Trending is a feature on social media platforms that allows users to see content and topics that are popular on the platform. The popularity of a topic is determined by algorithms that analyze activity on the site, including searches and likes. When a topic meets a certain threshold of interest, it is labeled as trending and displayed prominently on the site. Trends can be seen on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
When a topic becomes a trend, it can lead to increased visibility and engagement for the brand, influencer, or user that posted the topic. Trending is especially helpful for small businesses that want to increase their visibility and exposure to potential customers. Trending is also a tool that can be used by influencers to leverage their large following to promote products or messages.
The popularity of a topic on social media can change quickly, and a post can be “trending” for a short period of time before fading out of view. The popularity of a trend can be affected by the timing, context, or content of the post. For example, a post promoting an event can be a successful marketing strategy, but posting about a tragedy can backfire and create negative sentiment in the audience.
There are several tools that can help you analyze trends, including Google Trends, which analyses a sample of searches over a period of time to determine how many people are searching for a particular word or phrase. Google also displays a chart showing the search volume over time, which can be useful for analyzing a trend.
Another tool to use for analyzing trends is the website Ahrefs, which offers a premium service that lets you find trending content based on various criteria. You can use the service to search for keywords or specific pages, and it will return trending content based on performance metrics such as share counts, traffic, and backlinks.
While there are benefits to participating in trending discussions, it’s important to understand how the algorithms behind trending work and how your participation can impact other users. For example, an insensitive hashtag or ill-timed promotion can cause your Post to become trending for the wrong reasons. For example, an insensitive tweet about the Sandy Hook shootings would be viewed as disrespectful to the victims’ families and may cause a negative backlash from other users.
To see your own personalized trending topics, sign in to X for iOS or Android and tap the menu icon (iOS) or the profile icon (Android). Then select Settings and privacy. Tap Content you see, then drag the slider to adjust the content you receive. This setting affects how you see trending on X and other parts of our apps and services, including the Home timeline, notifications, search results, and your X profile.