How to Find Trending Topics in Your Niche? - Tactyqal (2024)

Staying on top of trends and timely topics is crucial for content creators and marketers who want to produce relevant and engaging content. But with the fast pace of the online world, how do you consistently come up with content ideas that will resonate with your target audience?

Don’t worry – finding trending topics in your niche doesn’t have to be hard work. In this post, we’ll explore actionable strategies you can use to uncover “hot” topics and discussion points to inform your content planning.

Why Care About Trends?

Let’s start with the why – why should you care about covering trendy topics and buzzworthy news in your niche? Here are some of the key benefits:

Increased Engagement

Content based on trends and timely happenings gets more interest and engagement. Your audience cares about what’s new and popular in your field right now. Giving them content that satisfies that curiosity pays off in shares, comments, and overall reach.

Higher Search Visibility

Trending search terms and highly discussed topics often see an uptick in search volume. By covering subjects that are gaining momentum, you can capitalize on that growing search traffic. First-to-publish also gives you a chance to rank highly for related keywords.

Thought Leadership

Writing about emerging and hot topics shows your audience that you have your finger on the pulse. It establishes your brand as an authority that is staying on the cutting edge and giving insights into need-to-know issues.

Competitive Edge

Jumping on trends before they peak gives you an advantage over competitors who stick to evergreen or seasonal content. You establish your site as a go-to resource for relevant, timely content.

How to Identify Trends: Tips and Tactics

Clearly, covering trending topics provides some major benefits. But how do you spot emerging trends, buzzworthy news, and discussions that are gaining steam? Use these tips:

Check Google Trends

Google Trends is a free tool that shows the popularity of search terms over time. Look up relevant keywords to see if any are rapidly gaining in search volume. This indicates they may be trending topics worth covering.

Comparing search terms and seeing their growth trajectories can uncover opportunities. For example, you may find “VR gaming” is spiking while “console gaming” stays flat – suggesting an interest in VR you could capitalize on.

Monitor Social Media

Keep tabs on relevant hashtags, keywords, and profiles in your niche on social platforms like Twitter and TikTok. See which topics are sparking viral discussion or debate. The social media echo chamber often picks up on trends well before they crossover into mainstream consciousness.

Tools like Buzzsumo, Keyhole, and Hashtagify can help surface trending hashtags and keywords within your niche.

Set Up Google News Alerts

Google News Alerts let you receive notifications whenever new results appear for specified keywords. Set up alerts around your niche, industry leaders, influential publications, and topical keywords.

Reviewing alerts regularly helps you stay on top of hot-off-the-press news you may want to react to quickly. Being among the first to cover a new study, policy change, product launch, etc. can boost your visibility.

Check Online Communities

Spend time where your audience spends time. Stay active in relevant online forums, Facebook Groups, Subreddits, and other communities your niche gathers in. See which posts are getting high engagement and lots of comments.

Join the conversations and pay attention to pain points and questions that keep coming up. These often present content opportunities.

Follow Industry Experts & Publications

Who are the thought leaders, analysts, and publications that stay on the forefront of your niche? Follow them on social media and sign up for email newsletters.

Seeing the type of content they produce gives you insight into rising topics. Re-share and put your unique spin on the trending insights they surface.

Ask Your Audience

Don’t forget to go directly to your audience and followers to get insight into the topics and issues they want to hear about. Social media polls and email surveys can uncover trending topics they are most interested in.

Use Trend Analysis Software

Tools like Buzzsumo, Ahrefs, and SEMrush have some trend-spotting capabilities built in. Plug in keywords to generate related topics that are gaining mentions and links.

These tools likely won’t surface hyper-recent trends but can point you toward subjects that are growing in discussion.

Tools to Discover Trends

Use answerthepublic.com

answerthepublic.com is an excellent free tool for uncovering search trends and topics people want to know more about.

Here’s how it works:

• Enter a broad keyword or phrase relevant to your niche, like “coffee shops” or “SaaS marketing”.
• The tool will generate a list of hundreds of long-tail question variations like “how to come up with coffee shop name?” or “what makes good SaaS marketing?”
• Scan through these questions and you’ll notice patterns emerging around trending topics and knowledge gaps your audience has.
• If you see multiple questions around a theme like “are coffee shops profitable?” or “influencer marketing on Instagram”, it likely indicates a trending interest from searchers.
• These can spark great content ideas that align with rising search volumes and reader curiosity.
• Pay attention to which questions get auto-suggested the most as these indicate the highest volume searches.

Overall, answerthepublic provides a trove of real data on rising trending topics that you can mine for insight and inspiration. It takes keyword research further to reveal issues gaining more interest over time.

Check out explodingtopics.com

Exploding Topics is another handy site for discovering trending topics and buzzworthy themes that are seeing an uptick in popularity online.

Here are tips for using it effectively:

• Type in a high-level keyword related to your niche, such as “tech” or “beauty”.
• Exploding Topics will analyze data across sites like Reddit, YouTube, and Quora to surface which subtopics are rapidly gaining mentions.
• For example, searching “tech” may reveal rising trends like “crypto winter” and “NFT games”. Terms seeing more exponential growth are likely hot topics.
• You can also filter results by specific sites to see trends just on YouTube for example. Look at each site your audience uses.
• Explore both the top topics overall as well as ones trending over a shorter time frame like the past 24 hours.
• Click into any topic to see sample posts using this term, which helps validate if it’s worth covering.
• Save or export results to reference later when creating your content calendar.

Overall, Exploding Topics does the hard work of identifying niches and angles gaining more buzzworthy momentum across user-generated platforms.

Monitor Twitter in Real-Time

With its public, real-time nature, Twitter can be invaluable for spotting emerging trends and breaking news rapidly.

Here are some tips to use it effectively:

• Closely follow accounts like industry thought leaders, influencers, key publications/journalists, and brands/products related to your niche.
• Turn on notifications so you’re alerted when one of these accounts tweets or gets mentioned frequently. This can indicate a trending topic.
• Routinely search relevant keywords and hashtags to see new ones popping up or spikes in volume for existing ones.
• Use Twitter lists to track topics efficiently. For example, create lists around subniches, common hashtags, or influential accounts.
• Third-party tools like Keyhole allow you to identify key accounts driving trends and analyze hashtag volumes.
• See which topics are listed under “What’s Happening” and Twitter Moments for an instant overview of hot issues.
• Local trends will often show up there too based on your location settings.

Essentially, think of Twitter as your ears to the ground in your industry, amplifying and reacting to trends in real-time. Listen closely.

Leverage BuzzSumo for Trend Insights

BuzzSumo is a very useful tool for identifying trending topics and pieces of content gaining traction in your industry.

Here are some key ways to use it for trend research:

• Enter a broad keyword like “yoga” and filter by content type, like articles. Scan through the top results sorted by social shares to see what topics within yoga are resonating lately.
• Search for your brand name to see what types of content mentioning you are getting shared – this can indicate rising conversations/angles to tap into.
• Use the “Influencers” feature to find authors and publications repeatedly creating viral content in your space – follow them closely.
• Look for content format trends – are long-form posts getting more shares than videos now?
• Filter buzzworthy content by date ranges – look at top posts over the past 3 months for a current pulse vs. past year for evergreen themes.
• Use the Keyword Trends tool and look for rising search volumes around terms related to your industry. Plot graphs over time to see trajectories.
• Export your findings into reports to reference when making your content calendar and align with search volume/interest.
• Set alerts for brand mentions or specified keywords so you’re notified of new popular posts with those terms.

The key with BuzzSumo is less about keyword tracking and more about analyzing what type of content actually gets shared within your space. This points to themes and formats that are resonating. Stay on top of these trends with regular BuzzSumo checks.

Leverage MeetGlimpse for Real-Time Trend Identification

MeetGlimpse is a useful real-time trend identification tool that lets you see rising keyword searches and trending topics across the web.

Here are some tips for using it effectively:

• Search a broad term like “fitness” to surface live trending subtopics within this niche like “pilates reformer exercises” or “plant-based athlete meal prep”.
• Filter by location to see trends specific to your target geography. This helps uncover hyper-local trends to capitalize on.
• Use the site type filter to isolate trends by source – e.g. just news sites or just Reddit. See which platforms set trends first.
• Click into any trending term to see the volume and source articles driving it. Gauge if it’s worth covering.
• Look at both short and long-term trending searches – some may be spiking in last 24 hrs vs. growing subtly over months.
• Compare trends to historical data – is this topic rising faster than usual or is this more normal?
• Export trend reports to help inform your content calendar priorities and coverage angles.
• Set up alerts for niche-related terms so you’re instantly notified when they trend.

The key with MeetGlimpse is getting a pulse on rising searches and discussions in real-time before they peak. This allows you to cover trends at their onset versus late in the game. Check it regularly to stay ahead of the curve!

Tips for Covering Trends

Once you identify promising trends to cover, make sure you approach them strategically. Here are some tips for covering trends effectively:

Act Quickly But Carefully

Speed is important – being fast allows you to capitalize and rank well before a topic gets saturated. But don’t sacrifice quality or proper research in your haste.

Take enough time to create valuable, thorough content that brings something new to the conversation. Rushing out thin content packed with speculation or inaccuracies won’t serve your brand well over the long term.

Provide Analysis

Don’t just summarize the trending topic or news – add your unique take and analysis. Share informed opinions on why it happened, what effects it might have, how your niche can capitalize on it, what may happen next, and what it means for your audience.

Your insightful angle is what makes it worth reading.

Localize When Possible

Can you put a local spin on a global trend? Audiences often appreciate understanding how big news and viral topics impact their specific region, city, or community.

Tie national trends to local context when you can. How might a platform change affect niche marketers in Vancouver? What do new regulations mean for LA buyers and sellers? Go beyond the headline.

Optimize for SEO

Use keyword research to identify topics and phrases likely to be searched around a trend. Incorporate rising search terms into your headlines, meta descriptions, image titles, and content.

Make content scannable for readers frantically seeking info on a complex or evolving issue. Use subheadings, bullet points, pull quotes, and bolded text purposefully.

Link Out Strategically

Cite trustworthy sources as you report on a trending issue or news event. Link out to quality sites and resources to reinforce your expertise.

Prioritize links that are contextually relevant and help readers learn more. They’ll associate your content with other reliable sources on the topic.

Monitor Engagement

Pay attention to real-time feedback on your trending content from social media, comments, and analytics. Look for follow-up angles and related subtopics your audience wants more information on to extend the lifespan of your content.

Promoting Trending Content

Creating compelling content on buzzworthy topics is just the first step. You also need a promotion strategy to maximize its reach. Here are some ideas:

• Share on social media with relevant hashtags to tap into existing discussions
• Send to email subscribers with a customized pitch about why this trend matters to them
• Promote in online communities already chatting about the topic
• Pitch influencers, industry experts, and journalists to help amplify your “scoop”
• Keep refining headlines and SEO to catch evolving search volumes
• Repurpose content into other formats like social graphics and videos

Staying nimble with your promotion plans allows you to sustain momentum as trends and interest levels shift.

Trending Topics Your Niche Needs You to Cover

Ideally, this post has sparked some ideas on better ways to spot emerging trends and effectively incorporate them into your content. While the specific trending topics will differ based on your niche, the strategies are largely universal.

Some examples of trends to watch for across different sectors include:

Marketing: AI content creation, virtual influencers, influencer marketing regulations

Tech: Metaverse adoption, NFT utility, cybersecurity threats

Business: Remote work policies, inflation impacts, unionization moves

Health: Psychedelic therapy, medicinal cannabis, biohacking

Travel: Workations, sustainable tourism, off the beaten path destinations

Fashion: Y2K style revival, adaptive clothing, clothing rental subscriptions

Sports: Legalized sports betting, athlete brand building, women’s leagues growth

Politics: Voting right debates, cryptocurrency regulation, environmental policy

The hyper-relevant topics gaining steam in your niche are out there, waiting to be discovered and covered compellingly for your audience. Finding them simply requires being proactive with the trend-spotting strategies outlined above.

Then you can produce content that captivates and engages readers who want insights on emerging issues, timely happenings, and trending debates in your industry. Buckle up and get ready to ride those trend waves!

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