Tracking Social Media Content Trends
The pace of change and evolution in social media marketing is rapid. If you are not working in and on social media on a daily basis, it is nearly impossible to keep up. I am working in it every day and staying current is still a challenge. This is because working in social media means that you are working across multiple platforms — YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. — and all the things that are happening on each of those — keeping up with content trends, algorithm preferences, platform updates, etc. — it is A LOT. So, how do I keep up and know how to advise my clients?
Before getting started, it is important to realize that there will be “experts” for every platform, and even more niche than that, there will be “experts” for your industry on a specific platform. You don’t have to know ALL the things to be successful on the platform of your choice for your industry. But finding those people and tuning into what they have to say occasionally can be helpful. Just don’t get overwhelmed if you don’t know all the things; you only need to know the general trends — not what is trending today, every day (because that would be a full-time job 😉).
If you are just starting out with social media for your brand, I strongly recommend that you select ONE platform to start with and learn everything you can about that platform while focusing on being successful there. Once you start seeing results on that platform, then you can branch out to others. (See Three Mistakes Business Make on Social Media for more info on this topic.)
Detailed below are my tips for keeping up with social media platforms — trends, updates, algorithms, and more.
Time
The most straightforward tip can also be the most difficult to do: spending time on every (or your chosen) platform weekly (if not daily), is the best way to understand how they work, what people are doing, and what content is getting the most attention.
Trending Topics
Beyond using the platforms yourself very regularly, there are specific actions and searches you can do on a regular basis as you are planning your brand’s content.
Figuring out what is trending on Facebook means going off-platform to some other tools that are aggregating data. This Twitter account uses CrowdTangle data to automatically pull the top performing 10 link posts on Facebook each day. While this is not super insightful, it does give a glimpse into where people are getting news and information.
CrowdTangle is an analytics platform owned by Facebook. You’ll have to sign up to see any data, but you can do that for free. There are — of course — paid plans if you want more detail.
With Instagram’s Explore page, you will need to keep in mind that this is content tailored to you based on what you already follow and what content you engage with. The Instagram algorithm is pulling together a collection of posts and accounts that it thinks YOU will like. So everyone’s Explore page is a little different. If you manage multiple Instagram accounts, you will want to view the Explore page on each account regularly to discover new content ideas and trends for that brand.
LinkedIn News is a feature that shows up in the top right-hand side of your LinkedIn page. This feed is the day’s top professional news stories and conversations.
Snapchat
The Trends page on Snapchat’s website is pretty broad, but you can do searches for content that is relevant to your brand to find out what people are doing and saying related to that.
In App
In general, the Snapchat app is not great for discovering new and interesting content. You really need to know what you are looking for there, in my opinion. For local content, I think one of the most interesting features of the app is the Snap Map where you can see what people are posting by location (if they choose to share that).
TikTok
The Discover page on TikTok’s website is pretty self-explanatory. Click around and see what you can find.
This page is also pretty self-explanatory. It bubbles up the things that people are currently tweeting about en masse.
YouTube
The YouTube Explore page highlights “creators on the rise,” trending videos overall, and trending videos by categories. I like to check in here a few times a week to see what the world is interested in watching.
The YouTube Trends report is a public repository for useful YouTube data, explanations of current trends, and updated statistics about the platform. This is a rabbit hole of fascinating information.
Because Reddit is a massive collection of forums where people can share news and content or comment on other people’s posts it is a good indicator for what is on people’s minds at any moment in time.
Google Trends
Google Trends is pretty high-level data, but understanding what is being searched for can really give you an understanding of our collective thinking. And if you are a data junkie, you can get down into the weeds on topics that are relevant to you and your brand to understand their popularity over time and try to capitalize on topics that are trending up.
Official Platform Announcements and News
Keeping tabs on each platform’s official news feed is a great way to get first notice of new products and services available from them.
Journalists and Media
For the business of social media, explainers about current trends, and fact-based stories related to the internet, technology, and social media, here are some journalists and media outlets that cover the topics well.
Platform-Specific Leaders/Spokespeople
The CEOs of each platform typically have active profiles on their respective platforms where they share news and information about their products. I recommended following each to keep up with what the official company messages are and then digging deeper on the topics that are most interesting to you and your brand.
Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg
Instagram: Adam Mosseri
LinkedIn: Ryan Roslansky
Snapchat: Evan Spiegel
TikTok: Shou Zi Chew
Twitter: Parag Agrawal
YouTube: Susan Wojcicki
It is a lot. And this is just scratching the surface. Like I said at the top, it is really about spending time in the platforms and with the content there. My last piece of advice regarding following trends and using that as part of your content strategy is to read the room: tone of voice is very important when it comes to joining the conversation around trending topics.
