Trending topics are a great way to stay on top of the latest issues and to increase awareness among consumers. However, if you aren’t careful, you could end up with unintended consequences. Below are some tips to ensure you avoid pitfalls when capitalizing on trending topics.

In the early days of the Internet, trending searches were often tied to mainstream U.S. pop culture icons. However, as the digital age took over, conventional celebrities have been replaced by social media stars. While some websites have dedicated trending pages, a lot of users are still relying on their own sources for information.

Google Trends is a good way to see what people are talking about online. The service provides data visualizations that show a graph of how much people are searching for specific terms over time. It also offers tutorials for interpreting the data. This allows journalists to use the data to illustrate interest in a topic.

Twitter compiles trending topic lists on a daily basis. These are based on what users are most interested in, based on geographic location, previous searches, and user followings. You can browse these topics by location, country, or category. Alternatively, you can browse them by a search term. If you want to follow a particular trend, you can click the Suggested tab on the navigation bar.

Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, and other social networks have trending sections where users can browse their own topics and topics discussed by others. The topics can last for days or weeks. Depending on the popularity of the topic, it can stay on the top of the list for longer or be replaced by another trend. Generally, a trend is related to a popular cultural or political occurrence.

For example, the 2016 presidential campaign included the name of Donald Trump. But once the election was over, his name wasn’t one of the top trends on the site.

Another example is the hurricane Katrina, which was the second most searched topic on the web in 2005. Throughout the years, it has continued to garner global attention. As such, if you are looking for trending topics, hurricanes may be a good place to start.

If you are looking for trending video content, vidIQ is a useful tool. Available for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, this research tool can track the keyword of your choice and alert you when it reaches 500 views an hour. Alternatively, Buzzsumo, which has been a favorite for identifying viral content, has expanded into video content discovery.

Using a trending topic can increase your online store’s exposure in search results. But, in order to capitalize on a trend, you must be sure your post is relevant to the topic and that you do not violate any of the site’s rules. To do this, be sure to choose the right hashtags and make your posts relevant.

There is also a trending section on the site’s mobile version. In this section, you can find popular local images, as well as tags that are trending.