When you visit your Twitter page there is a list on the page with trending topics. Lots of search engines and other social media platforms have trending topics as well. So, what are they and what is their significance?
Trending topics are what people are talking about in real-time. They change as people search for different things. Obviously, as events unfold, people begin to discuss them in blogs, web pages and social media. When there is a mass shooting, that becomes a trending topic. Politics, music, news, sports and celebrities all can trend. It does not matter if the subject is positive or negative. It can be a coup in a foreign country or someone winning an election. Some sites have local, national and international trends so they can be broken down to your location.
How does this help with marketing?
You can write your great content either using the trending topic as an example or somehow weaving it into the subject of your article, blog or web content. By using keywords that are trending, you are automatically getting more attention and page views. The search engine bots will be trolling for those keywords. When you use words that are trending, they know. The more your comments are up to the minute, hot button items, buzzwords, trending – whatever name you give it – you will see an upswing in your activity.
Another way to use trending topics in your blog is to give your own take on a trending topic. Let people know how you feel about it. Almost always you can find something that relates to your business that happens to be trending.
When using Twitter and a hashtag, for example, #socialmedia, it becomes searchable. Someone who is interested in finding out about social media can search for that hashtag and see a real-time list of people’s tweets on that subject. If you are using that hashtag in your tweet, it will appear in the list. People will be reading it. Hopefully, people will click on your link or retweet your statement because it is worth repeating.
Certain trending topics can be predicted like elections, back-to-school, holidays and the NBA Finals. You can always write something ahead of time, knowing that your topic will be trending. Baseball season is in full swing. While a baseball-related topic might not be trending right this second, you know baseball is something that will be happening for the next several months and will be on the minds of a lot of sports fans around the country. People will be predicting what certain players will do, and which teams will be in the postseason. At that time there will be actual news stories about players, teams, owners, stadiums, fans, mascots and much more.
As with everything else, you need good, clean copy in your content. The internet is a popularity contest and you need to join in the fun. Put some thought into your content and then tell it to the world.
