Working in marketing and content demands creativity, an open mind, and lots of inspiration to keep your content fresh and exciting. But how does one effectively do this in a world overloaded with communication, news, and inspiration? It’s hard to pick and choose what to follow. Sometimes important facts are missed, and people forget to watch trends that are worth knowing and following.
With trends, the more you know, the better, so keeping an eye on them means you will always be up-to-date. While some trends are worth writing about, others have become oversaturated on the internet. Keep reading to find out if you should be original or follow the herd.
Should You Watch Trends?
In short, yes, you should watch trends. When you work in content and marketing, watching trends keeps you up-to-date with the latest news, not only in your field. You can see the way other outlets have adapted those trending topics. Trends are also a well of inspiration because you can do something great, jaw-dropping, or wrong.
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Watching trends also helps you see which outcomes work and which don’t work in a particular area. It will help you save time instead of writing about something that won’t work. Trends can tell you a lot about your target group, whether it be a current or potential one.
Capitalize on Trending Topics
Writing about trending topics doesn’t mean you need to copy and paste what everyone else has already written. The trend should merely be a source of inspiration. If you know a topic works and is widely shared, you can write about something connected to it while riding the popularity of the topic. Additionally, writing about trending topics is seen as more credible and valuable.
The key is to write about these topics while they are still hot. If you give the topic a fresh and unique spin, your content will stand out against everyone else writing about the trend. You can capitalize on trending topics by finding the intersection of those topics with contentment appropriate for your audience.
Topical content enjoys some of the highest levels of engagement on digital channels. It captures attention, generates sharing, and can be interesting and highly relevant.
How to Find Trending Topics
Google Trends
One of the most powerful tools to discover trending topics and keywords is Google Trends. The tool analyzes popular search queries in Google Search over specific periods. In the “Recently Trending” section, you can find the most popular stories online at any moment. In “Trending Searches,” you can view the hottest search trends by category and location for the past 24 hours.
This is an obvious one because the platform has a trending topics list. You can easily see what everyone is talking about by looking at the top hashtags of the day to discover relevant topics.
LinkedIn Pulse
LinkedIn Pulse is a platform within LinkedIn that features news stories and content from members and organizations. If you are looking for inspiration, the “What People are Talking About Now” section highlights key conversation topics on LinkedIn at any given moment.
Reddit, which calls itself “the front page of the internet,” is a social news website and discussion forum where trending topics are curated and voted on by users. It’s easy to discover content that reflects exactly what people are interested in.
You can use the search box to find relevant communities to subscribe to. Once you add these to your account, your homepage will be full of trending topics to inspire your content.
Final Thoughts
Writing about trending topics will have a high impact on social channels because many people want to read about the most up-to-date stories. While writing about the hottest stories is useful, be sure to put your own spin on the topic to make it stand out from your competition. As long as the topic is relevant to your audience, writing about something you know will work doesn’t hurt.
