How to Find What’s Trending: A Step-by-Step Workflow

Marketers, copywriters, and other professionals across the marketing industry are often constantly on the lookout for a straightforward process to find what’s trending. Yet, they miss them because they often react to what’s already popular instead of spotting what’s emerging.

In this blog, we lay out a simple, reliable system to notice early signals, understand what’s gaining traction, and what’s actually growing to spot trends.

The Workflow

This is what the system looks like. Within this simple-looking diagram lies an all-encompassing, reliable, manageable workflow you can actually use in your day-to-day trend search.  

Learn what to look for → Find what’s popping off → Confirm with data → Check Market → Confirm with Audience

Let’s go through each of these steps in detail and see how you could’ve caught some major trends, like the discussions on AI agents and de-influencing, with these steps.

Step 1: Learn What to Look For

When you’ve just logged into your device and have no leads for your research, you can start off easy by following these simple pointers and sipping on your morning coffee.

Use Google Trends to spot emerging interest

Go to the Trending Searches section and scan daily and real-time trends. Focus on unfamiliar terms or topics that appear repeatedly over a few days. If something keeps showing up, it’s likely an early signal of growing curiosity or demand. 

Use X to track conversations

Search for keywords and hashtags in your niche and observe people’s discussions. Noted repeated opinions, debates, or threads from credible voices. When multiple people independently talk about the same topic, it’s worth tracking.

Use Reddit to find early-stage discussions

Browse subreddits relevant to your industry, and sort by ‘Rising’ or ‘Top This Week’. Look for repeated questions, tools people are experimenting with, or the problems they face. Trends often surface on Reddit before hitting other mainstream platforms.

Use Quora to identify demand

Search for your industry and filter by recent questions. If you see the same question phrased in multiple ways, it usually signals emerging demand or confusion, both strong indicators of a potential trend.

Use a consolidating tool to track industry coverage

Follow key publications in your space and scan headlines daily. When multiple sources begin covering similar topics, it’s a sign that something is gaining importance at an industry level. Feedly. 

How trends have shown up in these tools in the past

AI agents started debates about professionals losing their jobs, and these took X by storm. Conversations about AI replacing workers began as early as 2023, and Instagram soon followed. At the same time, developers were increasingly experimenting with AutoGPT on subreddits like r/devops and r/ChatGPT as well as on Quora. Google Trends reflected this, too, with a spike in these keywords.

De-influencing rose as a trend in 2020, evolving from the anti-consumerism culture that gained traction in the 2010s. It started with discussions about overconsumption and post-purchase regrets rising on X and Reddit. Even content like ‘Don’t Buy This’ videos generated engagement on social media sites, and the trend was very predictable for those on the lookout.

Step 2: Find What’s Popping Off

Once you’ve found some keywords that seem to have potential, you need to know what’s a pattern and what’s coincidental before taking action. In the next step, you take individual signals and check whether they can become something bigger.

Use Exploding Topics to check long-term growth

Review the growth graph for the topic you identified. A steady upward trend over months indicates sustained interest. Also, explore related topics to see what else is growing; a topic cluster with all-around prominence can be a strong sign of a brewing trend.

To cluster related ideas, use Devi AI

Input your topic and let the tool analyze multiple sources. This helps you uncover related concepts and group them to see broader themes instead of focusing on a single keyword.

To track discussion volume, use Mentionlytics

Monitor how often your topic is being mentioned and where those conversations are happening. Growth across multiple platforms is a strong sign of traction.

To identify media coverage, use Meltwater

Search your topic to see if it’s being picked up by news outlets or major publications. This helps you understand whether the trend is expanding beyond niche communities.

To uncover related behaviors, use Pinterest Trends

Search for your topic and explore adjacent trends. Pinterest is particularly useful for identifying lifestyle and consumer behavior shifts.

To understand real use cases, use industry forums

Look up your topic in niche forums and communities like certain subreddits or forums like BodySpace (fitness) and FlyerTalk (airline industry). Focus on how people are actually using it, what problems they’re solving, and what questions they have. This adds depth to your understanding.

Step 3: Confirm with Data

Now that you’ve found something that a ton of people across platforms are talking about, you’re on to something. But before you spend resources to capitalize on it, you must utilize structured data to validate your findings.

Use Ahrefs to analyze search demand

Search for your topic and review keyword data. Focus on interest changes over time. A steady upward trend indicates growing demand rather than a short-term spike.

Use Semrush to validate keyword growth

Look for related keyword variations and analyze their performance. When multiple variations begin gaining traction, it is usually a sign of expanding interest in the topic.

How Trends Prove Themselves Through These Tools

In the case of AI agents, Ahrefs and Semrush showed clear keyword expansion, from “AI agents” to “AI agent tools” and “how to use AI agents”. This kind of growth indicates deepening demand, not just surface-level interest, especially if it follows a steady upward trend rather than a spike.

For de-influencing, validation showed through related queries rather than the term itself. Searches like “things I regret buying”, “minimalist lifestyle”, and “stop impulse buying” grew consistently. Trends can thus be validated through underlying behaviors, and not just headlines.

Step 4: Check Market Gaps

Once you’ve found gold, your competitors may likely be caught up in identifying and building trends too. This is where you bring out your competitor analysis skills and find gaps in trend discussions.

Search on Google and analyze search results

Search your trend on Google and review the top-ranking content. Look at who is publishing - established brands, niche blogs, or individual creators - and how comprehensive their content is. This helps you understand the topic’s maturity.

Review competitor activity

Check which competitors in your space are publishing around the trend. Focus on the angles, the depth of their content, and the coverage frequency. This gives you a sense of how the market is approaching it.

Identify gaps in content and perspective

Look for underexplored areas. This could include questions that aren’t being answered clearly, audiences that aren’t being addressed, or angles that haven’t been covered in depth. The goal is to understand what is missing in the conversation.

How Trend Coverage Takes Shape

For AI agents, most early content was technical, focused on tools and setup, and was largely created by developers. There was limited content translating this into practical business use cases, especially for non-technical audiences. This revealed a gap between early adopters and broader demand.

For de-influencing, the conversation was dominated by creators, with content centered on personal opinions and product callouts. There was little structured content from brands addressing the shift strategically. This highlighted a gap in how businesses could interpret and respond to changing consumer behavior.

Step 5: Confirm Relevance with Your Audience 

You finally have the perfect opportunity to ride the wave of an upcoming trend, but remember that the trend only matters if your audience cares enough about it. So get that final seal of approval from the actual consumers.

Analyze engagement signals

Look at comments, shares, and replies on social media and community platforms. High engagement likely means strong interest and curiosity.

Gather insights from customer-facing teams

Speak with your sales and support teams to understand what customers are asking about. These conversations often reveal real demand and intent.

Run a quick validation

Use polls, social posts, or email outreach to test interest directly with your audience. This helps you understand which areas particularly interest your viewers. 

How Real Interest for Trends Shows Up

For AI agents, the question moved from “what is this?” to “how do I use this?” indicating real intent. This was especially true among non-technical users looking for practical use cases.

For de-influencing, engagement reflected a clear behavioral shift. As content discouraging purchases drove strong interaction, users increasingly shared experiences and alternatives. Conversations around mindful spending and intentional buying became more prominent, showing it wasn’t just content, but a change in mindset.

Some Common Mistakes to Avoid When Looking for Trends

Even when you have the right method for identifying upcoming trends, there can be some tricky aspects in the process. Being aware of them helps you minimize any errors. 

Treating spikes as trends

A true trend isn’t defined by how fast it grows, but by its longevity, broad impact, and a meaningful shift in behavior. A trend sustains interest over time, expands beyond a single platform or niche, and changes how people think or act.

For example, the viral AI tool “Sora AI” dominated conversations for about six months, but died soon after. In contrast, “AI agents” sustained interest over time, expanded into multiple use cases, and shifted how people approached automation. A good rule: if it doesn’t persist across time and platforms, it’s likely noise.

This is exactly why validation is critical in the workflow. A spike might look convincing early on, but unless it shows consistent growth, multi-platform presence, and ignites behavioral change, it doesn’t qualify as a trend. The goal is to filter what will actually last.

Relying on a single platform

Social media reflects conversation, search shows intent, and communities reveal depth. Relying on just one can lead to incomplete conclusions. For instance, trends like ‘#ThreadsApp’ hype dominated conversations on X during launch week, but search demand and sustained engagement dropped quickly. 

A topic trending on X might look massive, but if it isn’t showing up in search data or forums, it may just be a fleeting discussion or even a bot-driven hashtag surge. Compare the short-lived hype of ‘#ThreadsApp’ to ‘de-influencing’, which showed up across social media with search queries and community discussions, making it a stronger trend.

Skipping topic clusters (Step 2)

Spotting a signal without expanding your understanding often leads to a narrow view. Most trends are clusters of related ideas, instead of single topics.

For example, focusing only on ‘AI agents’ or ‘AutoGPT’ misses the larger pattern of automation, including AI workflows and no-code tools. Similarly, de-influencing makes more sense when paired with minimalism and mindful consumption. Without this step, you can easily misunderstand the scale and direction of the trend.

Entering trends too late

By the time a trend is mainstream, it’s often already saturated. If you act when a topic is everywhere, you miss the early advantage.

For instance, brands that produced content around ChatGPT months after its launch faced heavy competition in search and social. Early creators, on the other hand, captured disproportionate visibility. Timing plays a critical role in how much value you can extract from a trend.

Ignoring audience relevance

A trend can be real and growing, but still irrelevant to your audience. Chasing such trends means risking low engagement.

A B2B SaaS company jumping on fashion trends like ‘Barbiecore’ would struggle to make the most of it, unless it ties it back to branding or cultural marketing. Trends only work when they intersect with your audience’s context.

Summing Up

Trends are more than something you simply stumble upon. You need a good structure and a process in place for when a pattern catches your eye. The workflow presented in this blog offers a manageable structure for your daily searches. Every step of the process prepares you for the next one only if you find something good, and helps you spend your efforts wisely. 

FAQs

How do I know if a trend is worth paying attention to early on?

Look for repetition across sources before anything else. If a topic shows up on platforms like Reddit, X, and Google Trends within a short period, it is worth tracking.

What’s the difference between a trend and a fad?

A trend shows sustained growth, expands across platforms, and leads to a shift in behavior. A fad typically spikes quickly and fades just as fast, often driven by novelty or hype. For example, ‘Clubhouse’ was largely a fad, while ‘ChatGPT’ evolved into a long-term trend with real-world applications.

Can I rely only on SEO tools to find trends?

No, tools like Ahrefs and Semrush are great for validation, but they only show search demand. Trends often begin in conversations and communities before they appear in search data, so relying solely on SEO tools means you’ll likely spot them late.

Why do some trends not show up clearly in search data?

Not all trends are defined by a single keyword. Many show up through related behaviors instead. For example, ‘de-influencing’ may not always trend as a term, but related searches like “things I regret buying” or “minimalist lifestyle” indicate the underlying shift.

How do I track trends consistently without spending too much time?

Follow a simple routine - use Google Trends, X, and Feedly for quick daily scans, then review niche forums and deeper tools if you find emerging patterns. 

How do I know when a trend is gaining real traction?

If discussions grow across platforms and related topics begin emerging, it’s a sign the trend is moving beyond isolated signals. Traction increases consistently in terms of frequency and reach.

What if a trend is relevant but already crowded?

Even if a space is saturated, you might be able to identify gaps in coverage. Instead of avoiding the trend, focus on what’s missing, whether that’s a new angle, audience, or format.

How do I prioritize between multiple trends?

Focus on alignment and validation. A trend that matches your audience and shows consistent growth is more valuable than one that is simply more popular but less relevant.