Incorporating Pop Culture Trends in Your Content

If your business is going to hop on pop culture trends, you need to do so quickly! But not so quickly that you appropriate another culture, share the wrong message, or don’t understand the trend’s origin. From GIFs and memes to trending hashtags and songs, incorporating pop culture in your content can help your brand’s relevance, relatability, and reach, but there are a few things to consider first...

Why Use Pop-Culture Trends and References in Your Content

If you do it right, you can be like Budwiser, whose immediate response to “Beer Guy” during game 5 of the 2019 World Series, allowed them to capitalize on an estimated $8 million in exposure.

If you do it wrong, you could be like Pepsi, whose ad, starring Kendall Jenner, belittled the Black Lives Matter movement, was criticized, and pulled.

Striving to skillfully incorporate real time marketing and pop culture trends into your content can help your brand’s...

Relevance

When your brand embraces timely trends, you’re illustrating that you’re willing to be part of something bigger than yourself. You show adaptability, cultural awareness, and pull ahead of others in your industry. Staying relevant also improves your brand’s...

Relatability

Incorporating pop culture trends in your content compels your brand to meet your audience where they are. If you participate in a hashtag trend or use a trending song in Instagram reels, you are creating relatable content where the content originated, aligning your brand to be noticed by an expanded audience on that platform. Repurposing trends also positions your brand to get noticed by others who are tracking the trend, optimizing your brand’s...

Reach

Hopping on pop culture trends can help your brand gain extended reach. By utilizing a recognizable meme or trend, your brand can be exposed to audiences who may not know about you yet. You just want to make sure you’re reaching the right audiences with the right message. Following the checklist below can help you do just that.

When is it Appropriate to Incorporate Pop Culture Trends 

What is the Trend’s Origin

Just because you see loads of people and businesses circulating a trend, it doesn’t mean your brand should. Pause a beat and research where the trend started.

Trending hashtags are often simple for brands to incorporate but it’s important to know the intention of a hashtag before using it. You don’t want to circulate a seemingly innocuous hashtag only for it to be part of a competitor’s campaign. 

You also want to ensure the intention of the hashtag aligns with your brand’s goals and values. For example, after Megan Markle’s interview with Oprah, a meme of Oprah with a shocked expression began circulating.

Those who watched the interview know that Oprah’s expression in the image is in response to Meghan sharing that a member of the royal family showed concern with “how dark” her baby would be when he was born. Whether out of ignorance or not, those generating and circulating memes from the interview downplay Meghan Markle’s revelation.

Would Incorporating the Pop Culture Trend be appropriation or digital blackface?

Digital Blackface

Lauren Michele Jackson popularized the term “digital blackface” in a 2017 essay for Teen Vogue. She defines “digital blackface” as “various types of minstrel performance that become available in cyberspace.” I recommend reading Jackson’s entire article where she further explains how, “[m]emes of Black people often depict what our culture considers exaggerated emotion. If there’s one thing the Internet thrives on, it’s hyperbole and the overrepresentation of black people in GIFing everyone’s daily crises plays up enduring perceptions and stereotypes about black expression. And when nonblack users flock to these images, they are playacting within those stereotypes in a manner reminiscent of an unsavory American tradition.”

Jackson explains that she’s not suggesting nonblack people never share Black reaction GIFs. But she does warn that, “we all need to be cognizant of what we share, how we share, and to what extent that sharing dramatizes preexisting racial formulas inherited from “real life”.” I have 100% used memes and GIFs featuring Black people. While I didn’t consciously intend to perpetuate negative stereotypes, I am now more aware of the harmful impact of circulating “what our culture considers exaggerated emotion,” and will be more intentional when I post.

Maya Angelou said, “when you know better, do better.” Now that we know that memes and GIFs featuring Black people can perpetuate negative stereotypes, let's take a beat before circulating them further.

If you have researched the origin of the meme or GIF you want to share and publishing it isn’t harmful, consider the tone and message of the trend and if it’s relevant to your brand. 

Is the Trend Relevant to Your Brand?

Does the message of the trend align with your content pillars? Your content pillars are the categories that your content plan is based around. If the trend does not align with any of your content pillars, you would be sharing the trend just for the sake of sharing the trend, which may not sit well with your followers. Your followers have grown to expect certain content from you and if your content or message suddenly shifts, they may no longer trust you for the content that they initially followed you for. That’s not to say you shouldn’t try to make the trend relevant to your brand.

Remember “The Dress”? Was is black and blue? Was it white and gold? “The Dress” was everywhere. While I quickly grew sick of seeing the dress and absolutely cringed when we shared it at the company I worked at at the time, the post received above average engagement. People were enthralled by the dress and sharing what colors they saw. 

The original dress photo, taken by Cecilia Bleasdale.

So how do you tie these phenomena back to your brand? It depends on the trend. Referring back to “The Dress,” it’s an easy connection if you work in the fashion industry. But what if, for example, you’re a Realtor? Realtors could have posted a photo of the dress, asking their followers what colors they saw while also sharing that, “what you see isn’t always what someone else sees. We offer complimentary staging of every listing to ensure your home appeals to the most people.” Think outside the box. If it feels like too much of a stretch or your brand is more serious while the trend is playful, the trend may not be right for your brand.

Have you considered incorporating pop culture trends in your content? The benefits of relevance, relatability, and reach are worth the research. Whether you have questions about using memes or your business has successfully replicated the latest Reels trend, I want to hear about it! Message me on Facebook or Instagram or shoot me an email here.