Welcome to #VIRAL, The Newsletter from Girl and the Gov®, sharing need-to-know content trends and concepts for Dem social media, digital, and comms professionals. For 1v1 tailored help building out your social media, book an Office Hours session or an Audit here.
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TikTok Content Trends & Concepts
Give these a whirl (and post them on Reels & Shorts too)
→ “Can I offer you a pickle in these trying times” Audio: This baby doesn’t know it yet, but their mom “offering them a pickle in these trying times” has created an audio that can be used by campaign teams to share a candidate’s love a pickles in conjunction with a small business, and possibly a farmer’s market. Visually, the use-cases could look like this:
The candidate/elected featured with an owner of a local pickle company, where the owner “offers” the candidate/elected one of their pickles. The candidate/elected shrugs in acceptance and takes the pickle. The caption is then about supporting small businesses like the pickle company and how the candidate/elected either has done so or plans to do so in office.
An elected’s team is shown in a conference room [bonus points for a white board with a message you want people to receive on it] with tons of containers of pickles [again, locally sourced]. The elected walks in looking medium level annoyed, and the team offers them a pickle. The news is shared in full in the caption, but the text on the screen reads something like “POV: telling your boss that [XYZ NEWS] just broke while they were in a meeting.”
→ “The dino” Trend: This trend, where creators are putting a dino as their screensaver, then lining it up with their pets head, and running this “dino audio” over it, has potential for candidates that are running against incumbents that are as old as dinosaurs. In lieu of matching a pet's head to the dino on one’s computer screen, adding different pics of the ancient opponent to line up with the dino body, would do the trick of taking the trend in a political direction with a real point to it. Text on screen can be something like “POV: when your member of congress is 80+ years old.”
→ “He texted me again” Audio: This trend is more for political creators that are being spammed with fundraising texts or emails that they’ve tried to unsubscribe more. The audio takes a hit directly at being texted again and not wanting to be texted again, which translates to dramatic videos like this. Variations on a theme that match a creator’s personality can be made, and then the experience of being spammed with unwanted fundraising texts shared by adding text to screen in a “POV” format.
*If you’re reading this and asking yourself “is this play about us?” and want to figure out ways to connect with potential voters in a non-spammy way, you can book an Office Hours sesh to chat through ideas.
→ “Weekend in my life in XYZ” Trend: Somewhere between a trend and an evergreen content template is this, which is a carousel-style weekend recap in a specific city. The style is simple – an intro cover page, with text reading “weekend in my life in [insert city here],” followed by images from the weekend with a small detail or comment about each added via text. For a candidate on the road, an elected, a thought leader, and so on, this format can be used to recap a weekend, a day in the life, or even a week [not every day is going to be content worthy or necessarily uber-interesting, soooo, a week in the life, provides a larger expanse of time to pull from]. *make sure to use this on IG as well
→ “No swag gap friendship” Trend: This trend is ideal for two politicos that are not only friends, but bring the VIBES, especially when together. In other words, there’s no swag gap – the two participants are on the same level. Visually, the TikTok should show the two lookin’ iconic together, whether that’s at an event or on the move somewhere, with this audio added, and in the text format that fits best, the phrase “no swag gap friendship” added to the video.
TikTok Audio Trends
Trending TikTok audios for BTS and b-roll vids
AUDIO → Hot dogs in a day original audio *use this to highlight a question an opponent refuses to answer
AUDIO → Lemon Pound Cake *use in the context of “a song forever stuck in my head”
AUDIO → Dance No More *use with dancing b-roll videos that show good vibes – very “imma do me” vibes
AUDIO → original sound Jesse Solomon *use amongst a group of Summer House fans
AUDIO → Bad Chem *use with a carousel
Instagram Content Trends & Concepts
Creative content concepts to try
→ “Addressing our recent post” Trend: This trend has already taken off in the political space, and tbh, it’s really seeming to stop people in their tracks. The reason? It’s rage bait style, and both the algorithm and the viewers reward that. Alas, the concept is built on a carousel-style post where the first slide mentions a recent interview or moment in which the principal creator spoke on a topic, paired with two key phrases “addressing our recent post” and “we want to clear up any confusion.” The following slide refers to and/or shares the original post/commentary, and the third slide doubles down on what was said.
→ “I hope she’s not into…” Trend: This trend has creators sharing a passion of theirs with Reels like this. The first :00-:02 seconds is a b-roll shot of the principal creator with the phrase added on screen “I hope she’s not into [fill in the blank.” In the political lens, it could be something as simple as “I hope she’s not into politics” or “I hope she doesn’t care about voting.” That portion is followed by b-roll coming in hot – legit it’s sped up – that shows what the creator is into [ex: at political events] with the word “worse.” added to the screen. The idea is to share that the principal creator is super duper into said passion, and to a degree much more so than the person gossiping about them could even imagine.
→ “Vlog, but everything I cut from the video “Trend: This trend is based on bloopers, specifically the bloopers that come from trying to film a day in the life, morning in the life, evening and the life, and so on, type of vlog. Visually and technically speaking, it’s just putting together those bloopers, and adding a fun intro text and caption. In a political lens, this could do some of the work of making someone feel more real/authentic/relatable.
→ “Dog unboxing” Trend: This audio is being used by dog owners to create videos like this, showing the likely reality of what goes through their dog’s mind when the trash is sat down by the door before being taken out. Hint: it’s that it’s time to do an unboxing [rip the trash bag to shreds]. The result looks like this, a super friendly, relatable video that taps dog humor and isn’t limited to scrollers that only pay attention to political content [translation: it could break through].
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IG Reels Audio Trends
Background audios that make Reels move
AUDIO → springbound *use with vlogs and b-roll recaps that are positive/upbeat in nature
AUDIO → The Best of Both Worlds *use with a vlog or recap that feels ultra-girly or taps into the Hannah Montana x Miley Cyrus interview of the moment
AUDIO → Who Is That *use in a video that raises eyebrows at an opponent that can’t keep your principal creator’s name out of their mouth
AUDIO → File Select 64 *use with videos that are showing something cringe (with a reaction from the principal creator) or showing something ultra-nostalgic
AUDIO → Original Audio *use with any skit videos that have a suburban sitcom vibe
AUDIO → Rein Me In *this is being used with the “can’t reign me in” trend, which has had a blah reception – instead use it with vlogs or b-roll and take advantage of its virality without doing the trend
Threads to Thread
Reply or Repost to these digital notes on Threads
The Thread → Reply OR repost with a pic of you in a crop top – men only.
The Thread → Reply OR repost by sharing who is responsible for heightened grocery prices.
The Thread → Reply OR repost by sharing your thoughts on Lara Trump’s photo opp with airport ICE.
The Thread → Reply OR repost by adding someone that has shown themselves to be a real one, someone that’s shown themselves to be wacko, and someone that needs prayers.
The Thread → Reply OR repost [for LA area people] a rule of living in LA.
The Thread → Reply OR repost by sharing a better combo than pizza and pepsi.
The Thread → Reply OR repost by sharing how Trump is refusing to fund TSA – give specific details.
The Thread → Reply OR repost by responding with a bit of political news that would make you go “oh mama.”
The Thread → Reply OR repost by talking about wages not keeping up with inflation, as well as the gender pay gap.
Skies Are Blue
Trending topics ATM on Bluesky
Trump on NATO
Ukraine Visit
Super Mario Galaxy
Zayda Steel
Yankees
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