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

→ “Velcro co-worker” Trend: This trend shines a light on the very online term, “velcro child,” which refers to a child that never leaves their parent’s side [by choice of the child], and puts a workplace spin on it. Specifically, it turns “velcro child” into “velcro co-worker,” or really that co-worker bestie that you always claim needs to be on your project with you because it’s a “two-person job.” Alas, in execution, the trend looks like this. It’s peak office humor, easy to film, and honestly, a pretty evergreen way to show the dynamics between two colleagues, whether they’re working on a campaign or at an org that has the goal of building out an online persona.

→ “Editing like a reality show” Trend: This trend has creators compiling clips of everyday moments and editing them to feel like a reality show thanks to this dramatic audio. Many of the variations of this trend are of people’s pets or of a family all together for a holiday – things that have potential for drama but aren’t necessarily. The concept could be used to share a day on the campaign trail or behind the scenes on one; it could be used to show a wild day in the life of a campaign or office pet; it could be used to dramatize an incredibly basic office function. And alls to say, this trend is a good example of why it’s always important to be taking and collecting b-roll. 

→ “No, you don’t need…” Trend: This trend has creators sharing something people don’t need in contrast with something they do need. That vague description looks like this and this in reality. It’s tapping into consumerism and the unending “you need this” TikTok Shop influencer content, with the item that someone doesn’t need being a TikTok shop item, while also pointing to something political that the viewer does actually need/need to happen. It’s a great trend for not just sharing what people need politically-speaking, or should be aware of, but it also smartly uses the search-ability that a common TikTok Shop item affords the video in its fight to be algorithmically relevant. 

Trending TikTok audios for BTS and b-roll vids

AUDIO → Rage *use in relation to Venezuela or affordability

AUDIO → Original Sound Renee Christina Music *use in relation to impacts of Trump being in office

AUDIO → Original Sound Earth to Eve *use in relation to what’s happening on the streets

AUDIO → Masters of War Grandson *use in relation to protesting

AUDIO → Banning Books *use to show the variety pack of political issues impacting people

Creative content concepts to try

→ “2026 is the new 2016” Trend: Somehow we all collectively decided that we’re going to be bringing 2016 energy to the function this year, just perhaps with slightly better fashion. Alas, that decision has resulted in Millennials sharing carousels of themselves in peak 2016 action, criss-cross tops and all. It’s essentially a trend-centric TBT that looks like this. This trend could be used by an elected or politico that’s been in the game since at least 2016 if not before, and accomplished something politically-related that year – ex: a policy win that’s benefitted people en masse. For that lens, the images could be of important moments from 2016 and the caption about how 2016 was the year that the principal accomplished “xyz.” Another variation could have text added to each image that paints a roadmap of how that accomplishment happened. To note, this trend is also making moves on TikTok often in video format like this.

→ “Not everyone is going to…” Trend: This trend has small businesses creating Reels like this, where they’re “jokingly” putting the idea out there that someone not shopping there is making a mistake. It’s giving “I meannnnn it’s your choice” vibes in a way that gets people to stop and watch. The trend can be easily applied to politics by simply making the “mistake” a political one.

→ “I don’t do politics” Trend: This trend, which comes back about every six months, is making its rounds on IG and TikTok again. It has creators putting text over b-roll of themselves with a variation of this verbiage:

“I don’t do politics”

Politics will do you though

The audio can vary, as the trend is most tied to the text added to the video, not the sound. This trend is particularly a winner for an org or a thought leader.

Background audios that make Reels move

AUDIO → Original Audio *use this of the opposition running from the press or accountability using b-roll of that opponent

AUDIO → House of Yoonie Original Audio *use this if you’re from Illinois or Chicago and have a tie-in there to highlight

AUDIO → Introducing… *use this for a video introducing a person, an idea, a place, etc

AUDIO → The World Is Not Enough *use this for a video satirical romanticizing something

Reply or Repost to these digital notes on Threads

The Thread → Reply OR repost by adding other actions for people to partake in and how they can go about it.

The Thread → Reply OR repost by sharing 2-3 things that happened in the political space in the last 24-48 hours.

The Thread → Reply OR repost by elaborating on why the FBI raiding a journalists home is a five alarm fire.

The Thread → Reply OR repost by sharing a reason we’re in SOS mode.

The Thread → Reply OR repost by sharing your thoughts on the new poll on abolishing ICE v. not.

The Thread → Reply OR repost by using this as a jumping off point to talk about the literacy crisis in this country.

The Thread → Reply OR repost your reaction to the war powers resolution failing in the Senate.

Trending topics ATM on Bluesky

Music Challenge

Donald Trump

The Traitors

Arsenal

Horror Writing

General Hospital

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