Every so often a sound or a dance or a format takes off, and within days you find every company doing it — including companies with no connection to it at all.
The result in most cases: views from people who are not your customers, and a page that looks like every other page.
Trends are not forbidden, but they are a tool with a condition. And most people ignore the condition.
A trend brings attention, not buying intent
Someone watching a trend is looking for entertainment. Even if they like your content, they are not in a moment of thinking about your product.
That is why you find a video with a million views and zero sales. Not because the video was bad, but because the viewers were not in that state at all.
The only condition: relevance
If you can link the trend to your customer's problem or your work naturally, then it is a good opportunity: it reaches more people at a lower cost.
But if the link is forced — you do the dance and put your product name at the end — the result is more embarrassing than useful, and people can feel you chasing.
- Ask: can I use this idea to explain something about my work?
- Ask: will my customer look at this and think "they get it"? Or "they want views"?
- Ask: if I removed the trend and kept the message, would the video still be useful?
The cost of constant chasing
Trends move fast, and if you decide to catch every one you enter a race with no end.
- You lose your shape. Your page becomes a set of imitations rather than a clear personality.
- You exhaust your team. Rushed, repetitive work tires anyone.
- You are always late. Companies take time on approvals, so you post the trend after it has cooled.
- You measure wrongly. Views rise, so you think you are succeeding.
The alternative: content that repeats
Instead of chasing every new thing, build something of your own that recurs and that people recognise you by:
- A regular series. A content type published on a schedule — a customer question, a case, a short piece of advice.
- A consistent format. The same look and voice, so people know you without reading the name.
- A defined subject. Concentrating in a narrow space makes you the reference in it.
That content builds an asset that grows over time, unlike a trend that dies in a week.
The risk nobody mentions
Some trends carry a context unsuitable for a brand, or joke about something sensitive. Companies that copy without understanding the context find themselves in a crisis over a video made in half an hour.
Before you borrow anything, understand its origin and meaning and see who is using it. That time is cheaper than an apology.
And if the trend really is an opportunity?
If you find a suitable one, move fast and simply: execute it the same day with minimal production, keep the message clear in the first three seconds, and do not try to make it perfect.
Then go back to your plan. A trend is an addition, not a plan.
How do you measure it?
If you post trend content, do not look at views alone. Look at: how many people visited the profile after the video? How many messages arrived? How many new followers were still there a week later?
Those numbers separate passing attention from reach with value, and let you decide sensibly whether to repeat.
There is a difference between a trend and a season
We have to separate two things people confuse: the trend that lives a week, and the season that returns every year.
Seasons — Ramadan, back to school, holidays, year end — are real opportunities that deserve early planning, because the customer is genuinely in a buying state. A trend is a passing moment of attention, mostly unconnected to buying intent.
A company that plans its seasons two months ahead and treats trends as an optional extra wins on both. The opposite — chasing every trend and waking up to the season suddenly — wastes the biggest opportunities of the year.
Leave room to experiment
None of this is a call for rigidity. Allocate a small share of your content — one in five, say — to experimenting: a new format, an idea, or a trend if it fits.
The other four stay in your consistent style that people recognise. That way you experiment without losing your identity, and if the experiment works you fold it into your core style.
The trend that belongs to you
There is a second, far more important kind of trend: what is happening in your own field. A new regulation, a change in material prices, a product entering the market, a shift in customer habits.
These do not generate millions of views, but they reach the people who buy. And when you are the first to discuss and explain them in plain language, you take the position of the reference in your field.
Companies that do this find their customers asking them before making a decision — the strongest position available in any market.
Making the choice
Before executing any trend, consider three things in order: is it related to my work? Will it reach people who might buy? And will it look natural rather than forced?
If all three are yes, do it quickly and simply. If any is no, leave it and go back to your content — you will lose nothing, and the proof is that most companies chasing every trend do not end up ahead of anyone.
In short
You do not need to be a trend. What builds a business is people knowing who you are and what you solve, and that is built with consistent content that has a shape and a meaning.
Use a trend if it genuinely relates to your work, and skip it if it does not. High view counts with no clear message are the most expensive kind of noise.
This is part of a series on the social media reality check — which also covers why consistency beats reach, and why you do not need to be famous.