Maisie Lloyd
I'm passionate about recording the world, but most of all driven by creativity and collaborative environments. My experience revolves around the production of digital content, pertaining to graphic design, writing copy, and video and audio content.
What is the trend?
The ‘Tap, hold and load in 4k’ trend has taken X (formerly Twitter) by storm. The sporting community has adopted the trend, with sports fans sharing 4k resolution images of their favourite shots of athletes. However, the trend has quickly been adopted by other brands, having seen success in the trend garnering engagement.
The trend nods to the feature integrated by Twitter in 2020, which allows users to download images in a 4k resolution. The trend highlights users’ ability to access high-quality visual assets by simply holding down an image.
Why is this trend gaining popularity?
The trend allows brands, creators and influencers to share visual content with their audience, in super high quality. The popularity of sharing these high-quality assets encourages audiences to interact and engage with content.
The ease of use has propelled the trend, making it super simple for audiences to take a closer look and explore their curiosities.
Why does the trend work so well?
The trend uses the load in the 4k feature to give brands’ social media strategies a creative and competitive edge.
The success of the trend lies in its ability to:
- Demonstrate brand personality: Brands are able to provide insight, showcase their creativity and tell compelling stories through any imagery.
- Having a competitive edge: Trend participation not only signals to the audience an awareness of the current social culture, but it also has brands vying for attention.
- Garnering attention: Attaining engagement is made that much easier when a trend grips the audience, more so, the trend actively encourages the audience to download the imagery, pushing for enhanced experiences between audiences and visual content.
What are some examples of the trend being done?
Brands like the FIFA World Cup, Blue Origin (Jeff Bezos’ engineering company) and Fortnite have all been quick to hop on the trend, sharing their best high-resolution imagery. This has allowed brands to quickly attain engagement over captivating photography.
The future of the ‘Tap, hold and load in 4k’ trend
As the way social media and the way we use it continues to evolve, trends like this one highlight the increasing importance of visual content production. As platforms continue to invest in features that enhance the user experience. Brands opting to embrace relevant trends in their marketing strategy will continue to thrive.
