Trending is the term for a popular topic on social media that reflects the interests, discussions, and collective attention of the social media community at a given time. Trends can originate from a wide variety of sources, including current events, cultural and other happenings, viral content, holiday or special occasions, and even online campaigns and challenges. Localized to a specific community, context, or location, trends can also have an impact on a global scale.
Generally, the trend is identified as an upward or downward direction that persists over a defined period of time. The longer the trend lasts, the more significant it is. Trend analysis involves gathering data about the market, a company or product, and other related factors to determine whether it is likely that the trend will continue in either direction. Investors conduct trend analysis to help them make informed decisions about investing in a company or stock. Companies like Pantone also conduct trend analysis and distill their findings into reports such as the annual Color of the Year.
The trending topics displayed on Twitter’s home page and within the Explore tab are determined by a complex algorithm that considers a number of different variables. These include relevance, virality, and your personalization settings on Twitter (which may include things like the language you use and the locations where you are located).
If something is relevant to your audience, it’s more likely to generate engagement and become trending. The same goes for virality—if a topic is highly shareable, it has a greater chance of going viral and becoming trending. Finally, controversy and interest often drive trends as people express their opinions on different sides of a story or issue.
In the past, trends were often subject to manipulation by political activists and other players in the social media world. Some examples include re-tweeting a particular hashtag to ensure it trended, or creating accounts specifically designed to generate buzz around a certain topic. Twitter has attempted to tweak its algorithms in the past in an effort to prevent such manipulation, but this has met with limited success.
Despite these challenges, trending can be an effective tool for reaching your audience on social media. The key is to be strategic in your approach. Rather than simply asking your followers to “use this hashtag; we want to trend!” it’s better to give them a clear direction, and maybe a couple sample messages they can use, for example: