NOW TRENDING: REASONS TO UNFOLLOW ME, NO AI WAS USED IN THIS BTW, AND THE INTERNET DISCOVERS SAM SMITH’S SECRET FOODIE ACCOUNT
WHAT’S ON THE FEED THIS WEEK?
“LET ME GUESS…”
A creator opens straight to camera with "let me guess..." then makes a hyper specific, slightly-too-accurate guess about the exact person watching ("let me guess, you opened TikTok for a five minute break and it's been forty"). The specificity is the hook: it feels like the video is reading your mind, so you stop scrolling to find out how they knew. No transitions or trending audio needed, just confident delivery and a guess niche enough to feel personal but broad enough that a big chunk of the audience quietly thinks "that's literally me," with creators stacking two or three guesses to keep people watching.
Brand opportunities
This is a gift for any brand that truly knows its customer: guess something oddly specific about your ideal buyer's world ("let me guess, you've got four half-used serums and no actual routine," or for a B2B tool, "you're still running that report in a spreadsheet you're scared to touch"), name the exact pain point your product solves, then let the video become the answer. The better you know your audience the harder it lands, and it doubles as a low-key demonstration that you get them.
REASONS TO UNFOLLOW ME
A reverse-psychology carousel or static post where creators list, tongue in cheek, every reason you should unfollow them ("I post about my dog too much," "I will never stop talking about matcha"). It works because it is self-aware and disarming: flipping the usual "here's why you should follow me" lets real personality come through far more charmingly than a straight brag, and the honesty rewards the swipe, the screenshot and the friend-tag.
Brand opportunities
A brilliant, low-lift way to show personality and pre-qualify your audience at once: lean into your quirks ("reasons to unfollow us: we will post about oat milk more than any brand should," "we reply to every comment, sorry in advance"), pair it with a genuine "reasons to follow" flip for full effect, and use it to fill the gap most brands have in engaging non-Reel feed content.
‘NO AI WAS USED IN THIS BTW’
A reaction to AI fatigue: creators post clips of things made entirely by human hands (practical effects from old TV shows, hand-drawn animation, real stunt work, a crafted physical build) captioned "no AI was used in this btw," half nostalgia and half quiet flex. It resonates because audiences are increasingly able to spot generated content and are actively rewarding the real thing, so the caption has become a genuine badge of value.
Brand Opportunities
If real craft goes into what you make, show it loudly: film the hands, the workshop, the drafts, the mistakes, the person actually making the thing, and caption it "no AI was used in this btw." It works for makers, hospitality, design studios, and trades. It is a low-cost way to differentiate now that "made by real people" is a selling point, but only claim it if it's true, because this audience is very good at spotting a fake.
BRANDS KILLING IT
SAM SMITH’S ‘SECRET’ FOODIE ACCOUNT
The internet just discovered that Sam Smith, the Grammy winner behind "Unholy" and "I'm Not the Only One," has been quietly running a side food account (@samserved / "sam.served"). No PR push, no big reveal, just Smith turning up at bakeries and restaurants, ordering, eating, affectionately calling their audience "piggies," and explaining in genuine detail why they love the food. One clip of them recommending the bread at a Hampstead bakery went viral largely because people could not believe "the Sam Smith?!" was now, apparently, a food influencer.
What makes it work is how unguarded and self-aware it is. It is the opposite of a polished celebrity brand play. There's no product to sell, no sponsor, just a famous person being unexpectedly, endearingly normal about sandwiches. The mismatch between the pop-star persona and the earnest food-vlogger energy is exactly what made it spread, and the comments filled with people craving whatever was on screen.
How brands can use this
The lesson here is the power of the unexpected personal side. Audiences are drawn to the gap between what they expect from a brand and a genuine, slightly unpolished human moment. For brands, that means letting a founder, a chef or a team member show real personality and real enthusiasm rather than staying on-message. Show the person behind the account being sincerely into something, even something small and off-topic. The self-aware, low-production, "I know this is a bit random" energy is what earns trust and shares right now, far more than a glossy campaign would.
SOCIAL UPDATES
INSTAGRAM LETS YOU ADD MUSIC AFTER POSTING
Instagram has started rolling out a "Replace Audio" feature that lets creators swap the music or sound on a post that is already live, covering feed posts and carousels, without deleting and re-uploading. The rollout began on 21 July. Until now, a wrong or muted track meant taking the whole post down and losing all its likes, comments and momentum in the process.
For anyone managing brand accounts, this quietly removes one of the more painful mistakes in the job. If a trending sound gets muted for rights reasons, or you simply picked the wrong track, you can now fix it in place and keep every bit of engagement the post has already earned.
