culture as we know it. From songs that become smash hits, fashion, food (baked feta, and pasta chips anyone?) to beauty and surprisingly politics, you can’t escape the influence. Even McDonalds incorporated a huge trend into their advertising. They used this trend to introduce their new blue raspberry slushie. The joke in this viral POV trend is that the person got a sausage McMuffin when they kept asking for a slushie while in the drive through.
There are several reasons why you should participate in trends on your TikTok account. Obviously, they are great for growth. I have countless messages from followers that have told me they went viral and grew their accounts from doing one of my trend alerts.
They also show off your personality. TikTok is a personality driven app, people connect with people and trends are great for showing different sides of yourself. Lastly, trends help you become relatable to others, and relatability is another important KEY to success on the app. People who have experienced a similar experience to yours are going to feel understood and connected with you.
The most common way to find trends is by scrolling your FYP, but keep in mind trends are so popular that they don’t last long. In 2019-2021 trends would last 1-2 weeks, now with nearly a billion users, trends last 3-4 days. TikTok is a fast paced, dynamic app, and people get bored quickly or tired of hearing the same sound over and over.
As the queen of trend alerts and an expert on TikTok culture and trending content. I’ve broken down various types of trends on TikTok to make it less confusing and overwhelming when navigating the app.
1. Trending Challenges
These types of trends generally involve repeating the same action. For example doing a dance to music or lip syncing dialogue or lyrics or maybe testing your flexibility or strength. Other types of challenges use filters or effects and you have to complete a task to the beat of the music or within a specific time frame. These trends are not adaptable many niches and therefore are not recommended for business owners.
2. Sponsored/Promotional Trends
These trends appear on the TikTok main page when opening the app or are promoted by a brand to increase brand awareness or sales. They often incorporate challenges using influencers to promote the trend and encourage users to participate by creating their own video and using a specific hashtag.
3. Hot Topics
These are based on monumental, current events in the world. Many people will create a video with commentary on the event with an intention of celebrating, educating, or even creating controversy. For example - many creators leverage newsworthy court trails, celebrity events like the Grammy's or Met Gala or even instances of wild weather.
4. Trending Hashtags
These are hashtags curated by TikTok that appear on the widgets or in notifications. Often they are based on seasonal themes, holidays, events, or for celebrating specific populations such as indigenous people, or Black History Month.
5. Trending Songs/Sounds
TikTok provides a list that displays the most popular music on the app within the sound library called the Viral Playlist. It is encouraged to use trending songs or sounds in your videos to increase exposure and views on your videos.
6. Trending Effects
TikTok frequently releases new effects to encourage creativity in your videos. Many of them become popular and are incorporated into an adaptable trend or just used as the trend itself.
7. Adaptable Trends
These are my favourite trends and the ones that I announce on my TikTok page. These are the trends that give you the BEST changes for growth. Adaptable trends involve using a sound and doing some sort of action in the trend. It’s important to adapt the trend to your niche. Point of view trends are a very popular type of adaptable trend because they are very simple to create. It usually involves telling a joke in text and lip syncing the sound with the dialogue or lyrics of the sound/song being the punchline of the joke. Watch the example below by @davidcohendds from the #meexplaining trend
I hope you found this content helpful and it motivates you to start using trends to grow account for your business. Remember trends are supposed to be fun! If a trend doesn't work for your brand, that's okay. There are a lot of trends on TikTok! Stay tuned to my TikTok account for my trend predictions or save yourself hours and get 50 trend ideas a week to your inbox for TikTok, Reels and Shorts with the Inside Scoop.
