How to Use Pop Culture in Your Social Media Strategy

Introduction

Okay, let's talk about two of my favorite things — I need both hands for this — social media and pop culture. In 2022, these two topics go hand-in-hand. They work together. Whenever there is a pop culture moment or phenomenon, tons of social media content follows.

You really can't log on to Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube after the Super Bowl or the Met Gala and not see swarms of brands, businesses, and creators creating memes, sharing reactions, and sharing tweets. There is a time and place for pop culture takes in your brand strategy, which I will touch on later in this video. For now, here are four ways to jump on pop culture in your social strategy.

1. Use Videos or Images to Make a Meme

We cannot talk about pop culture and social media together without talking about memes. I mean, if I open up my phone, open up Instagram — yeah, the first thing I see is a Euphoria meme. Memes are everywhere because they're relatable, they're shareable, they're typically timely, and they're also a really good way to introduce pop culture content into your strategy and see how your audience reacts to it. 

When thinking about memes specifically, think about your audience. Think about their likes, their dislikes, and really, with memes, you can think about their pain points. Taking their pain points and applying it to a really funny and timely caption is *chef's kiss*. I'll use a meme from Later for an example. We know that our audience of social media managers and creators have a slight distaste for rearranging their social calendars. We used that idea and paired it with this moment from Mary J. Blige at the Super Bowl to create the perfect meme.

2. Use Trending Audio to Create a Reel or TikTok

This is a really low-effort, high-reward tactic that sounds so fancy, but it's really true! TikTok and Reels as platforms reward accounts and videos that use trending audio. I really recommend doing this. It's really easy to jump on because you can hop on TikTok or Reels and you can find audio clips or sounds from your favorites like Pixar, Love is Blind, Inventing Anna, and the Super Bowl. There's so many clips that go viral, you just kind of have to be on top of it and find them. 

Speaking of that, if you don't have time to find them, I get that  — which is why at Later, we actually have two resources: one for Reels and one for TikTok, where we compile all of the trends. We update it weekly so that you don't have to do the scrolling. We do it for you! I will say, though, when you're picking a trending sound to use (ie. a pop culture sound), you really have to make sure that it relates to your brand and your audience. You don't want to jump on something just because and if you can't find a connection between the audio and your brand, you may have to keep scrolling and find something else to jump on. Just keep that in mind!

3. Share your take in a Tweet treatment

Say that five times fast: Share your take in a tweet treatment. Share your take in a tweet treatment. Share your tweet… 

Funnily enough, Tweets actually perform very well on Instagram as graphics. I know, so meta, but we don't make the rules! To jump on this, you can either tweet yourself and share that on your Instagram feed, or alternatively, you can scroll through Twitter and find a relatable take from someone else and then screenshot it, put it into a template, make sure it's really beautiful, on brand, and aesthetic, and then share that out. I will say, if you are using the latter approach of using someone else's tweets, just remember to ask that creator for permission before sharing it and remember to always credit the creator as well.

4. Curate a Roundup of Reactions

The fourth and final tactic for this video is to curate a roundup of reactions. This is a classic approach. It can be repurposed for many different platforms and features. You can do it for Stories, you can do it on Reels, you can do it on YouTube, you can do it in a Twitter thread, and a carousel post. There are so many use cases for this. So, similar to the Tweet treatment, you can either tweet your live reactions to the Super Bowl commercials, Met Gala looks, or the Bachelor finale.

Whatever is relatable to your brand that you can relate back to your niche. Okay, you've reached the end! Before I go, my one last piece of advice in regard to pop culture content and social media is that not every pop culture moment needs to or should be turned into content. It's very important to read the room and not jump on everything just because other people are. If it doesn't work for your brand or if it's not appropriate, steer clear.

That is it for this video. I really hope you enjoyed it. If you want more pop culture ideas, check out our blog post Why Pop Culture Should Be Part of Your Social Media Strategy, where I go into a bit more detail and give a few more examples. Make sure to like and subscribe so you never miss one of our videos. Thanks again, and see you later!