Facebook’s new trending topics feature hasn’t yet rolled out to me via the desktop site. But I was happy to see trending topics appear on my mobile app this weekend.
Instead of a list of trending topics (like the desktop site), the mobile version shows when a person or page you follow is posting about a trending topic.
Here were some screenshots I took from my phone this weekend:
When you click on the trending topic name, it takes you to a page that shows a mix of public post about that topic and posts from your friends about the topic.
It was interesting that the Ringo Star wasn’t actually labeled “trending,” but it still showed a number of recent posts.
This is clearly another sign of Facebook trying to make it’s content more public (like Twitter) and less of a closed network of your friends.
So what does this mean for your Facebook page?
Marketers will clearly want to post about trending topics (assuming the topic fits with your brand), and use the actual words that are trending. That means using “Peyton Manning” instead of just “Manning,” I presume.
People who click on a topic because it was shared by someone in their network will potentially see your post about the topic as well.
Presumably buying ads for your posts about trending topics will substantially increase the chance of getting your message in front of people who actually want to read about that topic (although I didn’t see any sponsored posts on these topic pages yet).
Imagine a local bar posting Super Bowl specials that will show up when people click on the “Super Bowl” trending page. Instead of marketing to everyone, suddenly you’ve narrowed your reach to just people who actually care about the game.
What do you think? Are you seeing trending topics on mobile or desktop yet?