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)

→ “Heels Collection” Trend: This trend originated with a creator named Annette posting a video of her emerging heel collection. The collection, made up of an interesting array of beige, caught the eye of viewers, spurring sassy comments and eventually a trend that’s grown to a point that most people probably don’t know its origins. Alas, the trend itself features people showing off their heel collections and rating them too, to this classic Ciara jingle, like so. However, not everyone [#relatable] is about to post #free pics of their feet on the internet, so a variation on a theme has emerged with influencer Halley Kate doing this hand-in-shoe version of showcasing her heel collection – then there’s the GATG “pose like the shoes like they’re men holding fish they just caught” version. And last but not least, there’s a version I would consider doing for a political thought leader or elected. That version would:

→ “That’s my why” Trend: This trend, done in both carousel and video form, uses statistics to help tell the emotional story behind someone’s motivation or purpose. The posts using this trend typically start with a statistic tied to a creator’s experience, obstacle, or underrepresented identity, then build from those numbers into the personal “why” behind what they do. For political applications, the principal creator could begin with a statistic connected to a lived experience or identity that’s still relatively rare in public office [ex: “Only XYZ percent of elected officials in the U.S. are women”], then use supporting stats and personal context to show how those experiences shaped their motivation to lead or serve.

To note, there are two other versions of this trend – this easy-to-do-variation that has creators putting the words “this is my why” over b-roll video that clearly underscores that what’s pictured is their why/motivation. On the political-end, this could be b-roll from a political rally or video meeting constituents, etc. 

The third version of this trend is sarcastic and snarky, like this. Politically-speaking, for the right person that has a well-known sense of humor, this could be a method for clapping back at superficial accusations thrown at them. Again, the right person though – and you know [you do!] whether your principal can lean with it, rock with it. 

→ “One night I was bored” Trend: One of Olivia Rodrigo’s new songs is being used in a fun, highly relatable carousel trend built around the lyric: “one night I was bored and I stalked you on the internet.” In the trend, creators are using the lyric to show themselves casually researching something they become invested in — then reveal the real-life outcome of that research, whether that’s buying something, starting a new hobby, adopting a pet, making a big life decision, etc. For political applications, the trend could show researching an issue, opportunity, or place and then taking action because of it — for example, researching a position and deciding to run, researching a city and moving there, or researching a grant and ultimately using it to achieve something tangible that can be visually shown on screen.

→ “Wait this looks so cool, I need to capture it” Trend: There’s some debate on whether this trend started on TikTok or IG Reels, but regardless of where that argument ends up landing, it’s a trend that’s easy to use for showing off either travel or a variety of politics-relevant important places to the principal creators. The trend starts with a video clip of the principal creator and bold font text in either lavender or butter-ish yellow [scroll to the far part of text color options] that says “WAIT, THIS LOOKS SO COOL, I NEED TO CAPTURE IT.” That clip is followed by a montage of beautiful mini video clips of a place or places that the creator is trying to put eyes on. TBH, this trend would be best for a candidate who is trekking across a big state.

→ “Bad News for…” Trend: This trend takes what feels like a dad-joke vibes phrase of “bad news for…” and has creators filling in the blank with things like “bad news for my wallet, there’s a Zara sale,” said on top of footage of the creator shopping at Zara or going through a haul. That concept, which uses this audio at the base, can be applied to a number of different scenarios including the political. A few examples:

Trending TikTok audios for BTS and b-roll vids

AUDIO → Mia Calabrese original audio *use this in response to a male podcaster(s) saying something insane, harmful, or just plain dumb

AUDIO → Kennedy Morgan original audio *use this with an iconic outfit you put together

AUDIO → KLA original audio *use this for edits pages of an elected/candidate

AUDIO → first time in San Juan *use this to show the actual beauty/amazingness of Puerto Rico

AUDIO → Preach young doph *use to show a carousel or video of the principal attending + graduating law school

AUDIO → original sound Mikoe *use as a transition to reveal a theme for something [an event, etc]

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Creative content concepts to try and post on TikTok too

→ “COOL GIRLS WORK IN…” Trend: This trend has the gals showing that ‘cool girls’ work in their industry, like media. The empowering trend can be applied to any industry, but of course works for politics [btw this is why I always say to capture as much b-roll as possible all the time]. To make it happen, the formula is b-roll featuring the principal creator(s) + text added in butter yellow that says, “COOL GIRLS WORK IN POLITICS.” The caption can serve as a spot to give more details on what working in politics/the industry at-large is like.

→ “A little birdy told me” Trend: This trend, which requires a silly, goofy mood, is pretty self-explainable: it’s showing a person and the “little bird” that tells them details on a sitch, tea, etc. The trend can be used by bestie electeds [really see this for a lot of state rep bff pairs!], as well as thought leaders or creator BFFs. The thesis of the trend is really just showing the close bond between two people.

→ “Glad we got that under control” Trend: This trend has creators sharing videos like this using this audio, where a deluge of information landed on their ‘desk’ to handle, which they then proceed to handle. The execution of the trend is easy and can feature the principal creator either typing at their computer or on their phone, with text added to the screen sharing details on what situation they just handled/solved. 

→ “Fun part of working in…” Trend: Another show off your industry in a positive light trend has entered the villa with this one. The trend leans into sharing that an industry is fun because it’s different every day, and comes to life with visuals that underscore that sentiment. Politics is certainly an example of an industry where the day-to-day can shift rapidly, and with a solid amount of b-roll can become the focus of this trend. Use the particularly trendy yellow font + bold text combo to make it pop.

Background audios that make Reels move

AUDIO → HALYCON + ON + ON *use for scenery videos showing the realities/results of bad policies

AUDIO → Original audio Iryna Hyrshuck *use to show off an office/home/place of importance that has personality [bonus points if typically that place is boring AF design wise]

AUDIO → Sol *use for carousels

AUDIO → Spirit in the Sky *use for videos showing something that’s just getting started in a positive way and picking up steam

AUDIO → Orbiter *use for carousels or videos that are related to space/science

Reply or Repost to these digital notes on Threads

The Thread → Reply OR repost, or even create your own sharing a political reason you’d cancel a date.

The Thread → Reply OR repost by sharing details on someone that is a “villionaire” and how it’s impacting your community.

The Thread → Reply OR repost what your policy solution(s) are to making this a reality.

The Thread → Reply OR repost your thoughts on Spencer Pratt running for LA Mayor.

The Thread → Reply OR repost and share details on how the electoral college works [or doesn’t work].

The Thread → Reply OR repost by sharing details on why groceries are so damn expensive.

The Thread → Reply OR repost by sharing the many angles of corruption connected to the ballroom.

The Thread → Reply OR repost with a proposal related to education.

Trending topics ATM on Bluesky

British media

Saudi Arabia

Spurs

Cubs

Biking and Weather

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