How to Find What’s Trending Without Buzzsumo

Trends change fast. One moment everyone talks about Snapchat, and a second later it’s all about Instagram Moments. My oh my, trends are hard to catch.

Knowing what’s trending is crucial for marketing. That’s why so many companies address this issue. Google has its Google Trends, Twitter and Facebook are showing trending articles and hashtags, and many online tools try to answer this particular need.

How People Know What’s Trending

One useful tool that helps to see what’s trending around a specific category is Buzzsumo. Whatever article you’ll read about trend identification, Buzzsumo will be there.

Buzzsumo is a useful resource for finding trending articles and influencers around a specific topic. Just type in the search term and you’ll come up with popular articles about it. Next, you can see who are the top people who shared it.

Buzzsumo is great. I enjoy using it on a frequent basis. But when I want to capture a wider look of a trend, I use the human way of knowing what’s trending: listening.

In this blog post we would like to share how we at Klear help people identify trends with social media listening:

Set Your Ears In The Right Direction

Identifying what’s trending starts with finding the best keywords to monitor. Many start their keyword research with the Google Ads Keyword Tool, but this set of keywords will not necessarily fit your needs.

People choose different wording when searching on Google and when they tweet on Twitter, or hashtag a photo on Instagram. Choosing keywords requires a tuned ear to the human language on the internet.

To fine tune your keyword choices, take a closer look at the words and phrases people use.

Let’s take a real-life example and find keywords around Gluten Free diet.

The first step is to check the top keywords people who are interested in Gluten Free diet use. Here are a few options for doing that:

1. Instagram hashtags: Check what hashtags are most popular within the community.
   We go to influencers’ profiles and check the top hashtags their audience use. You can use the keywords as-is (#glutenfreedessert), and also break them into sentences people use (“gluten free dessert”).
2. Twitter hashtags: Just like with Instagram, we check the top influencers in the space and what interests their audience.
3. Put yourself in your target audience’ shoes: what phrases they use? Think of relevant situations and phrases. For instance: “Gluten free” AND “delicious!”.

Analyze What’s Trending

Now the fun part begins.

There are different kind of trends that can be found:

• Image and styling trends
• New slang and keywords
• Uprising influencers, and more.

We’ve set a monitor to track the mentions in the past month and gathered thousands of conversations around it. Here’s a quick look into the top content:

Looking into the top content on Instagram and Twitter, it was easy to notice these trends:

• Theme: dominance of breakfast related content.
• Recipes: Desserts were more dominant than other dishes.
• Styling: The full-table style was gathering more attention than one-dish photo.

These kind of insights can help with creating your next content and social strategy. Creating an outdoors breakfast image with a link to a light dessert recipe looks like a sure bet.

Who’s Leading the Trend

After analyzing the current trend around Gluten Free food in the past month, it would be great to keep ourselves updated with the people who lead the conversation. Now, we can take a look at the top influencers who set the trend.

Here’s a glimpse into that network of influencers:

The next step is to follow them, connect with them, and also dive into their network of followers.

Setting the Next Trend?

If you’re trying to follow a trend, then you must listen to what people say.

Social listening is the best way to know what’s trending, keep up with the constant changes, hear what people think, and learn what are their new preferences. Who knows, maybe with the right data you’ll be the one who set the next trend!

How do you keep yourself updated with the latest trends? Share with us your tools and strategies in the comments below!

If you ever need an ear, we’re here. Meet Klear:

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