TikTok Trends: How to Find Them and Make Them Your Own

On such a dynamic platform, new TikTok trends emerge daily. From viral challenges, and catchy sounds to unique hashtags and creative content formats, trends captivate millions of users worldwide. For brands, learning what’s trending on TikTok is key to growing and reaching customers on such a crowded and fast-paced platform. In this article, we will explore strategies to spot, adopt, and customize TikTok trends for business. 

Why Should Businesses Stay Updated on TikTok Trends? 

Staying current on TikTok trends can be incredibly beneficial for businesses. The impact on audience engagement and brand relevance is significant, as it allows brands to connect with their target audience in a more authentic and timely manner. Leveraging popular trends can increase brand visibility, foster a sense of community, and drive more traffic and sales. Some of the other benefits include:

• Enhanced audience engagement: Current trends can help businesses create content that resonates with their audience, leading to higher engagement rates.
• Increased brand awareness: Popular trends can help businesses reach a wider audience, increasing brand visibility and recognition.
• Viral potential: TikTok algorithm favors trending content. Businesses jumping into the trends get the opportunity to go viral and gain significant exposure.
• Creative marketing opportunities: Trends are an opportunity for brands to showcase their products and services in a unique creative way.
• Customer insights: Businesses that monitor trends closely can gain valuable insights into their customer preferences and behaviors to tailor their social media strategy accordingly.

How to Identify What’s Trending on TikTok

Participating in the right trends is how brands go viral on TikTok. By understanding what is trending, brands can create engaging content that resonates with their audience and boosts their visibility on TikTok.

Explore TikTok’s discovery page

The discovery page is a goldmine for trending content. Brands should visit this page regularly to see which videos are gaining traction. This page also offers insights into the most popular sounds, hashtags, and challenges. Brands that take the time to explore this page can understand more about the type of content that resonates with their audience and tailor their content accordingly.

Utilize trend prediction tools

There are many tools available to help predict upcoming trends. Tools like TrendTok, TikTok analytics, and Google Trends provide insights into what might be trending next on TikTok. Brands can use these tools to stay ahead of the curve and create content that aligns with emerging trends.

Monitor popular hashtags and challenges

Trending hashtags and challenges can significantly increase visibility and engagement. Brands can use the TikTok search function to find the most popular and relevant hashtags for their brand and industry. TikTok social listening can also enable brands to understand what is trending in real-time on TikTok. This lets brands quickly identify which hashtags and challenges are gaining traction and becoming popular.

Follow top creators and influencers

Top creators and influencers often set trends. By following them, brands can get early access to emerging trends, and understand how to adapt them to their brand marketing strategies. Also, following influencers is a strategic way to identify potential collaborations by observing and testing which influencer trends resonate the most with their audience.

Engage with the TikTok community

TikTok communities are a great source of insight into what is trending and what users want to see from their favorite brands. With the right TikTok community management strategy, brands can actively engage with their audience. Commenting on popular videos, participating in challenges, and interacting with other users help brands stay connected with the latest trends and stay relevant.

How to Incorporate TikTok Trends into Your Business Strategy

Brands can add TikTok trends to enhance their visibility and engagement on social media. With simple actionable insights, brands can learn how to effectively implement trends into their TikTok marketing strategy to achieve the best results.

Create branded challenges

Branded challenges are a great way to encourage users to create content with brand products or services. Those challenges should be fun and easy for the audience to participate in. Brands can offer incentives like rewards or recognitions for best entries to motivate participants. To enhance the hype around the challenges and maximize reach, brands should promote their challenges widely on other social media platforms and their website.

Utilize user-generated content (UGC)

To jump on the UGC bandwagon, brands should encourage their followers to share their experiences with their brand using a specific hashtag that is #easytoremember and #representsthebrand. Brands can then repost user-generated content on their official TikTok account. A UGC campaign can be developed around trending topics and challenges by encouraging users to contribute to their content. These UGC trends boost engagement and build a sense of community amongst followers.

Collaborate with TikTok influencers

TikTok influencers enable brands to use influencers’ reach to amplify their brand message and attract new followers. Brands should identify relevant influencers to partner with that align with their brand values and have a significant following in their target demographic. Collaboration allows brands to co-create content with influencers that incorporate trendy formats to highlight their products or services.

Adapt trending formats for marketing

Incorporating trends into your TikTok strategy is the best way to stay current. By monitoring TikTok regularly, brands can identify trending formats, sounds, and challenges that would appeal to their target audience. Those trends can then be adapted to fit their brand voice and marketing goals. Creativity and experimentation with different formats and styles are key to learning what resonates with a specific brand audience.

TikTok for Business: Do’s and Don’ts

TikTok trends can be a game changer for business. Trends enable brands to build a positive and effective presence on the platform, connecting with a wider audience and enhancing brand visibility. However, following best practices and avoiding common pitfalls is crucial to truly benefit from these trends.

Do’s: Best Practices for TikTok Success

• Create engaging and authentic content: The best way to resonate with TikTok users is to create genuine content. Brands should use trends to enhance their content and increase visibility while prioritizing building strong connections with their audience.
• Engage with the audience: Brands should respond to comments and encourage users to share content to show they value their audience. A TikTok Community Management service can help brands achieve long-term success with trends to build authentic and meaningful engagements.
• Maintain a regular posting schedule: Consistency is key to keeping audiences engaged and improving trending factors. Regular posts not only help maintain audience interest but also increase the chance of the brand being featured on the “For You” page. 
• Experiment with different formats: Brands shouldn’t be afraid to dive into various video styles like tutorials, behind-the-scenes, challenges, and product demonstrations. This exploration will help brands uncover what truly captivates their audience.

Don’ts: Pitfalls to Avoid on TikTok

• Avoid over-promotion: Brands should avoid hard selling and focus on storytelling and creative content, as constantly pushing products and services can turn off viewers. TikTok users are most driven to content that provides value and entertainment rather than highly promotional content.
• Don’t repost content from other platforms: Content working on other platforms like Instagram and Facebook might not perform well on TikTok. TikTok’s unique style and audience preference demand a unique content strategy to yield the most optimal results.
• Avoid inauthentic content: TikTok users value authentic content. Content that feels forced or insincere can alienate the brand’s audience and damage credibility. Brands should focus on genuine content and experiences that reflect their brand identity to focus on trust and loyalty among their audience.
• Don’t ignore analytics: Brands should monitor their performance with TikTok analytics to track their content performance. Analytics are key to understanding what content resonates with them the most and being able to adjust their content strategy accordingly.

Examples of Successful TikTok Trends for Business

Some businesses have already learned how to find trends and make them their own. Here are a few real-world examples of brands that have successfully integrated TikTok trends into their marketing strategy. They offer valuable insights and inspiration to brands seeking to tap into trends themselves.

The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) uses humor, trending challenges, and timely content to humanize its brand and engage with a younger audience. With their creative approach, they build a strong following on TikTok and inspire their followers to learn more about current events in a new way.

Starbucks (@starbucks) creates viral custom drinks, participates in seasonal promotions, and engages with trending challenges and hashtags. Their drinks are often shared by influencers, driving significant traffic to their store.

Visit California (@visitcalifornia) creates engaging content that showcases the state’s attractions using trending sounds and hashtags. Their use of trends paired with stunning visuals has inspired travelers to explore California.

Hollywood Records (@hollywoodrecords) uses clear hashtags, trending sounds, and challenges to promote new releases from their artists and increase their visibility. They encourage fans to share their own videos with the band’s music to increase brand visibility and engagement.

How ICUC Social Maximize TikTok for Businesses 

ICUC Social strategically leverages TikTok trends to maximize brand success, visibility, and user engagement, on the platform. Using a studied understanding of TikTok’s dynamic environment and hands-on expertise, the ICUC team of strategists and social media creators ensures that brands not only participate in trends that resonate with their target audience but also set the trends themselves. Ready to jump on TikTok trends? Book a meeting with us today!