How to Find Current Trends
The best tools and tips for finding the latest trends and getting your business’ name in the game.
Keeping up with the newest trending topics is a fast-paced game and most folks have a hard time keeping up with the latest fad. From creating relevant TikToks to using emojis and slang, getting it right means hitting a target that never stops moving. Get it wrong and you can unintentionally alienate your audience (thumbs up emoji, anyone?).
Publishing keyed-in content is crucial when establishing a social media presence for your brand or business. Research shows that trends can impact purchasing decisions—consumers are being influenced by social media and mobile marketing, and they’re more likely to purchase items they’ve become familiarized with via these personalized channels.
What’s the best way to stay on top of the latest thing? If you’re working to get up to speed with targeting ever-evolving marketing trends, we’ve put together a list of tools (both free and premium) that can help you achieve maximum relevancy and create content that makes your customers take notice.
No-Cost Tools to Track What’s Trending
Whether you’re just getting started or your content calendar is already full, up your game with free options that can keep you up with trends in search and social media. Whether you want to create effective Instagram captions, connect with specific demographics on Facebook, or inform your blog posts using the latest trending searches—the following tools will help get you started.
Google Trends
Known as one of the top trending topics platforms, Google Trends tracks global searches and breaks down data by categories to make it easier for you to target your ideal customer. This data includes details like date, location, and search type. The trending searches can help you phrase keywords that follow regional language and choose the best times to post on social media based on when certain trends are expected to peak.
Twitter remains one of the best platforms for finding current trending topics. Between in-the-moment conversations surrounding popular events and high brand presence on the platform, it’s become a trusted resource for marketers and customers alike. Twitter’s trending topics section is a go-to place to find the latest cultural phenomena. You can use what you find to connect your product or service to trending topics, keeping you in the loop and showing your customers your value and relevance. Staying up to date on social media’s trending topics is also a key element when you’re working to synergize SMS and social media strategies.
Often referred to as “the front page of the internet,” Reddit jumps on trending topics the second they break. Reddit’s algorithm tracks users’ reactions to content to determine its popularity. Find these topics before they’re old news by checking smaller subsections of the site (referred to as subreddits). With your audience in mind, you can home in on relevant trends with minimal digging.
YouTube
Boasting close to 2 billion monthly users globally, YouTube is one of the most popular websites in the world. Utilizing YouTube’s trending data provides another prime location where you can gain insight into the search habits of billions of users at any moment. YouTube’s annual Culture & Trends Report 2022 is a go-to read for many brands.
Paid & Personalized Trend Tracking
When you’re ready to level up your trend-hunting, take the next step and check out some of the paid or subscription-based data services to inform your marketing efforts. While free tools and reports are useful, paid options cut out much of the legwork, saving you time and effort to spend on the fun stuff.
Exploding Topics
A newer addition to the trending scene, Exploding Topics is a software designed to help you come up with content ideas that will garner interest based on what is (or is about to be) popular among consumers. The tool categorizes topics into 3 sections: exploding, regular, and peaked. These tiers help you determine the hottest topics of the moment. Results are filterable by time and search category to optimize your thought leadership content and improve SEO strategy.
Exploding Topics offers two pricing options, Entrepreneur level at $47/month and Investor level at $97/month. 14-day trials are available for each at just $1.
BuzzSumo
An easy-to-use tool for those new to content marketing, this platform helps users find trending topics by compiling content that has the most interactions on social media. You can also find key influencers using BuzzSumo, making it useful not only for coming up with topic ideas, but also seeing that content come to life.
BuzzSumo’s pricing ranges from a limited free plan to a large business plan for $299/month. They also offer custom plans that can be tailored to fit your needs.
Trends.co
Trends.co lets you identify emerging trends ahead of the curve and provides its users with savings in the way of research and testing. The service aims to help its users build a successful startup through a paid subscription, which can help you discover business ideas that target trending markets.
Trends.co offers its subscription for $299/year after a 1-week trial for $1. The subscription includes access to their newsletter, educational content, and business directory.
Feedly
By using AI (Artificial Intelligence) in a unique way, Feedly provides its users a more personal-feeling experience. When interacting with their engine, named Leo, you input the factors you’re searching for and the system returns relevant insights from across the web. The program allows you to curate newsletters, websites, social media platforms, and anything else that you follow, into one convenient feed. Through your feed, you can stay updated on what’s trending without the noise and clutter of unnecessary information.
Feedly offers several pricing levels, starting at $6/month for their “Pro” tier all the way up to their custom “Enterprise” plan, which requires a quote to secure pricing.
Whether you’re looking for free tools to enhance your trend-hunting skills or would like to outsource research and curation with a paid option, the platform that’ll make you swipe right is out there. Move up to the next level in your content marketing by discovering what’s trending — or even what will be in the future. These programs are a great place to start.
How EZ Texting Can Grow Your Business
Now that you know a little more about keeping up with trends, it’s time to take the next step and think about how you can integrate this knowledge into your marketing plans. Creating a marketing plan to reach potential and current customers is key to growing your business. EZ Texting can help. Try a no-risk free trial to find out for yourself how our text marketing platform can help your company.
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