Trending is a term used to describe topics, hashtags or content that are popular on social media at a given moment. Social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram and TikTok use algorithms to analyze engagement on their platform to determine what is getting a lot of attention at that moment. Trending topics and keywords are then displayed on the platform’s homepage in a ‘Trending’ section or in their Explore or Trending tabs. Trending is a great way for brands, individuals and businesses to gain visibility and engage with their audience on the platforms they use.

What are the factors that make something trending?

There are many different factors that contribute to making a topic or hashtag trending. Social media algorithms look at a variety of data points, such as likes, shares, searches and comments to identify trends. Once a particular topic or hashtag reaches a threshold of popularity, it will be added to the ‘Trending’ section. Generally, trends reflect a broad consensus on what is important to the majority of a platform’s users at a given time.

Trends can also be influenced by marketing campaigns and other forms of manipulation, including deliberate strategies agreed upon by groups of users to push certain agendas, or more playful attempts to influence the trending topics, such as the recent campaign by teenage fans of musicians and films to make their idols trend. While Twitter has made some efforts to prevent trends from being manipulated, these have had limited success.

YouTube uses an algorithm that is more complex than the one used by Google Trends. It starts by identifying a few hundred possible videos for the user to watch based on their previous viewing history, location, and demographics. Then, it uses multi-layer neural networks to optimise the video for their expected watch time. This process is repeated for each user and each set of data points.

How do I know if my content is trending?

To see if your content is trending, check the ‘Trending’ tab on the sidebar of your Twitter feed. You can also access Twitter trends on mobile by clicking the ‘Trending’ option in the upper right corner of your news feed. Trends are shown in real time and are based on your geographic location and social behavior (posts you’ve liked, pages you follow).

Creating trend-inspired content can help businesses capitalize on what their audience is paying attention to. However, it’s important to remember that trends change quickly. It’s also important to avoid using trends as a tactic to manipulate your audience or try to gain visibility for your business by latching onto national tragedies or other controversial issues. This can backfire, as it did for DiGiorno Pizza when they jumped on the #MeToo trending list in 2018. Instead, use trends to connect with your audience and create content that adds value to their lives. This will increase your chances of becoming a trending topic in the future.