TikTok is a popular short-form video app that has over 1 billion monthly active users. Trends on TikTok refer to viral challenges, songs, sounds, hashtags, effects, and more that gain widespread popularity on the platform. When a TikTok video using a specific song or effect starts getting millions of views and uses, it becomes a “trend” as other users start making their own videos using the same song or effect.
Discovering trends early can be beneficial for TikTok users, as trending content often gets more visibility on the app. Brands can also leverage trends for marketing by creating branded content around trending songs, effects, or challenges. There are several strategies for discovering the latest TikTok trends, which we’ll explore in this article.
Check Trending Page and Hashtags
The easiest way to find the latest trends on TikTok is to visit the Trending page under the Discover tab. This page displays all the top trends across various categories like dance, food, beauty, animals, and more. You can scroll through to see trending sounds, effects, challenges, and hashtags (Source: https://www.tiktok.com/discover/trending-topics-on-tiktok?lang=en).
Clicking on a trending hashtag is another simple method to identify viral trends. The page for each hashtag displays top videos using that hashtag along with stats like views and engagement. Spending time browsing popular hashtags gives you a pulse on the latest trends gaining momentum.
Follow Trendsetters
One way to discover rising TikTok trends early is to follow top influencers and creators who often spark new trends. As tastemakers with millions of engaged followers, the content these trendsetters produce can spread quickly and shape what’s buzzworthy on TikTok.
To find top influencers in your niche, use tools like HypeAuditor’s Influencer Finder to search by category and filter by engagement metrics. You can also browse rankings of top creators overall and in different niches, such as HootSuite’s list or Amra and Elma’s catalog. Look for creators relevant to your audience with high follower counts and engagement.
Follow these influencers’ TikTok accounts and turn on notifications so you see when they post new content early. Study what trends and memes first gain traction through their videos. Then you can try to quickly create your own content around rising trends while they are still fresh and spreading through the TikTok community.
Use Insights Data
TikTok provides creators with access to analytics and insights about their videos and account performance. This data can help identify rising trends and popular content. To view TikTok analytics, go to your profile menu, tap “Creator Tools”, and select “Analytics”.
The key analytics to analyze for spotting trends include:
- Views – Seeing spikes in views on certain videos can indicate a trending topic.
- Shares – Increased sharing of a video signals content resonating with viewers.
- Comments – More comments on videos related to a specific hashtag or sound likely indicates rising popularity.
- Audience – Noting changes in audience demographics and geography can reveal emerging trends.
- Sounds – Tracking which sounds are commonly used in popular videos can reveal trending memes/challenges.
Regularly checking TikTok analytics helps identify rising trends early. Look for videos, sounds, or hashtags experiencing sudden growth to spot the next big trend.
Third-Party Tools and Sites
Several third-party sites and tools exist specifically to track trends and analytics on TikTok. These can provide additional insights beyond the native analytics available in TikTok itself. Some popular options include TrendTok Analytics & Tracker, Exolyt, quintly, and Keyhole https://keyhole.co/blog/tiktok-analytics-tools/.
Third-party TikTok analytics tools allow you to analyze performance data like views, engagements, followers, and more. They track trending sounds, hashtags, effects, and challenges happening on TikTok. Some even offer competitive analysis to see how you stack up against similar creators. The tools provide visual data representations like graphs and charts to easily spot trends.
The main benefits of using third-party analytics platforms are gaining more in-depth insight into TikTok trends and your own performance. However, some downsides are that you may have to pay for premium features, and the data could be less accurate or timely than TikTok’s native analytics.
Look at Other Platforms
TikTok doesn’t exist in a vacuum – trends often originate or gain momentum on other platforms before crossing over to TikTok. Monitoring top videos on YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels can provide an early signal for fledgling TikTok trends. As this analysis shows, comedy and dance challenges tend to thrive on TikTok, while food, beauty, and fashion content resonates more on Instagram Reels. Understanding these platform differences allows for smarter trend forecasting.
Cross-referencing insights across TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts provides a more complete picture of trend momentum. While a dance challenge may be blowing up on TikTok, assessing engagement on other platforms indicates whether it has mainstream appeal or niche interest. Comparing growth rates and user demographics helps identify trends with longevity versus fleeting hype. This cross-platform analysis uncovers emerging trends before they spill over to TikTok and provides deeper insight into trend origins and trajectory.
Listen to Your Audience
Monitoring the comments and feedback on your TikTok videos can provide valuable insights into rising trends. Pay attention to any trends your followers are requesting for you to try in the comments. You can also ask your audience directly about the types of trends or content they want to see more of through polls or questions in captions. This creates engagement while gathering intel on potential new trends.
Some tips for monitoring comments and feedback:
- Check comments regularly and take note of trend requests
- Respond to comments asking about trying a particular trend
- Do quick polls in captions to gauge interest in potential trends
- Pay attention to spikes in certain comments requesting something new
- Track comments mentioning the same trend or content over multiple videos
Identifying trend requests allows you to stay on the pulse of rising trends before they hit the main trending pages. Acting quickly to produce trend content requested by your audience helps satisfy their interests while potentially gaining more views and engagement.
Run Experiments
One of the best ways to discover what’s trending on TikTok is to run experiments and test different video ideas. You can try using trendy audios, effects, hashtags, and more to see which ones resonate most with your audience.
TikTok’s built-in analytics provide some helpful insights, like watch time, comments, shares, etc. But to take your testing further, consider using split testing or A/B testing tools. The TikTok Ads Manager lets you set up split tests natively. You can test different elements like thumbnails, captions, calls-to-action, and more. Third party tools like SplitMetrics also enable more advanced experimentation.
The key is to try multiple variations of your video idea to see what resonates best. Track performance carefully, then double down on what works. Experimenting gives you valuable data to optimize your content and align with current trends.
Stay on Top of News
One way to discover new TikTok trends is to stay on top of current events and news. Timing trending content around major events, holidays, or news stories is a great way to increase engagement. For example, around the Super Bowl each year, branded challenges and hashtag campaigns emerge to tie into the event. Monitoring news sites, events calendars, and even Twitter trending topics can provide inspiration for timely, relevant trends. Pay attention to both global news as well as entertainment news about celebrities, TV shows, movies, and more. Oftentimes memes and viral content will emerge organically around major pop culture moments. Staying informed about the zeitgeist and timing content to align with major events is an effective strategy for sparking new TikTok trends.
Sources:
[1] https://blog.hootsuite.com/tiktok-trends/
[2] https://later.com/blog/tiktok-trends/
Conclusion
In summary, there are a variety of ways to stay on top of the latest TikTok trends, but being proactive and diligent is key. Checking the Trending page, monitoring trendsetters and hashtags, analyzing insights data, using third-party tools, looking at other platforms, listening to your audience, running experiments, and following the news can help you discover rising trends. However, you must continuously seek out new trends, as they come and go quickly on TikTok.
Discovering trends early and participating in them is crucial for brands and creators looking to expand their reach and engagement on TikTok. Leveraging trends while they are peaking allows you to tap into an existing interest and get content in front of new audiences. As trends fade, it’s important to move on to the next popular trend. By continuously monitoring TikTok and being ready to jump on emerging trends, you can stay relevant, reach more users, and grow your presence.
