When scrolling through LinkedIn, do you wonder how some posts get so much attention while others flop? Sure, people have different preferences, but some posts go viral because they align with trending topics and what LinkedIn's users currently care about. The significance of this within a LinkedIn content strategy can't be overstated.
Tracking trends and producing timely content that speaks to them can boost your authority and visibility on the platform, which can help you reach your specific objectives, whether landing a new job, making a career change, or getting new clients for your business. This guide will help you learn how to find what's trending on LinkedIn to boost your content performance and go viral.
Megaphone's viral on-demand platform is one valuable tool to help you achieve your goals. This solution lets you find what's trending on LinkedIn and create relevant content that gets noticed.
Should You Follow Trends on LinkedIn
Absolutely. Following trends on LinkedIn can help you maintain a strong presence on the platform and ensure your content remains relevant. However, it's crucial to be strategic about it and avoid jumping on trends for its sake. Here are some pointers to consider before you find what’s trending on LinkedIn and create a post around it.
Consider Your Brand Before Jumping on a Trend
Before following a trend, ensure it fits your brand's identity and narrative. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of a trend, but if there’s no connection to your business, it will likely confuse your audience rather than engage them.
Be Genuine in Your Approach
Don’t make superficial posts just to be part of the conversation. Instead, try to bring something valuable to the conversation. What’s your take on the trend? How can you relate it to your industry? You can also look for ways to connect the trend to your offerings.
Be Selective About the Trends You Follow
Not all trends are suitable for every brand. Before creating a post about a trend you discover on LinkedIn, ask yourself if it aligns with your business goals. Suppose it doesn’t keep scrolling and look for a more relevant topic.
Timing is Everything When Following Trends
Trends are transient, so join in at a stage that can benefit your brand. For example, creating a post about a trend on LinkedIn that’s already declining won’t do much for your visibility. Instead, look for ways to follow a trend while gaining traction.
Encourage Conversation to Amplify Your Reach
Don't just leave it hanging when you create a post about a trending topic on LinkedIn. Interact with comments and encourage conversation. The more interaction a post gets, the more likely it is to start trending.
Use Hashtags to Unlock the Potential of LinkedIn Trends
Add 2-3 hashtags to each post. LinkedIn recommends no more than three per post. Using relevant hashtags can help boost your visibility and reach when following trends on LinkedIn.
Why LinkedIn Trends Matter
From breaking news to industry developments, topics trending on LinkedIn can significantly impact how people interact with you on the platform. Instead of scrolling by, they will now like, share, and comment on your posts.
Benefits of Using LinkedIn Trends
Using LinkedIn trends offers numerous benefits, especially for professionals and businesses looking to stay ahead in their industries. Here’s a breakdown of key advantages:
Stay Informed About Industry Insights
Gain real-time updates on industry-specific trends, helping you remain relevant in a competitive market. Discover emerging topics, innovations, and challenges within your niche.
Enhance Content Strategy
Use trending topics to create engaging and timely content. Boost visibility and audience engagement by aligning posts with current discussions.
Improve Networking Opportunities
Connect with thought leaders and professionals discussing trending topics. Engage with a broader audience through relevant comments and contributions to popular discussions.
Boost Brand Visibility
Position your business as a forward-thinking brand by participating in trending conversations. Increase your reach by aligning with hashtags and themes that resonate with your target audience.
Leverage Competitive Insights
Monitor competitors’ activities and strategies around trending topics. Identify gaps in the market or opportunities for differentiation.
Strengthen Recruitment Efforts
Understand what professionals in your industry are discussing and looking for. Attract top talent by showcasing your company’s involvement in cutting-edge trends.
Aid in Decision-Making
Use data-driven insights to inform marketing, product development, and business growth strategies. Make proactive decisions based on shifts in market and professional dynamics.
How to Find What Is Trending on LinkedIn In 4 Ways
1. Leverage Megaphone to Find What's Trending on LinkedIn
Megaphone is a viral on-demand platform that boosts your online presence organically. The software connects you with influential creators in your niche, helping you grow impressions, followers, and leads without paid ads. Key features include a sophisticated engagement network, a private engagement pod service (coming soon), and diverse creator partnerships for sponsored posts, X-spaces, and newsletter ads (coming soon).
Megaphone caters to startup founders, marketers, emerging creators, and ghostwriting agencies seeking to amplify their digital footprint and social proof. The complex matching algorithm ensures you partner with your field's most suitable and valuable creators.
2. LinkedIn News: Your Source for Trending Insights
LinkedIn’s editors deliver insights, trends, and news that are currently trending on the platform. The Daily Rundown is a feature that provides professional news each day. If you have the mobile app, you can turn on the notification to receive it each morning. You can also browse through the Editor’s Picks, which shows you comments and posts labeled as the most relevant for a particular story. You can repost or comment on these posts to increase visibility and engagement.
3. Use Keyword Research Tools to Spot LinkedIn Trends
Keywords and search terms indicate what’s happening in the ever-changing world of trends. When people search for something on Google, it usually falls under one of four types of search intent:
Informational
They want to find out more about [X]
Navigational
They want to find a specific page for [X]
Commercial
They want to do a bit of window shopping for [X]
Transactional
They want to purchase [X].
All of the above can point toward trends or trending topics, especially if you can see the data to show a rising increase in search volume.
4. Seasonal Trends: Find What's Trending on LinkedIn Year Round
Some trends come around time and time again. Some are good, like Thanksgiving and Christmas, and some are not so good, like ultra-lowrise jeans. We call this seasonality – namely keyword seasonality when we’re talking about the keyword research behind finding trending topics. The internet is a whole of holiday calendars, marketing calendars, and (inter)national day calendars galore. But it can get overwhelming when there seems to be a day for everything.
25 Trending Content Ideas for LinkedIn
1. Craft Your Origin Story
Everyone loves a good story, including your LinkedIn connections. That’s why sharing your career journey on the platform is an excellent idea, particularly when you’re starting out after a career change or job loss. Perhaps you’ve had a nontraditional route to success. Maybe your career has been full of twists and turns (whose isn’t?). Maybe you’ve had a meteoric rise to leadership. Whatever it is, people in your industry will be curious to know how you made it to where you are, especially if you share your real setbacks and failures.
2. Share Relevant Industry News
If you come across a news story that impacts your audience, posting it can help position you as a trusted source of information. Add some value by including a short caption summarizing the news and providing your unique commentary or context. To encourage more engagement, ask readers to share their thoughts on the news in the comments.
3. In-Person Interviews and Roundtable Discussions
Over at the LinkedIn Collective, we frequently share shortened clips from previously live discussions. These make for engaging videos because they’re brief, eye-catching, and feature real experts having interesting conversations. Best of all, we can use pre-existing content to make several clips that highlight especially interesting points.
4. Share Wisdom from a Book
We’ve all had that a-ha! The moment while reading a book, you come across a line that perfectly sums up a life lesson you need to hear. Whether you find it in a self-help book, a business book, or a novel, there is eternal wisdom in books that easily applies to careers and work. Don’t just paraphrase or pull direct quotes from the book, though.
5. Empathize with Your Peers
While it only makes sense to be positive in most of your posts, LinkedIn is about work, and work can sometimes be super frustrating! Sharing personal stories and content that acknowledges the pain points of your role or industry can help position you as someone who gets it and empathizes with your audience. It’s the social media equivalent of a healthy venting sesh with your work bestie about what drives you crazy about the job you love.
6. Ask a Question
Sometimes, the best way to start a conversation on your feed is by asking the right question. Try asking your followers for their take on a timely or relevant topic in your industry, then respond to their insights to drive the discussion forward.
7. Create a Carousel of Evidence-Backed Tips
Tips are good, but tips grounded in research are gold. Decades of low-quality content promising "quick tips" have burned many internet users, but you can erase those doubts by proving your insights are based on objective evidence. Next time you read an industry white paper or data-driven report, see if you can turn the findings into tips on what to do (or avoid). Then, turn it into a LinkedIn carousel — one of the most engaging post types on the platform. Brand strategist Katelyn Bourgoin takes this format to the next level, sharing tips and insights into psychological principles and what marketers can take away from the learnings. The content is digestible yet comprehensive, giving her brand serious points on trust and credibility.
8. Have Some Fun
LinkedIn doesn’t have to be all business all the time. Consider adding fun posts about hobbies or interests and lighthearted content that might make your followers smile. Your audience won’t always remember what you wrote, but they will remember how you made them feel.
9. Create a Newsletter
Bite-sized nuggets that keep readers engaged and offer the opportunity to read more – what’s not to love about newsletters? This popular content format is available to members and Pages with more than 150 followers that have a demonstrated record of publishing original content.
10. Do a TBT Photo Dump (Business Edition)
Do you think Throwback Thursday posts (TBTs) don’t belong on LinkedIn? A photo dump from the founder of Gravity Payments, Dan Price, proves you wrong. It’s heartwarming and nostalgic and communicates how long he’s been in the game. To top it off, he’s celebrating with his team in most of the photos. It is a simple way to humanize yourself as a leader while showing your growth in the industry.
11. Share a Book That You Loved
Have you recently read a book that sparked new ideas? Or one that just didn’t deliver? Share a quick review on LinkedIn and post a photo of the cover. It doesn’t have to be a long review—this isn’t a high school book report. However, sharing even a single takeaway can bring value to your followers or connections. Drive engagement by asking your audience if they’ve read it or encourage them to use the comments to recommend their recent reads.
12. Publish an Article
If long-form content is your jam, try publishing articles. Delivering a unique perspective on timely industry news or sharing a story about how your organization creatively solved a problem for a client will get you noticed.
13. Build in Public
Many see LinkedIn as a bragging platform where people post about their accomplishments and nothing more. Repeated, glamorous success gets old, so let's turn that criticism on its head. Use LinkedIn as a space where your audience can get to know the real you and the work behind your business. Marina Khidekel does this expertly with a post that admits her team hit a bump in the road — and they're working tirelessly to make it right (because they're obsessed with getting the best product to market). Share your hypotheses, tests, experiments, mistakes, and learnings publicly and gain an audience that trusts you and your brand for honesty and transparency.
14. Share Some Good News
Did you win an award or a big contract? Have you landed new funding or hit a big milestone? LinkedIn is a great place to share good news and pat yourself on the back.
Pro tip
Mention the people who helped you get there; they’ll probably repost it and add it to your engagement stats.
15. Bust a Myth
One of the best ways to establish yourself as an innovator on LinkedIn is to challenge the status quo. Does a common misperception of your role constantly irk you? Tired of “common” sense that isn’t? Want to challenge a long-held myth about your industry? Sharing content where you disagree with prevailing perceptions can make for a compelling post—and spark plenty of comments for and against your stance.
16. LinkedIn Events
Ahh – the thrill of creating your content as it’s being published! LinkedIn Events have exploded in popularity and are a content goldmine. Create excitement ahead of the event with posts teasing the live show, then use snippets from the live stream to share highlights and bits of wisdom (which will, in turn, create excitement for your next stream!)
17. Share Jobs and Other Professional Resources
Even though it's gaining ground as a content platform, LinkedIn is still the number one spot for finding a job. Many users scrolling their feeds are on a job hunt (or know someone who is). Why not tap into that audience's motivation? Post job opportunities that are relevant to your field. You can post just one or create a list. This idea is simple but can majorly expand your post reach. Plus, someone in your audience might see it at the perfect time in their search. Loomly's VP of Marketing, Sarah Maloy, regularly posts marketing job roundups and has seen her account engagement increase steadily. Just look at the comments this post has inspired!
18. Put a Face to Your Work
If your organization dramatically impacts people’s lives, try putting their faces front and center in your LinkedIn posts. Numbers and graphs make sense when you share quarterly results, but when your hard work is a fundamental human success story, names and faces are more effective at telling the tale.
19. Poll Your Audience
Polls are a fantastic way to get a conversation started on your Page! By offering up choices that elicit passionate responses, your followers will be more likely to discuss the question in the comments.
20. Make a Personal Collage (That Ties Into Your Brand)
Posting personal photos on LinkedIn can feel weird. It's a professional platform, so your vacation photo dump might be out of place. But if there's a way to share your content that feels relevant to your brand, those photos can offer a refreshing and creative moment in someone's feed.
Yelitsa Jean-Charles is the CEO and Founder of Healthy Roots Dolls, a toy company that teaches natural hair care to young girls of color. Her photo collage is ideally on brand, showing various hairstyles she has worn while growing my business and sharing a strong message about natural hairstyles in the workplace.
21. Share Resources
Try sharing resources your audience might find handy. Guides, templates, or checklists can all bring value to your profile or company page and have a good chance of being shared. If you don’t have time to create resources from scratch, Slack your work colleagues and ask them to send you their top industry resources and thought leaders so you can compile and share them in a post. Even a collection of your top bookmarks can help your audience!
22. Images Featuring Catchy Text
Punchy statements are a great way to create an attention-grabbing moment when you want to earn that hard stop from folks scrolling their feeds. Short wisdom, conversation-starting questions, and linked content highlights create excellent image copy.
23. Build Anticipation for a Launch (And Get Some Feedback at the Same Time)
Amanda Natividad, VP of Marketing at SparkToro, is a hooks expert; we love how she used this one to tease her upcoming keynote. What can you tease? A content release, a keynote, a collab, a new product. Grab a slice of your existing content pieces and turn it into a teaser. When you give your audience a compelling glimpse of what's to come, they will want more. You can also use the reactions to your teaser to gauge how excited your audience is and what kind of features they're hoping to see at launch — now that's excellent customer data!
24. Toot Your Own Horn
If your organization is involved in the community, supports charities, or backs other outside initiatives, it’s worth a post. Do you encourage your employees to volunteer? Share their stories. It’s a smart way to build your profile and generate some goodwill. It can also showcase a positive aspect of your corporate culture to prospective employees. Even better, it helps the organizations you support gain valuable exposure. So be sure to link to them!
25. Third-Party Content
No one likes to hang out with the person at the party, talking about themselves the whole time. We recommend sticking to the 4-1-1 rule when posting on your Page: for every piece of your content, you should share one update from another source and, most importantly, four pieces of content written by others.
Insider tip
Be sure to tag the author and their company to increase your post’s chances of being noticed or shared within their circles.
How To Leverage LinkedIn Trends
1. Seek Out Regional Trends
While LinkedIn offers a variety of trends from across the globe, it’s essential to remember that not every trend will be relevant to your situation or audience. Many popular trends may already be saturated. Instead, look for trending topics that are more localized. This not only helps you find content that is more relevant to you and your audience, but it also helps you avoid overly saturated trends. To do this, search for trending topics relevant to local people. Then, drill down to find phrases and words used in your locality. Interact with the popular accounts based in your area and talk about things that mean something to the people around you.
2. Use Trends for Keyword Research
Get more from trending LinkedIn topics than just ideas about the biggest stories in the world. You can identify the keywords and hashtags that are used most often. Use popular hashtags and keywords to make your more discoverable to a wider audience beyond your network. This data can also shape your broader keyword research strategy for SEO. Although going viral on LinkedIn is not as easy as simply using a few popular hashtags and keywords, it does help get your post in front of a larger audience.
3. Jump Into the Conversation
Join the talk around trends and add high-quality connections to your network. Connect with industry peers, engage with their content, and add value by sharing valuable resources. Join the conversation only if the trends are relevant to your niche and brand. Be authentic and natural in your approach.
4. Create Content Based on What’s Trending
Another great way to leverage what’s trending on LinkedIn is by creating content that users will be interested in.
Megaphone is a viral on-demand platform designed to boost your online presence authentically and organically. Our software connects you with influential creators in your niche to help you grow impressions, followers, and leads without relying on paid ads. Key features include:
A sophisticated engagement network,
A private engagement pod service (coming soon),
Diverse creator partnerships for sponsored posts, X spaces, and newsletter ads (coming soon).
Megaphone caters to startup founders, marketers, emerging creators, and ghostwriting agencies seeking to amplify their digital footprint and social proof. Our complex matching algorithm ensures you partner with your field's most suitable and valuable creators. Go viral today with our viral on-demand platform.
LinkedIn's algorithm favors posts that generate a lot of engagement shortly after publication. So, when you find a trend to target, don't delay. Create your post and share it with your network to get the ball rolling. Then, use Megaphone to connect with influential creators in your niche. With our viral on-demand platform, you can quickly boost your post impressions and get your content in front of the right audience to go viral.
Leverage LinkedIn Groups to Find Trending Topics
LinkedIn Groups are a great way to connect with like-minded people and share and gain insights about specific subjects. Join a handful of active Groups related to your industry and keep an eye on the discussions to find trending topics and hot issues. You can also use the Search bar to find Groups that match your interests. Then, look for trending posts and popular discussions to find content ideas you can use to create your next LinkedIn post.
Check Out the 'What's Trending' Feed on LinkedIn
Another effective way to find trending topics on LinkedIn is to explore the 'What's Trending' feed. This feed is on the LinkedIn homepage and lists the most popular posts and discussions on the platform. You can click on any of the topics to get more details and see if there are any connections to your industry. From there, create your content to share your insights and expertise before the trend dies down.