Live coverage from the Future of Communications conference.
Imagine two dinner party guests.
One looks at the guest list ahead of time. They bring a dish to share. They tell interesting stories and allow the other guests to ask them questions. They ask questions and listen to stories in return.
The other guest doesn’t take their shoes off. They bring nothing to share. They wander around shouting about how great they are. They don’t ask questions or let anyone else speak.
One of these isn’t getting invited back to the dinner party.
That is the difference between brands who work with their communities to create culture versus those who blindly chase what’s trending, according to cultural researcher and futurist Matt Klein,
“Simply, there’s a difference between chasing culture and making culture,” Klein said during his keynote address at Ragan’s 2025 Future of Communications Conference. “We have over-indexed on chasing culture for way too long. That is how we got competitive trend reports and hyped-up ideas that do not reflect the real desires of people, because we were not out actually making culture with our sleeves rolled up, and we’ve forgotten that you’re the experts.”
Part of the problem, Klein said, is that too often, brands conflate what’s trending with actual trends.
“Trends are substantial shifts in human behavior. Trending is the story of the day, the headline, the recirculated hashtag,” Klein explained. “But we’ve conflated the two. We think the trending is the trend. We think the trending is more important than it actually is — but it’s not.”
By chasing these momentary blips in the public consciousness, communicators give up their chance to truly have an impact on culture and build something better along with their constituent audiences. When communicators attempt to lead by chasing what’s trending rather than changing human behavior in a trend, we wind up being that awkward, uncouth dinner party guest.
“So the question with that then becomes, how do we go against those headlines? How do we resonate with culture? How do we get to (a place) where we’re optimistic about culture, where we feel as though we can do something about it?”
Klein offered five conceptual questions to ask in order to stop following and start leading:
- Am I being tempted by big and fast? “Just because the number says it’s big does not always mean it’s the most important thing,” Klein warned.
- Am I addressing the desires of humans? Communicators exist to serve people, not algorithms. So make sure you’re targeting your activities appropriately.
- How can I support a community’s goals? It’s better to go to people and create something new based on their existing interests rather than trying to pull them toward you. Take, for example, Netflix uploading evidence from its “Unsolved Mystery” cases so true crime sleuths could try to crack the case. They found the existing community and supplied them with content that fit their passion.
- How do I build with, not just for? There’s a huge temptation to build in private and unveil everything to the world in one great ta-da moment. But instead, brands can actively work with their audiences to build something together.
- What available feedback already exists? You may not need to gather more data. You may just need to listen to conversations already taking place.
As one of Klein’s colleagues said, “When you stop rolling up your sleeves and just post-rationalize and claim to consider yourself an observer of culture, you’ve already put yourself on the sidelines.”
Instead, brands should consider themselves builders of culture, leading the way instead of chasing flashes in the pan.
“Don’t just study culture,” Klein concluded. “Make culture. Because we get the futures that we make. It is truly that simple.”
Allison Carter is editorial director of PR Daily and Ragan.com. Follow her on LinkedIn.
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