8 Ways to Discover Hot-Button Content Topics

So you’ve launched your company blog and you’re ready to start publishing content. Or maybe you’ve been posting to your organization’s blog for a while now, but readership and user engagement are lackluster, despite your best efforts.

In either case, you’re probably wondering how you can get people interested in your content? How do you capture the attention of your target audience?

Often, the answer starts with topic selection. To strike a chord with readers, you need to choose the right topics, ones that matter to your target audience and appeal to their core interests and needs. There are a range of topic types you can choose from, but one of my favorites is hot button issues because they’re both current and engaging.

The good news is there are plenty of ways to uncover hot-button topics that will not only captivate your reader, but are also aligned with your business goals. Here are a few ways to get it done.

1) Google Trends – Google has a slew of handy, useful tools, and Google Trends is one of the easiest ways to find hot topics that grab attention. You can browse overall trending topics across the web and pick out stories that are relevant to your readers – or find some way to tie in a broader topic to your niche. This post, for instance, ties in the popular “Game of Thrones” to the topic of security. It’s not a connection you’d make immediately on the surface, but it’s exactly this type of unique tie-in that adds interest to any regular topic.

Google Trends also allows you to search for specific keywords and topics, providing an easy-to-comprehend graph that illustrates search volume. Simply search for the topic you’re considering to find out how popular it is. Bonus: These historical charts provide a great resource for articles in which you want to take a look at an industry trend or how something has shaped over time.

2) Google+ “What’s Hot” – Google is pretty generous in the hot content topics department. In the social networking sphere, Google+ has a nifty feature it calls “What’s Hot,” which reveals the current trending topics based on hashtag use and frequently-shared posts.

This feature is also a useful way to gain some traction on Google+. Since Google+ is becoming important to SEO, an active presence there will benefit you. So find out what people are talking about and join the conversation – better yet, create your own content surrounding popular, relevant topics and share it via Google+.

For example, a growing number of college-bound students want to pursue careers in cyber safety, so a lot of talk in their Google+ circles revolves around which schools offer the best degree programs. This publisher, Gadget Gnome, saw the trend and developed content to service that particular topic demand.

3) Twitter – One of the best resources for uncovering hot-button topics is right under your nose and something you probably use every day: Twitter. With the now-default Trends box in the left-hand sidebar of Twitter, it’s easy to find local trends as soon as you login. You can change the location, including to Global, just by clicking “Change.”

Of course, you probably don’t log into Twitter on a regular basis. (Does anyone really log into Twitter anymore?) If that’s you, there are a bunch of other tools designed just to identify trending topics on Twitter, such as:

• TrendsMap – Find out what’s trending on a location-based level.
• WhattheTrend – Not only tells you what’s trending on Twitter, but why.
• Twendr – A handy, dashboard-style interface breaks down trends geographically.
• Hashtag.org – Claims to tell you what’s trending on Twitter before Twitter even knows it’s trending, using a sophisticated, proprietary algorithm.

4) Keyword Research – The same tools you use to figure out how to optimize your content (like the new Google Keyword Planner and Term Explorer) are just as valuable for uncovering topics that will engage your readers. If searches are skyrocketing for a particular phrase, you can bet it’s something people want to read about.

Think Miley Cyrus’ recent “twerking” escapade at the VMAs. If your niche has anything to do with dancing, you could have tapped into the millions of readers searching for twerking news and driven massive amounts of traffic to your blog just by writing about twerking. Just like this post does. Crazy how that works.

5) Buzzfeed – Buzzfeed’s “Hot” section is a good resource to peruse now and then, as it rounds up the most talked-about topics and articles from around the web. Broken down by News, Entertainment, Life, and Video, it’s easy to find popular posts and topics related to practically anything.

You can also choose from LOL-worthy, OMG, Cute, Trashy, Fail and WTF-type topics – which is great for finding topics that will grab attention. (The twerking concept fits in pretty well here, too.)

6) Frequently Asked Questions – Hot-button topics are right under your nose. What questions or comments are you getting from your customers over and over again? If you find yourself writing up similar responses time and time again, you’ve got yourself a blog post. But what if the answers are short? Is that blog-worthy? A collection of shorter FAQs also makes for a helpful blog.

Alternatively, elaborate on the core concepts behind those short, simple responses for a more in-depth look at a niche subject. This roundup takes it one step further with a slightly different spin. Focusing on a single question, the article presents responses from 15 leading experts in the field. It’s an excellent way to add even more value while tapping into a hot-button topic – and all those experts will probably share their contributions, so you’ll get the added exposure to their networks, as well.

7) Topsy – With the ability to track and monitor trends in social media and drill down to tweets, images, videos, links and even influencers, Topsy is a valuable tool for gaining insights into what’s happening across the web. By discovering what the major influencers are focused on, you can piggy-back on their audiences by responding to social updates with your own commentary on the topic.

If you’re careful not to do it in a spammy way, you can write up a response post to a major influencer’s content and share the link within your social or blog comments. Check out this post, for example, written as a response to a widely-shared, controversial opinion piece that appeared on Slate. The original post garnered more than 5,000 comments – if just one person shares your response article in the comments (even you), you’ve just captured the attention of thousands of readers. Use this tactic carefully and don’t go overkill – but if you do it right, it can be a really effective way to start building your own audience.

8) Postris – With the popularity of Pinterest, it’s great to have a tool in your back pocket that lets you tune in to what’s hot on the image-loaded social network. This is especially useful if you use Pinterest as part of your social marketing efforts. Postris lets you customize your own dashboard based on your interests, but more importantly, lets you uncover what’s trending on a category level. While it’s based on Pinterest trends, it’s also a good meter of popular topics spanning the web at large.

If you can tap into Pinterest trends with a great infographic, you can enhance your exposure with a completely different facet of your audience. Take a look at this infographic (originally published here) which capitalized on a timely seasonal topic and took a historical look at a trend over time – a great concept for a niche infographic if you’re looking to gain traction on Pinterest.

If you’ve never been one to follow the trends, now is the time to start. Effective content marketing is so deeply rooted in trends that those who are literally trend-obsessed tend to be the most successful. So forget what your mama told you about not following in everyone’s footsteps and start digging into trending topics. Your traffic and conversion stats will thank you.