FAQs about Twitter trends

On your “Home”, “Discover” and “search” pages of your Twitter account you’ll find a column on the left hand side called “Trends”. This is a powerful feature on Twitter and a great way to find out about popular topics being talked about on the social media site.

Here’s some of the frequently asked questions about Twitter trends and how they work:

What are trends?

Trends are emerging popular topics of discussion on Twitter.

Trends are determined by an algorithm. The trends that you see on your list are personalized for you based on your location and who you follow.

Yes you can. Just select a different trends location by clicking on “change” at the top of your trends list. You can select from the countries listed or opt for “worldwide”.

The # sign, also known as a hashtag, is a way of highlighting a keyword or phrase that relates to the topic of your post so that people can follow the conversation in search.

When you click on a trending word on your trends sidebar you will be taken to the Twitter search results for that trend and be able to follow all the tweets that include that keyword or hashtag.

All you need to do to participate in a trend is to include the exact word or phrase (including the hashtag if used) from the topic on your trends list.

Twitter has a list of rules for what they deem suitable and unsuitable trend tweeting behaviour.

Here’s a run down of their rules for trending:

• No adding topics or hashtags to an unrelated tweet in an attempt to gain attention in search.

• No repeated tweeting of the same topic or hashtag without adding value to the conversation in an attempt to get the topic to trend.

• No tweeting about each trend in order to drive traffic to your profile, especially when mixed with advertising.

• No listing trends in combination with a request to be followed.

• No tweeting about a trend and posting a misleading link to something unrelated.

Abuse of these rules could lead to twitter suspending your account.