Understanding and Harnessing Twitter Trends

Trending on Twitter is the goal of everyone trying to make a splash on the platform, but few truly understand how it works. So what are Twitter trends? And how can you harness them to raise your business to new heights?

Read on to find out.

How Trends Are Determined

First up, how does something become a trend? The answer of course is an algorithm, which like all sites, Twitter is very vague about what goes into it. Volume and recency are obviously important, however the exact details aren’t clear.

What we do understand is how those trends end up in front of people. What trends a user ends up seeing is determined by a combination of their location, the recency of the trend, their interactions, and who they follow.

In a nutshell, if lots of people in your niche are talking about something, that becomes a trend that you can interact with.

Are Trends The Same As Hashtags?

No, and there’s an important distinction to be made here.

A hashtag is a label, a way to allow tweets to be grouped together for convenient browsing by users. For example, #SmallBusiness denotes that a tweet is Small Business related, and allows users searching for Small Business content to find it easily.

A trend can use hashtags, or even be started by them, but it isn’t the hashtag itself.

With that clarified, let’s finally look at how all this can be harnessed to help your business.

How You Can Harness Twitter Trends

The first and simplest way to harness Twitter trends is to observe them. You can use them to uncover what’s trending in the niche you occupy. If you’re looking to understand the people in your community and what they’re interested in, there’s no better way than to hear it straight from their own mouths.

The next step is to leap into those conversations and make yourself a part of them. You can retweet others already participating in the discussion, and make use of trending hashtags to increase your visibility within the community.

It’s also your opportunity to have your own say on the topic in question and make your voice heard. If you have something to add to the conversation, make sure everyone knows! Be an active participant in your community and build connections and authority.

Speaking of connections, look for others in your community who are emerging as leaders in these trends, and then follow them. If they’ve got good ideas that they’re willing to share with anyone who’ll listen, you need to make sure you’re listening.

Twitter trends are fantastic opportunities to further your understanding of your industry and community, and to improve your standing within that community. If you’re going to be on Twitter, make sure you’re paying attention to them.