TikTok is big and it’s here to stay. With over 1 billion monthly active users as of August 2022, the social media giant has attracted creators and brands of all sizes with the promise of exposing their content and products to millions of new people.
TikTok isn’t just the new kid on the block. The social media platform is a content and community marketing powerhouse that can equip savvy marketers with the opportunity to reach, delight and most importantly convert a new kind of digital consumer. And with the right strategy, it can be done with zero ad spend. Yes, zero.
TikTok trends are a crucial facet of that winning strategy. Trends can be like a pure shot of 5 Hour Energy, revitalizing your otherwise stale profile and increasing its visibility on the platform.
So today we’ll be going over 7 long-term trends for brands that we don’t see going away anytime soon, as well 10 trends that everyone is hopping on in 2022.
This section is dedicated to content and delivery styles that are so congruent with the TikTok platform that they’re basically evergreen. They may have started as simple fads but we’ve seen established brands leverage these TikTok trends into their long-term content strategies, resulting in impressive results.
Hashtags have been around forever. They’re the de facto search engine for most social media platforms and just like during Instagram’s glory days, using niche-relevant hashtags in your content can push your videos to the exact right audience.
#tiktokmademebuyit is a perfect example when it comes to TikTok trends. Videos under this hashtag showcase scroll-stopping products found on the internet, usually Amazon. Creators are using the hashtag to drive traffic to affiliate links, e-commerce stores are using it for free brand awareness and dropshippers comb through videos under the hashtag for product research. Oh, and the hashtag currently has just over 17.3 billion views by the way. Yes, billion with a B.
This TikTok trend was initially popularized by user @frysterr_rl in a video with a text overlay that read “A bunch of brands should comment on this for no reason”. Well two million views later and a huge chunk of the 77 000 comments were from big brands.
Here are some of the verified brand accounts that commented on the video: Canva, Burger King, Windows, Tinder, Amazon, Telecom, Nerf, Yahoo, Levis, Fortnite and even TikTok themselves. And a lot of the comments have over a quarter of a million likes.
Ever since, the trend has been kept alive by individual creators and even big brands themselves like RyanAir.
Let’s be honest, most brands don’t really scream “funny and relatable”. And if you’re trying to build an audience on TikTok, that’s a problem. As you probably already know, the golden rule for social media content creation is: Educate or Entertain. And TikTok’s audience loves to be entertained more than anything. More importantly, TikTok users love relatable brands, not corporate robots.
The best example of exploiting self-aware memification comes from the movie Minion: Rise of Gru. For whatever reason, massive groups of people would head to the cinema in full business attire to watch the movie. This TikTok trend became so huge that some theaters had to start refusing entry to anyone taking part in the meme.
The #GentleMinions meme shuttled the film to an opening weekend of $125 million. All of this random chaos was leveraged by Universal Studios, who created a TikTok account especially for the movie (that amassed one million followers) and a TikTok sound that has over 1.4 million videos under it.
The creator economy is real, it’s big and it’s here to stay. With the rise of NFTs, Web 3.0 and community building, the importance of fostering genuine connections at scale is all too evident.
UGC and influencer marketing aren’t new but TikTok’s platform is unique in the sense that users aren’t simply delighted by creator-led content, they demand it.
Expensive, flashy, over-produced advertisements with the best copy in the world will flop on the platform compared to a selfie video from a small creator. Why?
Because creators understand audiences better than you (probably) do. They know how they talk, how they interact, what their sense of humor is. And leveraging those actionable insights is key in building an audience.
There’s nothing quite like seeing two legacy supercar brands bullying each other like school children on social media. McLaren tried to call out Lotus for being the inferior car brand and Lotus is having none of it. According to their comment on the video, war is coming.
With the combined presence of both brands’ profiles, the video garnered over 3 million views in just two days and 516k likes. A pretty ingenious marketing play for both sides.
Scrolling through your TikTok feed you might have noticed several ads coming up in an interview format. This ad style has become particularly popular in the mobile gaming niche where an interviewer, usually a UGC creator or micro influencer, approaches people to ask about a product. While these videos are more likely scripted, they offer a creative delivery method whereby the viewer can put themselves in the shoes of the interviewee using the product.
Starting in 2017 on Pinterest, Duolingo found themselves being the butt of thousands of memes related to the app’s passive-aggressive push notifications when you didn’t complete a lesson.
It wasn’t until 2019 that the brand decided to fully embrace the meme and use mocking themselves as a marketing tactic, even producing a gag ad that “Introduced” Duolingo Push. A feature that will enable Duo the Owl to stalk you until you finish your lesson.
Fast forward three years and Duolingo uses the same unabashed memefication of their mascot on TIkTok to amass over 4 million followers and millions of views per video.
We don’t see this TikTok video trend going away anytime soon.
Voiceovers aren’t necessarily a TikTok trend as much as they are a staple content medium on the platform. Voiceovers let you use the Green Screen effect and show different images while talking at the same time.
Here’s a handy video for recording voiceovers for trends on TikTok.
Let’s be honest here, TikTok can be the oddest corner of the internet. Weird comments, weird videos, weird brands…?
Yes, this is the official Spanish KFC TikTok page. There’s no hidden content hack or strategy to really unpack here. Just enjoy Kernel Sanders staring at a half-naked half-charbroiled dancing chicken. And then admire the 2.2 million likes the video got.
What’s great about TikTok culture is how content, trends and sounds start off as one thing, but due to the fast-paced, immensely creative nature of the brands and creators on the app, evolve into something multifaceted, nuanced and even quite meta.
Here are 10 of the biggest TikTok trend videos you should participate in in 2022.
Like many reaction-style trends, this one shows a video on top with an unexpected/shocking/scary outcome while Noot Noot’s expression and subsequent audio changes from nonchalant to terrified. You could have a lot of fun with this one if you find a relevant angle for your audience.
If you, your boss or your coworkers ever made a bad decision at work, use this audio to record a video ironically boasting about that mistake. The more detrimental the blunder, the better
This sound blew up so much even Ed Sheeran had to hop on the bandwagon. This sound is great for sharing relatable stressful situations that your audience and customers can resonate with.
Like Dr. Brandon Brown did below, use this audio to poke fun at misconceptions people spread about a certain topic in your niche.
This musical audio clip from Finding Dory evokes some real feel-good vibes. A lot of social media managers are using the sound to convince their coworkers to dance together for a TikTok.
Think of this TikTok trend as the 2022 version of the ice bucket challenge, just less cold. But hey, pouring water on your coworker (with consent obviously) could be pretty fun.
Glow up videos are super popular on TikTok and this trend is no different. A fun idea could be using photos of where your organization was when it started vs where it is now. Everyone loves a good entrepreneurial glow-up.
This one is a bit more random but hey, Kylie Jenner jumped in on it so who are we to judge. Plus, the Waves filter is really fun to use.
This audio is perfect for those occasions of relatable overacting. Whether it be a recurring, tedious conversion with that client or your dog, hating their new cone.
This sound was popularized by groups of friends getting together and throwing dance parties with flashing lights and shaky camera work. Imagine the entire office getting together and throwing a mini rave for a TikTok.
TikTok is a media giant where you can find everything from useful medical tips to edgy humor to dancing mascots.
While it can be easy to get wrapped up in finding content inspiration and worrying about whether your video will flop or be the viral golden ticket, don’t forget to have fun. When your audience sees your brand as relatable and human, they’ll start resonating with your messaging. TikTok trends are a great way to do that.
Or you could just make an animation of a dancing rotisserie chicken but to each their own.
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