#VIRAL, The Newsletter: July 10, 2025

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

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TIKTOK CONTENT TRENDS

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

“DC WEATHER” AUDIO: This audio, which perfectly encapsulates the insanity of D.C. weather mixed with NOAA cuts, is easy to use in the many times that D.C.’s weather loses its damn mind. The audio can be used similarly to how it came to fruition, as seen with the OG video, or paired with a video of the weather in action otherwise. 

“GREEN FLAGS” TREND: This trend has people sharing 3-4 green flags of their partner using a static image, text on screen, and this audio. The trend can be applied to a candidate, a partner in the political space, an organization you work with, etc that gives all the green flags that people should know about.

“YOU’RE IN FOR THE GREATEST JOURNEY” TREND: This two-part trend uses this audio to show the audience something you’d react to as “medium excited” or “standard excited for” versus something that would “get you out of your chair” level of excited for. The first part, as seen with this example, is most often a reaction to someone telling you that they’re pregnant [think: standard excited]. The second part, as seen with this example, shows a reaction to something that makes you super excited [ex: someone telling you that they registered to vote]. Both part one and part two need to utilize text on screen to illustrate what you’re trying to get across to the audience. To note, for those applying this trend to politics [that’s mostly all of you], the first part should be replaced with a less political situation/sentiment – and yes, everything is political, which is why the emphasis is on “less.”

“THERE WAS ONCE A TIME” TREND: This is a two-image carousel trend that highlights a “now” and “then” dynamic. In many of its original forms, the trend has been used to share someone’s current life as an adult versus when they were younger/wilder/and partied it up, like this. The first slide shares a current image of the creator and 3-4 things they’re focused on these days, while the second image is them in the past, shown in a way that’s a clear contrast from the current reality. In a political use case, the trend can be used to share a present day situation versus a situation of the past. The current day should illustrate something negative that’s happened versus something positive that happened or existed in the past. In the simplest of explanations it’s a compare/contrast trend. The audio to use for the trend is this.

“DRINK, OUTFIT, BOOK” TREND: This fun trend has creators sharing what they’re drinking [ex: matcha], what they’re wearing, and what they’re reading these days. Pick your three and film a ‘Tok that follows this format example – to note, the video should include “drink, outfit, book” aka DOB on the screen [font choice is entirely up to you]. For the audio, pop this puppy on.

“TELL ME YOUR FAVORITE SONG” TREND: This trend requires a backlog of b-roll, which is why it’s always important to be gathering 2-4 second clips of, well, just about everything that could ever be relevant. With this particular trend, which uses this song that includes a line “tell me your favorite song,” creators are creating a video compiling little clips of their favorite things. On the video itself, they’re writing out the main lyric “tell me your favorite song.” This trend is an aesthetic way to showcase favorites in a district, an area of relevance, etc that create connection between the account’s principal and its target audience.

“WOKE UP IN A NEW BUGATTI” TREND: This trend doesn’t have a direct political tie-in - it’s simply fun, and in that light could show a light-hearted dynamic between two fellow electeds, co-workers, candidates, etc. We’d use words to explain the trend that uses this audio further, but tbh, this example, this example, and this example really do the job best.

TIKTOK AUDIOS

TikTok audios for BTS and b-roll vids

AUDIO → Roadrunner

AUDIO → Cross Your Mind

AUDIO → Make Me Feel

AUDIO → RED FLAG

AUDIO → original sound by DINO

INSTA REELS AUDIOS 

Background audios that make Reels move

AUDIO → Angels All Around Me

AUDIO → Summer Breeze

AUDIO → ishiniw original audio

AUDIO → josephine_joseph original audio

AUDIO → The Chain

AUDIO → Mix: Max + Joaan

INSTAGRAM TRENDS

Creative content concepts to try

“I’LL GET THAT INFORMATION FOR YOU” AUDIO: This audio has intern vibes written all over it. It sets up a scenario where a customer/constituent/person of note poses a question, and the employee/elected/intern hits them with a “I will do everything in my power to get that information for you.” For a visual, the video could look like this or this, and the caption could include where viewers can get more information about a specific ask they have [ex: flag request] that might land in the lap of an intern or staffer handling the phones or inboxes.

“CLASSIC MIX-UP” TREND: As seen in this Reel, sometimes you get invited to an activity or place with a certain set of expectations, forgetting there’s a range in what that activity could be [ex: boating]. The miscommunication is communicated to the audience with emojis, showing how even the emojis capture the differential. This concept can apply to an array of political activities as well – for example, being invited to “canvas” and someone thinking it’s related to art; the caption could be used to explain the difference and where someone can get involved with the canvassing a campaign is doing.

THREADS TO THREAD

Reply or Repost to these digital notes on Threads

The Thread → Reply OR repost by responding with “broadcasting” and adding why it’s important to fund and support PBS.

The Thread → Reply OR repost with a trend that you hope happens amongst voters and/or the political world.

The Thread → Reply OR repost by discussing your POV on increasing teacher salaries, funding schools, and so on.

The Thread → Reply OR repost with details on any regulation in the works or that should be in the works that would protect freelancers.

The Thread → Reply OR repost with details on the space program/NASA funding that’s being cut, and the impact it will have.

SKIES ARE BLUE

Trending topics ATM on Bluesky

Nick Adams

FEMA

SGDQ2025

Sean Duffy

AEW

Liberia

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