How to track and discover marketing and other trends online? This includes 5 tools & 5 reports on trends (2022) - (09-04-2022)

There are many tools that you can use to find the current marketing and other trends within various industries using free tools available online. 

(1) Google trends

First of all, there is the Google Trends (https://trends.google.com/trends/?geo=GB) which is a tool where you can search for a search term for example: "marketing trends" and the search can be based on a single country or even worldwide in this case "worldwide". Then you can narrow the search down further to a time range for example "past 5 years". Then you can search categories for example "business & industrial". Then you can choose what to search by for example "web search". 

There will be the "interest over time" which is in "Numbers represent search interest relative to the highest point on the chart for the given region and time. A value of 100 is the peak popularity for the term. A value of 50 means that the term is half as popular. A score of 0 means that there was not enough data for this term."

that

Here is an example based on "Marketing trends": 

There is also "interest by region" which is to "See in which location your term was most popular during the specified time frame. Values are calculated on a scale from 0 to 100, where 100 is the location with the most popularity as a fraction of total searches in that location, a value of 50 indicates a location which is half as popular. A value of 0 indicates a location where there was not enough data for this term.

Note: A higher value means a higher proportion of all queries, not a higher absolute query count. So a tiny country where 80% of the queries are for 'bananas' will get twice the score of a giant country where only 40% of the queries are for 'bananas'."

Here is an example of "Marketing trends": 

There is also the "related topics" which is the "Users searching for your term also searched for these topics. You can view the following metrics:

* Top – The most popular topics. Scoring is on a relative scale where a value of 100 is the most commonly searched topic and a value of 50 is a topic searched half as often as the most popular term, and so on.

* Rising – Related topics with the biggest increase in search frequency since the last period. Results marked 'Breakout' had a tremendous increase, probably because these topics are new and had few (if any) prior searches."

period

You can select either "rising" or "top" to base the results around. Here is an example 

You can also find "related queries" linked with your search which is "Users searching for your term also searched for these queries. You can sort by the following metrics:

* Top – The most popular search queries. Scoring is on a relative scale where a value of 100 is the most commonly searched query, 50 is a query searched half as often as the most popular query, and so on.

* Rising – Queries with the biggest increase in search frequency since the last time period. Results marked 'Breakout' had a tremendous increase, probably because these queries are new and had few (if any) prior searches."

Just to highlight this fact that you should look for "Breakout" related queries  

Here is an example of "marketing trends": 

This is a great tool that is free to use and is easily useable to help your digital marketing efforts and discover topics to blog around and create useful content to offer in your email newsletters and content marketing efforts. 

(2) YouTube Trends & Trending

You can use YouTube Trends (https://www.youtube.com/trends/) which is a part of "YouTube Culture & Trends". 

This tool allows you to see "data", "listicle", "lists", "data visualizations" and their "culture & trends report 2021" for the previous year and other data released by YouTube in their "YouTube Culture & Trends" section. 

Here is a quick screenshot of the top of this section as of 08/04/2022:: 

Under the "Discover" tab you can find and discover "Global YouTube Trends & Stories". Content includes "Data", "Explainer", "Listicle", "The Culture and Trends Report 2021" and you can explore "YouTube Stories and Facts about the Trends around the world" (https://www.youtube.com/trends/discover/).

Here is a quick screenshot of the top of the "Discover" tab as of 08/04/2022:

There is the "Records" tab that explores the "most viewed videos, artists, and creators in YouTube history. A list of "All-Time Most Viewed Music Videos", "All-Time Most Subscribed Official Artist Channel", "All-Time Top 24 Hour Music Debuts", All-Time Fastest Music Videos To One Billion View". 

Here is a quick screenshot of the top of the "Records" tab: 

Under the "More" tab there is a "contact" section where you can send a message to YouTube's PR and Culture and Trends team through the contact forum: 

There is a section under the "More" tab where you can find "In The News" where you can find "Articles featuring YouTube updates, information, data, and insights. 

Here is a screenshot of the top of the "In The News" section: 

The final section under the "More" tab is the "About" section. 

Here is a screenshot of the top of this section: 

You can also, look at YouTube Trending (https://www.youtube.com/feed/trending) you can find what is trending in terms of "Now", "Music", "Gaming" and "Films" on the YouTube platform this allows you to be able to create content around the trends on the platform. 

Here is a screenshot of YouTube Trending as of 08/04/2022: 

(3) Twitter Trends 

You can use Twitter Trends (https://twitter.com/explore/tabs/trending) when you search on the platform and select the 2nd tab on the search "trending" and this will rank each result with hashtag (#) under topics such as "Sports", "Music", "Entertainment" and that each is trending based on where you live for example "United Kingdom". 

Here is an example for 08/04/2022: 

This will help you to use the trending hashtag(#) and know what you could possibly tweet about on Twitter so that you can tweet about these trending topics with the Hahtag (#) which could bring exposure to your account and you could add to your content plan and your relevant Tweet's linked with these topics. 

(4) TrendWatcher

TrendWatcher (https://www.trendwatching.com/trendupdates) has the following free features under their free tab on their website. Under the "Innovations of the day" section there are sub sections for "Daily Innovations" as well as "Monthly Trends". 

Here is a screenshot of the top of the overall "Free" section of the website: 

You can subscribe to their "free trend publication" email newsletter on this section of the website by filling in your email address. You can find an archive of all of the "Make Shift issues" and an archive of "all previous innovations". They also have a list of links to "all our services". 

They have a tab on this page for "Daily innovations" such as Tesco's billboards showing meals only after sunset in line with Ramadan. The screenshot of the top of this section is from 09/04/2022:

The "Monthly Trend" section includes all of "Make Sift" issues (https://www.trendwatching.com/make-shift). 

Here is a screenshot of the top of this section of the website: 

They also have a "toolbox" (https://www.trendwatching.com/toolbox) section which includes "consumer trend radar" and "consumer trend canvas".  

Here is a screenshot of the top of this section as of 9th April 2022: 

(5) Buzzfeed 

Buzzfeed has a section called "Trending" (https://www.buzzfeed.com/uk/trending) where they list 20 tending articles as well as their Buzzfeed trending quizzes that Buzzfeed creates around topics areas in pop(ular) culture, etc. 

As of 09/04/2022 their number 1: "30 Famous Actors You Didn't Know Were In These Iconic Movies And Show Before They Hit It Big".

Here is a screenshot of the top of this section of their website section: 

The above tools are only 5 of these tools that are freely available online. Although, there are many that are paid for.

Many companies also publish their own trend reports around marketing including: 

(1) Deloitte -  "2022 Global Marketing Trends" (Link: https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/topics/marketing-and-sales-operations/global-marketing-trends.html )

(2) Hootsuite - "Social Trends 2022" (Link: https://www.hootsuite.com/research/social-trends)

(3) TrendHunter - "Marketing Trend Report 2022" (Link: https://www.trendreports.com/marketing-trend-report)

(4) GWI - "The Consumer Trends To Know For 2022" (Link: https://www.gwi.com/connecting-the-dots)

(5) Mintel - "2022 Global Consumer Trends" (Link: https://www.mintel.com/global-consumer-trends/)

These are only 5 free trend reports that are available. 

I hope that these 5 free tools, as well as the 5 reports, help you find the trends that will help you to plan around this year (2022) for your company. 

Any questions please feel free to comment below any questions linked with this post. What you think of this post and if, you would like a further blog on the topic of marketing and do trends industry you would like further sources?

Thank you in advance. 

Have a good day and weekend. 

Kind regards, 

David Mc Donald, FdSc, BSc(Hons), MSc 

MSc in Marketing

Date: Saturday 9th April 2022 (09/04/2022)