Twitter’s Local Trending Topics and How to Change Them

Trending Topics on Twitter Gets a Local Twist

Trending topics on Twitter are nothing new. The microblogging site posts the most common phrases and hashtags to encourage conversation and inform users. They also use this space for advertising with “Promoted” trending topics, which companies can pay to have displayed. With a single click to either promoted or natural trending topics, you can see what people are saying about the most talked about sports figures, world events, or whatever else people are finding important enough to talk about.

As of Tuesday, June 12^th, Twitter has brought trending topics to the local level.

If you look at the left hand box where the trending topics are, you will now see a city region that Twitter is displaying popular topics from. Here, you can see the most popular topics from New York.
However, some people want to have a bigger view of the world and see what’s trending worldwide. Local trending topics can be very constrictive. Other people want to see what’s happening in a specific city or part of the world that’s important to them. Here’s how to change or remove local trending topics:

Changing or Removing Local Trending Topics

First, click on the “change” icon next to your current location. This will bring up a menu of locations that you can choose.

• If you would like to change your location, simply click on a different city. If you’d like a different country, or different city within a different country, click on “Worldwide” which will produce another list of options.
• If you would like to eliminate local trending topics altogether, click on “Worldwide” and close the window without selecting any countries.

Now you should have the location that you want (or none at all) for your trending topics. Here’s why they’re so important: Local trending topics allow you to see what people in your market are talking about.

Here’s an example:
A sporting goods store is looking to engage hockey fans during the Stanley Cup Finals. Quite bluntly, the television ratings for these games were poor, and there was little in the way of trending topics that had to do with hockey. However, a New York/New Jersey or Los Angeles store would probably want to know if their market was talking more about hockey than the rest of the country (and they were), and specifically what they were saying. Local trending topics can help significantly here. Now, what your market is saying isn’t hidden by the rest of the world. We all know that you need to know your market in business. Twitter is just now making that possible on a much more targeted scale.

If you have a few minutes, take some time to experiment with trending topics. Though this might not be an important tool for every business, for some it will be outstanding, and it’s worth getting familiar with now. If you’re still struggling to wrap your brain around the new trending topics, or social media in general, our Social Media Marketing services can help. We’d love to give you a hand.

About The Author

We specialize in b2b, supporting the clients who are the "The Brands Behind the Brands." These are the supply chain partners of brands, either in Tier 1 or Tier 2 positions, who drive value through the delivery of goods, services and technologies. We enjoy blogging about all things related to Branding, Marketing, Inbound, Tradeshows, etc... And we're always happy to talk about any ideas you may have that might Get You To Your NEXT!