#VIRAL, The Newsletter: September 11, 2025

Welcome to #VIRAL, The Newsletter, sharing need-to-know content trends and concepts for Dem social media, digital, and comms professionals. Dive into this week’s picks below.

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Editor’s Note: VIRAL’s section dedicated to Threads will be back next week. Any posts this week on the platform should be thoughtfully and strategically written, not centered around trends. As for all other trend content shared below, use your best judgement on when and where something should be posted. Always remember, timing is as important as the contents of the product itself. If you have questions on how to best time your content, you can book an Office Hours session, here.

TikTok Content Trends

Give these a whirl (and post them on Reels & Shorts too)

→ "Unfortunately, I do love” Trend: This trend has creators sharing their guilty pleasures using a static image with text added in a list format, like this. The trend can be replicated as-is with the principal’s guilty pleasures list, mixing in some that are directly political and some that simply lean political by nature. Second to that, the trend can be altered to "fortunately, I do love,” with the things shared being those that the principal is proud and loud about loving. Either way, the audio to use for this trend is this one.

→ “When you’ve been normal all day” Trend: This trend has creators sharing what it’s like when they get home from work and finally get to “let the weird out” like this. The trend can easily apply to anyone in the political space coming home from a day that felt very suit and tie stiff. To replicate, utilize this audio [one Millennials are sure to love] and get ready to dance it out in the second half. The dance moves of course can be whatever matches the principal’s vibes – they do not have to be full gremlin mode style [LOL]. For this particular trend, be sure to tag the OG as inspo, which is this account.

→ “Join the band or…” Trend: Get the pots and pans ready for their debut, because they take a particularly large role in this trend. And the trend itself has creators reacting to a prompt like “join the band or let them go through you and your besties messages” and the answer is obviously, JOIN THE BAND. In a political application, some prompts could be:

• “Vote for [XYZ bad bill] or join the band”

• “Stop advocating for [XYZ issue area] or join the band”

• “Support [XYZ candidate] or join the band”

The audio to use is this one, and for a bit of inspo, tap this video and this video.

→ “You have lost your mind” Audio: This quick three-part audio where the speaker tells someone that they’ve “lost their mind,” is easily useable for:

• Videos where the principal is pointing out a situation where someone has lost their mind

• Videos where the principal is reacting to something bad they’re reading about or that has crossed their desk [literally]

• Videos where the principal is reacting to a situation where they themselves had lost their mind and why the did

→ “Alien spaceships” Trend: This audio has been turned into a trend where people are sharing a situation that happened to them or that they observed that is so insane that when they say it out loud, no one believes them. The style of the video looks like this, and integrates a “pov” format.

→ “And DT don’t ever forget” Audio: This anti- Trump audio can be used in at least two ways to showcase an action or actions by the president that you disagree with. The first is a b-roll of the president combined with text or an image/screenshot that describes an action of his. The second is a carousel post featuring headlines that highlight the consequences of the president’s policies.

TikTok Audios

TikTok audios for BTS and b-roll vids

AUDIO → Man I Need Vandelux Remix

AUDIO → sheenzdoingbetter

AUDIO → original sound lookingforthestarz

AUDIO → Fine line (instrumental)

AUDIO → som original

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IG Reels Audios

Background audios that make Reels move

AUDIO → Boogie Wonderland

AUDIO → Pyramids

AUDIO → francescarptenter original audio

AUDIO → Ain’t No Sunshine

Instagram Trends

Creative content concepts to try

→ “Lizzie McGuire” Trend: This audio will take the Millennials back to the prime of Disney channel. The audio can be used to create an effective two-person trend, highlighting a conversation that could happen amongst two friends, one informing the other about the state of the world. The trend can be done to highlight these issue areas [climate, homelessness, etc]. To make it happen, the creators should put their acting shoes and act out the audio. To add a bit more context to the resulting video, for each issue area mentioned, add a statistic or fact about that issue area’s current status quo. Use the caption as an area to share a CTA.

→ “This dish” trend: This trend has creators acting like this, as if they’re about to showcase a specific dish, but then when they go to do a reveal instead showing a political message. The idea is that it hooks someone in that might usually be interested in cooking or lifestyle content, but not necessarily political; it also has a better chance of moving through the algorithm smoothly. To make it happen, pick your message, add it some paper, and reveal it like this creator did.

→ “House Tour” Trend: Using Sabrina Carpenter's raunchy House Tour song, offices, roommates, and all are using the sound to actually do a house tour, like this. The trend could be used to do a “house tour” of a member of the house’s office, or an office of another elected role.

Skies Are Blue

Trending topics ATM on Bluesky

Spencer Cox

Grok

Charlie Kirk

Middle East Conflict

Mars Life

NATO Article 4

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