If you want to maximize your usage of any platform, you need to have an understanding of why people use it, what they’re looking to discuss there, and how you can tap into those trends.

To help with this, Twitter has published a new, 33-page trends report, which highlights a range of rising topics based on overall tweet engagement over the past two years.

As explained by Twitter:

“People come to Twitter to talk about the things that matter to them. Entertainment, news, sports, fashion – it’s all here. And by analyzing these honest conversations, we can get a fresh understanding of the evolving cultural trends and attitudes shaping our future.”

So Twitter’s taking a broader view, in looking at the platform’s cultural impact – but from a marketing perspective, it’s more about what people are coming to Twitter for, specifically, and how that relates to discussions in the app.

Within the report, for which Twitter analyzed tweets posted by US users between December 2018 through to November 2020, Twitter has pinpointed six key areas of rising focus.

This listing does seem to reflect broader conversational trends off the platform as well, which makes sense, but it is interesting to note the specifics of each discussion via tweet.

For each trend, Twitter highlights several topics of focus, with an overview of each, including mention trends over time:

Twitter also includes a listing of related hashtags for each:

The topics highlighted are, as noted, largely reflective of broader discussion trends, but the specific insights here are valuable, particularly around elements like digital connectivity:

Many of these trends, exacerbated by the pandemic, will hold after the vaccine roll-out, changing consumption behaviors – which is also likely true for the eCommerce shift.

That’s especially important to note in a Twitter-specific sense because it speaks to what people are growing to expect from brands on the platform, which could inform your strategic approach.

There’s a heap of insight here, with each focus topic of varying relevance, dependent on your niche.

You can download the full ‘The Conversation: Twitter Trends’ 2021 report here (via e-mail sign-up).

Definitely worth a look.