How to Find Social Media Trends: 10 Tactics

One of the things that differentiates social media from other channels of marketing is its ability to tap into what audiences are paying attention to, in real-time. While businesses still use social channels to distribute planned campaigns, engage with their audience and offer information about their product or service – a successful social media strategy should also allow for brands to jump on to a social media trend and join the conversation.

Social media trends bring immediate visibility, possible virality and genuine attention and appreciation when done well. That’s why businesses need to keep their finger on the pulse of social media trends to stay relevant and drive real results. But, how do you find these social media trends?

In this blog, we will discuss what social media trends are and share 10 powerful tactics to help you uncover the hottest trends.

What are social media trends?

Social media trends are the topics, hashtags, challenges, audio clips, filters or even specific formats that gain significant popularity on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube. These trends can be driven by events, cultural conversations, celebrity endorsements or even viral videos.

The ‘Barbenheimer’ trend, for example, became popular in 2023 during the simultaneous releases of the movies Barbie and Oppenheimer. Brands from across the world jumped on the trend to capitalize on its popularity. Check this post by Coca-Cola to see how their Instagram post capitalizes on the ‘Barbenheimer’ phenomenon.

Source

It’s important for marketers to note that while joining a trend is recommended, there needs to be thought put into – is this the right trend or conversation for your brand to be associated with? Is there a way to strategically tie in a product or campaign into the trend instead of just joining a trend for the sake of joining?

By understanding and leveraging social media trends cleverly, businesses can not only increase their visibility and engagement, but if done well – enjoy real business impact.

Suggested read 📖: Future of social media: Top trends to watch for 2025 

10 tactics to find social media trends

Finding social media trends is crucial for staying relevant in a fast-paced digital environment. Here are 10 of the most effective tactics you can use to uncover emerging trends and engage with your audience:

1. Leverage platform-specific trending sections

Every social media platform has a section dedicated to showcasing trending topics. These sections highlight popular hashtags, videos or discussions relevant to the platform’s audience. You can leverage these sections to quickly understand what everyone is talking about at the moment.

❓How it works:

✔️TikTok: Explore the "For You" page, the "Discover" tab and the "Trending" sound sections to find videos, trends and viral audio clips relevant to your niche.

Source

✔️Instagram: Check out the "Explore" page for popular posts and Reels and the "Trending" tab within Reels to find the latest Instagram trends including viral videos and music trends.

Source

✔️Twitter: The "Trends" and "Explore" sections allow you to find trending topics and hashtags currently being discussed in real time.

Source

2. Find all the answers on Google Trends

Google Trends allows you to explore what people are searching for not just at the moment but also helps you understand the evolution of a trend over a period of time. It helps you analyze search data and uncover trending topics across various categories and locations - allowing you to find the most relevant trends your audience is interested in.

You can see which keywords are gaining popularity, pinpoint geographic trends and adapt your strategy accordingly.

❓How it works:

Just enter a keyword or topic, and Google Trends will show the interest over time, geographic popularity and related queries. You can also explore more under “Explore” and “Trending Now”.

Source

3. Use social listening tools

Social listening tools such as Sprinklr allow you to track conversations happening on social media about topics you want to keep an eye on. These tools can monitor social mentions, competitor activity and offer customer sentiment analysis surrounding specific topics or brands.

❓How it works:

You can track specific keywords, hashtags or topics and get insights into how your audience feels about certain issues. This helps you identify trends as they emerge, allowing you to tailor your strategy to stay relevant and engage your audience more effectively.

Pro tip 💡: There are new trends and opportunities for brands to hop on to trending conversations every day. On top of this, different trends may be popular in different regions, or across different platforms. Choosing the right listening tool can make finding social media trends that much easier.  
 
Sprinklr’s social listening tool offers a Trending Topics dashboard, where you can:  

• Track trending topics across various social networks and regions.
• View sample posts and related posts from active trends.
• View both Real-Time trends and Historic trends.  

Find out more about how Sprinklr can help you catch and capitalize on trending topics. 

BOOK A DEMO

4. Utilize social media analytics

Social media analytics provides insights into your own social media performance, including engagement rates, reach, and audience insights. By analyzing your data, you can uncover trends within your audience and identify topics that resonate with your audience.

❓How it works:

By understanding your best-performing content, you can spot trends in engagement and audience behavior, giving you clues about future trends. Here’s how you can do it on major platforms:

✔️Facebook: With Meta Business Suite, you can find insights on post reach, engagement, audience demographics and page performance. It helps you track post performance and user interactions.

Source

✔️Instagram: Instagram Insights is available both for business and creator accounts. It helps you monitor metrics like impressions, reach, profile visits as well as follower demographics for posts, Stories and Reels.

Source

✔️Twitter (X): Use Twitter Analytics to track tweet impressions, profile visits, retweets, likes and follower growth. It provides insights on engagement rates and top-performing tweets. However, these metrics are only available to Premium users.

Source

✔️TikTok: With TikTok Analytics, you can check the data on video views, follower demographics, engagement (likes, shares, comments) and average watch time to analyze content performance. These insights are accessible through a Pro or Business account.

Source

Also read 📚:  11 Instagram trends to grow your brand on social media 

5. Follow the latest news and monitor media

News often triggers conversations on social media. Brands should be aware of breaking stories that could spark trends. Staying up to date with the latest news and media trends can give you an edge in spotting emerging trends before they go mainstream.

❓How it works:

You can set up alerts for specific topics, industries or keywords to receive real-time updates on relevant news that could influence social media trends. Media monitoring tools allow you to discover viral themes faster by grouping similar content across channels and conversations.

Pro tip 💡: Wondering how to effectively monitor the latest news and social media trends? Consider a platform like Sprinklr Media Monitoring And Analytics.  

It allows you to: 

🤖Automate reporting on media coverage across 400K+ online news channels, blogs, print and broadcast media.  

💯Leverage performance scorecards to benchmark your PR KPIs against competitors.  

🗞️Find the latest trending events, themes and granular insights to optimize your PR strategy and boost brand visibility. 

6. Conduct competitor analysis

Keep a close eye on your competitors’ social media activity. What topics are they posting about? What hashtags are they using? What types of content are performing well for them? Analyzing competitor data can help you identify trends they are leveraging and potentially capitalize on them.

❓How it works:

Identify which of your competitors' posts are performing well and why. By analyzing their tactics, you can adjust your strategy to stay competitive. Competitive benchmarking tools allow you to analyze the social media strategies of competitors.

Pro tip 💡: It's important to identify your competitors' top posts, content themes and tones as they can reveal patterns in their content. However, avoid replicating their strategy completely, as it may not always work for you. 

For more comprehensive insights, consider an AI-powered platform like Sprinklr’s Competitive Insights and Benchmarking tool. The comprehensive competitive insights offered by Sprinklr helps:  

🎖️Track your competition across 8 social platforms with AI-powered insights. 

💻Utilize 10+ ready-to-go dashboards to quickly benchmark content strategy and executive mentions. 

🤖Set up custom alerts for any big changes in key metrics and share reports with your teams in just a few clicks. 

REQUEST DEMO

7. Keep up with trend reports and publications

Industry experts and research firms regularly publish reports and analyses on social media trends. These reports provide data-backed insights into where the market is heading and give a broader view of what’s changing in your sector. Subscribe to these reports and leverage their insights to be the first ones to know about new trends in your industry.

❓How it works:

Download reports from trusted sources, learn from them, and apply the trends to your content strategy. Some of the most reputed sources include McKinsey Global Institute, Gartner Hype Cycle, Deloitte Insights, and World Economic Forum. By staying updated with these reports, you can make informed decisions that align with the latest industry shifts and innovations.

8. Find relevant influencers

Influencers are often at the forefront of social media trends. Monitor their content regularly, including the hashtags they are using and the topics they are discussing. This will help you identify emerging trends in your industry or niche.

❓How it works:

Find influencers on different social media platforms in your niche across different social media platforms. Look at their follower counts, engagement levels and content relevance. Once you’ve found the right influencers, pay attention to the types of media they use, such as videos, live streams or interactive polls, as these can indicate popular trends. Additionally, track influencer collaborations and partnerships to gain insights into trending topics.

9. Join online communities and forums

If you are wondering how to find trends on social media before they become mainstream, platforms like Reddit, Quora or industry-specific forums can be a savior. These communities often have active discussions that can point toward growing interest in specific topics or products.

❓How it works:

Pay attention to these platforms for new topics or discussions gaining attention in your field. This can be done through direct questions or even by discovering what other people are talking about on the platform.

Source

10. Analyze social media hashtags

Hashtags play a critical role in social media visibility, acting as keywords that categorize content and make it discoverable to a wider audience. By analyzing popular and relevant hashtags, you can uncover the conversations and topics that resonate with your audience.

❓How it works:

Start by researching trending hashtags across platforms like Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. Pay attention to the context in which these hashtags are used, as well as any associated images or content types that attract engagement. For example, the hashtag #FitnessMotivation might be commonly paired with transformation photos, workout videos and motivational quotes.

Hashtag analysis will help you understand how to effectively incorporate these hashtags into your posts to increase visibility and engagement.

Track all social media trends on one platform

Keeping up with social media trends can make a huge difference for brands, but juggling multiple platforms and tools to track those trends? That's time-consuming and inefficient.

By tracking all your social media trends in one place, you simplify things and gain a clearer, real-time view of what's happening across your channels. This helps you quickly identify emerging trends, understand what resonates with your audience, and keep an eye on your competitors.

With a unified view, you can make data-driven decisions faster, fine-tune your strategy and capitalize on what’s working. Once you understand how to find out what is trending on social media, adapting that into your content strategy is the next step.

Sprinklr Social makes it easy to track everything in one platform. By consolidating your social media efforts into a single platform, you can gain a more holistic view of trends and ultimately improve your overall social media ROI.

Stay on top of all social media trends with Sprinklr Social - Book a demo today.