Twitter Trending Topics: Everything You Need to Know

Twitter trending topics are a popular feature of the social media platform that highlights the most popular and widely shared tweets in real-time. Depending on what people are currently talking about, these trending topics can cover a wide range of categories, including news, entertainment, sports, and politics.

Users can see trending topics on their homepage, search for specific topics using hashtags, or explore trending topics to see what’s popular. For brands and marketers, Twitter trending topics can be a valuable tool for increasing visibility, engaging with audiences, and staying relevant in their industries.

Brands can use trending topics to create content that resonates with their audience, join conversations, and monitor sentiment to make informed marketing decisions.

In this article, we’re going to cover all you need to know about these popular trends, and how you can leverage this feature to your benefit.

Updated on 28.02.2023

What Are Twitter Trending Topics And How Do They Work?

The concept around Twitter trending is understanding which topics are popular among users. 

Twitter trending topics come from the number of mentions and the engagement achieved by the most popular keywords, hashtags, and topics. As soon as a user starts following a topic automatically more news, tweets and trends will appear on their Twitter homepage.  

So, based on your interactions Twitter shows you what it thinks you will be most interested in. This is convenient because you get to explore what is trending around the world, not only in your local area. Trending topics are primarily based on Twitter’s algorithm, as it discovers what people like to discuss and therefore it regulates what is popular to share. 

The idea behind these topics is to transfer Twitter towards conversation and away from on-and-off comments. 

What are the main categories of trending topics on Twitter?

Twitter trending topics are categorized based on the content of the tweets that are currently popular and widely shared on the platform. The categories for top trending topics and hashtags can vary, but some of the most common categories include:

• News: This category includes current events, breaking news stories, and developments in politics, business, and other areas.
• Entertainment: This category includes popular movies, TV shows, music, and other forms of entertainment. It can also include celebrity news, award shows, and events related to the entertainment industry.
• Sports: This category includes trending topics related to sports, such as popular teams, athletes, games, and events.
• Politics: This category includes trending topics related to politics, such as elections, political scandals, and policy debates.
• Pop culture: This category includes trending topics related to popular cultures, such as memes, viral videos, and internet trends.
• Lifestyle: This category includes trending topics related to health, fitness, beauty, food, travel, and other lifestyle topics.

How And Where To Find Twitter Trending Topics?

In general, you can find trending topics on Twitter on your homepage feed, and then you can navigate to the trends section, to explore what are the latest trending hashtags and topics. 

The category “Trends for you” is a feature that gives the opportunity to users to choose and follow trends they find interesting from a list of topics. This section offers recommendations about what is currently trending in your location and you can choose to comment on whether you find it interesting or not.

The “What’s Happening” section includes popular topics, but you don’t only see popular tweets that are constantly shared and commented on, but also a synopsis of stories and headlines affiliated with the tweets to provide you with context.

Another way of exploring what’s trending is to navigate to the “More” section, on the left column of your profile. There you will find “Suggested Topics”, under the section “Followed”. The topics you follow are used to personalize the tweets, events, and ads that you see, and show up publicly on your profile.

Likewise, you can click on the section “Suggested” to explore all the categories, for example, you will see the category “Arts & Culture” with the plus symbol right next to them.

By pressing click on the plus symbol you will notice a drop-down menu with more specialized topics regarding every industry. As soon as you start following some trends your feed page will show you topics of your preference based on the algorithm.

You also have the opportunity to check what is currently trending by location, whether that’s your city or the entire global Twitter community, by setting geographical preferences so you can explore what’s trending in your current location.

To personalize your feed you need to click “show more” on the right-hand side of your trends page. Then navigate to your explore page, and then click on the gear icon at the top, right next to the search bar. From there, you can set your preferences to reflect the trends you want to appear on your feed.

Why Are Trending Topics on Twitter Important?

The importance of creating campaigns and topics is based on the fact that trends are the means to get to know your audience. What do they want to hear about? What do they care about? These are the questions that need to be answered and Twitter trending topics could help you.

As mentioned before Twitter trends can support you while conducting extensive research in order to stay informed about the topics that matter the most to your audience.

It is a way of interacting and keeping in touch with your target group and as a result, you can create better campaigns, evolve your content, and in general your brand image. 

The campaigns you build need to be authentic in ways that grab your audience’s attention, and by doing so you can connect with them and understand their needs in terms of content creation. Being up-to-date and relevant are some of the most important connotations regarding the digital world. 

Twitter trends assist marketers in actively participating in real-time conversations and being aware of the latest things that are happening in the digital community.

These trends help you explain the sentiment around topics and how people respond to them. As the platform regularly introduces new features, the ways to engage with your audience through trends and topics multiply. 

How Are Keywords And Hashtags Related To Tweets?

Twitter trending topics uncover the stories and concepts people talk about, along with tweets about these topics. In that way, you are informed about the words and phrases people talk and use to search for topics. 

People have the tendency to react to the news by rushing to social media posts and therefore these topics are ranking in the trends list.

By checking a variety of Twitter trending topics we realize that these trending hashtags often reveal breakout search terms hours in advance. So, trending hashtags indicate future search trends. This enables marketers to be proactive with their campaigns by adding relevant keywords. 

Being involved with trending Twitter hashtags can help you attract more audience that finds interesting what you have to say. Some might discover your products or service through hashtags, while others might start following your profile.  

What does exactly mean for a hashtag to become trending? Hashtags, like trending topics, are selected based on what’s trending on Twitter, on a global or regional level, or by twitter’s algorithm that analyses an individual’s interests.

Using hashtags enables you to join and monitor the conversation on relevant hashtags, as hashtags are a dynamic avenue to brand awareness and success. 

How to find less popular trending topics on Twitter?

Although the trends page will present you with the most popular hashtags and topics related to your interests, sometimes it might fail to foresee what you want to appear on your homepage. So, if you want to succeed in data drilling of a less popular topic you should figure out keywords to search for these kinds of topics.

luckily, there are hashtag tracking tools such as Mentionlytics that can help you to achieve this. All you have to do is to enter your targeted hashtag into the tool and see all the results across social media, namely Twitter, and even the web.

How Can Brands Use Twitter Trending Topics?

Well, to begin with, tweeting only for your business purposes is not actually helping your business grow. It is necessary to expand the topics of discussion to approach a broader audience. The Twitter trending list allows you to profit from the topics your audience cares about, in order to start conversations and as a result engage with them and make sure your business’s brand name is spreading and gaining awareness.  

Here are some of the ways brands can make the most of Twitter trending hashtags:

1- Explore what’s trending in your niche

Algorithmically, Twitter will show you prominent topics related to your interests. If you are already active in following trends on Twitter and interacting with content related to yours, you get to see trending topics that reflect your interests. 

It can work as research, especially if you are trying to discover what people are talking about and what is important to them. Also, if you are not part of the same demographic group as your target group, this can prove useful since you may not know what the latest trends are. 

Another important thing to remember is that you should stay on top of Twitter trending topics, as they change on a daily basis. This doesn’t require a lot of time, even 10 minutes a day is enough for you to discover what’s trending related to your brand and stay ahead of things. 

This is a great way to engage with your audience, interact and generate conversation. 

At the same time, by keeping up with news and trends you get a better perspective on your audience’s interests and how your business impacts them. So, in a few words, this information helps you keep your buyer persona up-to-the-minute and it allows you to build a more detailed Twitter marketing campaign. 

2- Understand Your Audience’s Sentiment 

Twitter trending topics can help you understand the sentiment around a trend and how people are feeling regarding this trending topic. The great thing about trending topics is that you can see exactly their responses, beside what they are talking about.

More specifically, social media sentiment is the approach and feelings people have about a brand on social media platforms and it is based on comments, shares, and mentions. 

For example, if you are launching a new product or service and you want to know your audience’s attitude towards it, a quick browser around the tweets will help you comprehend how your target audience feels about the new product/service. To achieve that you need more than just the volume of posts since you need an in-depth understanding of whether the mentions are positive or negative so you can discover an addressable outcome.  

3- Retweet interesting topics 

The retweeting process is one of the easiest ways to grow your audience and interact with the one you already have. If you mention someone’s name, for example, a blog author, in a retweet you will instantly be in front of that person’s audience. This is the perfect way to gain more followers, enhance your visibility and fill up your feed while engaging with the digital community. 

4- Follow accounts of professionals in your field

Twitter trending topics can help you find brands or experts that are well-known for discussing topics and ideas related to your industry. 

By following people with powerful Twitter accounts you can check what type of content they are posting and that is the equivalent of keeping up with the current Twitter trends and insights. Also, reviewing their profile might help with learning how to optimize tweets to rank the Twitter topics tab.

Simultaneously, by checking your competitors’ tweets for a specific topic in relation to your industry, you can keep a record of their actions, and then you can start creating content or building campaigns that help you improve this topic. 

5- Check users’ opinions on a topic

Once you completely understand a trend, you can delve into how people react and feel about the Twitter trend. Popular topics commonly reflect news, stories, and events around the globe and that is equal to evoking emotions. So, you have the opportunity to search for the right tweets that will enable you to comprehend your audience and their feelings. 

The main idea is that every topic should provoke a variety of emotions, so the right tweets will help you understand how your audience feels about a specific topic. 

6- Create content regarding the trends in your industry

After searching and following accounts you should start creating content that addresses the trends that are dominant in your industry’s field.

For example, if your audience talks about a problem your product or service can solve, you can post more about it, give an informative description of how to solve it or create content that mentions your brand. You can learn a lot about what your target group is discussing by posting tweets about it. You can still get reach or growth even if you don’t rank first because you’re answering everything your target group wants.

7- Optimize your tweets with hashtags

Hashtags can help you optimize your tweets with trendy keywords or phrases. As soon as a person clicks on a hashtag, instantly they will be exposed to tweets that use this hashtag too.

People mostly discover your tweets under the topics category, if someone is talking about a specific trending topic, it’s possible to find your tweets by clicking on a hashtag you have posted. In case you notice that many people in your field are posting tweets with certain hashtags, you should take that into account and create tweets that combine that hashtag to optimize your content and Twitter account. 

Twitter trending hashtags enable you to enhance your content and build better Twitter campaigns.

8- Join Conversasions

It is important to share a broader vision so you can add authenticity and humanity to your brand image. As you see certain stories and topics dominate the conversation on Twitter daily, you should not be afraid to share your perspective, and words of justice that could provoke change and raise awareness. 

It is not mandatory to simply retell stories and reshare tweets in order to jump into the ongoing conversations. Addressing directly the issues your audience cares about is essential so you can experience that feeling of accomplishment, and work for the greater good, for example by sharing your resources.

To Sum Up

Twitter has always been the kind of platform that generates trend-based conversation. So, being active on what’s trending will help both users and brands dive deeper and understand what is important to the audience. 

Make sure that you are involved in your niche, while following the trending topics, in order for Twitter’s algorithm to show you more about your area of interest. So, in a word Twitter trending topics offer insights on how to engage with your audience and grow your community.

Don’t forget to dive into a variety of geographical areas, to learn more about different local audiences and impressions. Also, have a look at Mentionlytics to check out how you can monitor and analyze your brand’s image and benefit from useful insights.