Trends come and go, and chasing every one turns a feed into noise. The right trend, pointed at your business, can travel far. Here’s how to tell the difference, with three of ours.
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What following a trend means
A trend is a format many people are making at the same time: the same joke structure, the same kind of edit, the same words on screen or the same sound, each filled with different people and places. Following one means making your own film in that format, with your business inside it. It doesn’t mean reposting someone else’s video.
Three trend films we made
- Mechanic leg position. For Icon Auto Centre, the words on screen read a mechanic’s legs under a car: “Everything is fine”, “Challenge accepted”, “Damn, this bolt is tight”, “We’re cooked bruh”. Eleven seconds, posted two weeks in, and it went viral.
- Get ready with us. A format usually made for outfits and make-up. For Halal Munchies, we pointed it at a platter, from the storefront to the finished box.
- A trend edit. Nine seconds of glitch cuts for Halal Munchies, from a Queens street sign to the grill, ending at the counter with the next order being placed.
Each kept the pattern and filled it with the business’s own place, people and food.
What the platforms say about trends
Meta says it plainly: “We love it when creators reshare content, add commentary in a reaction video or join in on a trend, adding their unique take. What we want to combat is the repeated reposting of content from other creators without permission or meaningful enhancements” (Meta for Creators, 14 July 2025).
Instagram recommends only the original when it finds identical copies, but says it won’t replace content “if it has been changed in a significant way, for instance if it’s materially edited to become a meme, a parody compilation, narrated with a new voiceover or remixed to express a reaction” (Instagram for Creators, 30 April 2024).
So the line is clear: borrow the format, film it yourself, and make it about your business. Don’t download someone else’s trend video and post it as yours.
When a trend fits
- Your business can be the punchline, the setting or the product.
- Your customers would get it.
- You can film and post it while the trend is still going.
- You have what it needs: the people, the place, the product.
When to skip it
- It needs something your business doesn’t have.
- It makes a joke of what customers trust you with. For Station Medical, we kept the jokes on the team and the ads, never on the care.
- The views would come from people who will never visit.
- It only works with a song your account can’t use.
Make it yours
Keep the pattern and change everything else: your place, your team, your product. In Icon’s film the trend was the words on screen; everything else was its own shop floor.
For example, a format where words on screen narrate what someone is thinking, as in Icon’s film, could go three ways:
| Version | Verdict |
|---|---|
| A café’s barista, thinking through a fourteen-word order | Fits: the café is the setting and the joke |
| A clinic’s receptionist, thinking through a patient’s symptoms | Skip: the joke lands on the care |
| The same format, filmed in a park with no sign of the business | Skip: the views come with nothing to remember |
Trending sounds and a business account
Many trends ride on a song, and a business can’t use every song a person can:
- TikTok: “If you use a Business Account, when you start a new video and click on Add Sound, you will only see sounds from the Commercial Music Library”, which TikTok describes as “free for businesses” (TikTok, Commercial Music Library).
- Instagram: its music library may not be “available for your account type or in your country or region” (Instagram Help Center).
- Meta (Instagram, Facebook): “Use of music for commercial or non-personal purposes in particular is prohibited unless you have obtained appropriate licenses” (Meta, Music Guidelines).
- YouTube: a Short over one minute with an active copyright claim “will be blocked globally” (YouTube Help).
Before planning a trend around a sound, check it’s there when you tap Add Sound in your business account. If it isn’t, choose a trend that rides on words, an edit or a joke instead. Icon’s ran on words on screen.
How to find trends
- Watch as a customer. Scroll the apps your customers use, and note formats that keep coming back.
- Look in your own field. A format other garages, cafés or clinics are making is one your customers already know.
- Keep a list. Write each format in a line, with how your business would fill it, so the shoot day has options.
Keep the feed balanced
Trends work best mixed with your own ideas: the product made start to finish, the team, the customers. “How to plan a month of posts” shows how to plan the mix, and “Video ideas for restaurants” has thirteen formats.
Common mistakes
- Reposting the trend video someone else made, instead of making your own.
- A trend with no business in it, so the views remember nothing.
- A popular song the business account can’t use.
- A joke on what customers trust you with.
- Every post a trend, so the feed loses its own voice.
A checklist
- Your customers would get it.
- Your place, team or product is at the centre.
- You filmed it yourself.
- Its sound is one your account may use, or it needs none.
- The joke isn’t on the care, the safety or the money customers trust you with.
We plan trends into the month
We plan, film, edit and post every video on our plans, trends included where they fit.
Questions owners ask
Should businesses use TikTok trends?
When the trend fits the business and can be made while it’s still going. Put the business at the centre, and the trend around it.
How do I find trends for my business?
Watch what your own customers watch, and note the formats that keep coming back in your feed and in your own field.
Can I use trending music in business videos?
Only music you have the right to use. A TikTok business account sees only the Commercial Music Library, and Meta prohibits commercial use of music without the appropriate licences. When in doubt, use sound you recorded yourself, with no music playing in the background.
Is copying a trend the same as copying a video?
No. Meta welcomes joining a trend with your own take; what it fights is reposting other creators’ content without permission or meaningful enhancement.
How do I start?
Apply to work with us: a few quick questions about your business. We read every application, and if we can help, we write back to set up a free thirty-minute video call. Apply to work with us
Keep reading
- Making videosHow to write a short video script (template)
- ViewsHow to go viral on TikTok and Reels as a business
- RestaurantsRestaurant video ideas for TikTok and Reels
- Making videosHow to edit short videos for TikTok and Reels
Sources
- Meta for Creators, Combating unoriginal content to protect and elevate creators, 14 July 2025, read
- Instagram for Creators, Recommendations and originality, 30 April 2024, read
- TikTok for Business, How to use the Commercial Music Library, last updated July 2026, read
- Instagram Help Center, Problems with audio on Instagram, read
- Meta, Music Guidelines, effective 26 March 2024, read
- YouTube Help, Understand three-minute YouTube Shorts, read
Updates
- : Lengthened: what following a trend means, what the platforms say about trends and copies (Meta’s 2025 originality post read; Instagram’s originality post re-read), trending sounds and a business account (TikTok’s music library page, Instagram’s audio help and Meta’s music guidelines read; YouTube’s three-minute page re-read), an example, common mistakes and a checklist.
- : Corrected: sound you record yourself leaves no song to clear only when no music was playing in the background.