Trending is the term used to describe a topic, hashtag, photo, video, catchphrase, an App, or any other phenomenon that’s popular across social media. Understanding trends is a great way to stay in touch with what your audience is talking about, searching for, or discussing online. It can also help your business get in on the conversation and increase awareness of your brand.

Trends are generated when a hashtag, keyword, or phrase reaches a significant spike in popularity on a given social media platform. They can be localized to a specific community, region, or context or can have a global impact. Trends can originate from a variety of sources, including current news, cultural and other events, viral content, holidays, or even online campaigns and challenges.

Generally, topics that are more relevant to current events or news stories have a higher chance of becoming trending. Topics that generate a lot of engagement can also become trending, particularly if they are controversial or spark a debate. In addition, if something goes viral or has an emotional or humorous element it’s more likely to become a trending topic.

While it’s not possible for businesses to control or dictate what trends appear, they can take advantage of them by creating and promoting content around relevant events or conversations. By leveraging trends, you can increase the visibility of your business and gain new customers or followers. However, it’s important to be aware of how you use trends, as overuse or abuse can draw the attention of social media platforms and result in your account being suspended.

In terms of online marketing, trending can be a great way to get your brand in the spotlight by appearing on the homepage or Explore tabs on social media platforms. It can also be a valuable tool for researching and planning future marketing efforts, as you’ll have an idea of what your audience is interested in at any given time.

Many social media platforms have their own ‘Trending’ sections, where they display popular topics or keywords that people are currently discussing or searching for. For example, Twitter’s ‘Trending’ section shows users the most popular hashtags and topics that are being discussed on their platform. Google’s Trends feature is a similar tool that displays the topics being searched for by users in real-time.

YouTube’s Trending tab is another useful tool for finding out what people are watching and talking about in a particular region or globally. However, because the trending topics are determined by an algorithm and are not curated by humans, it can be difficult to keep track of trends. It’s also worth noting that the algorithms can be influenced by things like how recently a video has been uploaded, or whether it has been featured in other videos or articles. This is why it’s important for YouTube creators to be constantly producing trend-worthy content.