How to Make Something a Trending Topic on Twitter

Trending topics on Twitter tend to focus on current events and pop culture.

Creating a trending topic is the Holy Grail for Twitter users. Nothing says that you've become a big deal in the Twitterverse like having your very own hashtag scrolling across the Twitter login page. For businesses and public personalities who are serious about marketing with social media, making a trending topic is often the first thing on their to-do list. However, Twitter trends are highly variable. Whether or not your topic trends is ultimately a popularity contest. Nothing can guarantee a trend, but there are a few basic do's and don'ts when it comes to tweeting yourself to stardom.

Instructions

1. Use hashtags with your tweets. A hashtag is a way of marking your tweet with a particular category or keyword. For example, if you were to send a tweet about a recent baseball game, you might be inclined to write, "Who else was at the baseball game?" By instead tweeting "Who else was at the #baseball game?" your tweet will become visible to any users who are already searching for tweets about baseball. You can also stick the tag at the end of the tweet, like this: "Wow, what a game last night! #baseball"

2. Investigate what other topics are currently trending. Though ideally you will want your topic to stand out from the crowd, seeing what's popular at the moment can help you gauge whether there will be any interest in your own topic. To see what's trending, check out the "Trends" column on your Twitter homepage, directly below the "Following" section in the right sidebar. Click the "Change" link if you would like to see city-specific trends.

3. Avoid being overly aggressive in your quest to get a trending topic. Twitter users are highly sensitive to "tweet spam" (Twitter users who tweet too often). While flooding your feed with tweets about your topic may seem like a good idea, that sort of strategy is almost guaranteed to cost you followers. Constantly asking your followers to retweet your tweets also has a high risk of backfiring. Remember that Twitter behaves much like a laid-back conversation between friends. The average Twitter user does not use the service to be marketed to. Keeping your tweets casual, friendly and well-timed will make your followers much more willing to listen.

4. Be selective and respectful when trying to get your message out there. Nothing unleashes the ire of Twitter users quite like tagged tweets that have nothing to do with the topic at hand. There have been a few unfortunate incidents of businesses tweeting about their newest product while using hashtags associated with a significant political event or natural disaster. Even if you try to pull this off in a humorous way, Twitter users will almost universally consider this to be bad taste. Always keep your tweets where they belong.