Little Known Ways to trend on Twitter

Our mission should we choose to accept it, create a social media campaign for the newly launched book, the Ika Journal.

It shouldn’t be that difficult right? I mean I just have to spread the word on my facebook, instagram, prezi, blog and twitter.

Easier said than done.

With so much crap on these sites it’s hard to stand out. You have to interest people and once your topic ‘trends’, its like a flame and spreads through the blogesphere like wild fire.

A trending topic is defined as a user created hashtag that gets popular and if the volume is right, it gets featured on Twitter’s list of most discussed topics (Wikipedia, 2012).

There are a few rules and guidelines to trending and its about quantity over quality.

The first thing you must remember is that you cannot trend a topic if YOU tweet more frequently. Believe me I tried this, adding #ikajournal to all of my tweets did nadas.

According to the Twitter info site, hashtags depend to a certain level of frequency to trend and that means you have to make your message meaningful in order for other people to tweet about your topic. 

To help your chances of trending a topic there are a few things that you can do to help it along.

1. Tweet other people

See what the trending topics are at the moment, is there a major event around the corner e.g. a book fair? If there is, postpone your tweetup- during the time of the Ika Journal launch I tweeted to @ParisReview and even got a retweet. 

2. Gather a group of interested people who can support you.

If possible, get an influential person on Twitter. There are a few authors in Auckland with 800+ followers, so getting them interested in #IkaJournal will allow for a wider audience and the likelihood of #IkaJournal trending after their tweet.

3. Run a competition

This is a good strategy if you can pull it off. Its easy to screw up but if you get the basics right, its easy to make it a success. You can either run a quiz, where one nominated person (or many) asks questions and seeks replies with the particular hashtag. If you can’t find people interested, add in some value by giving away a prize e.g. a book voucher. Remember, its not about what you give but how you present it.

So there you have it, some clues on what makes a trending topic on Twitter, and what does not. Although these techniques work, they also make assumptions. For example, you NEED to establish a rapport/ relationships with an author. You also need to network within the writing community in Auckland to research what events are happening.

Twitter trending relies on 2 basic things;

1. An interesting topic

2. People power