Does riding trending topics on social media work? Yes, but it’s hit or miss. The first time Utsudo rode a trend on Twitter, she gained more than 300 followers in a day or two, and the nonstop notifications were easy to get hooked on. But she cautions that trends aren’t always there to ride, and spending lots of time on social media waiting for chances isn’t worth it. It’s better to do your own work and, when a suitable trend happens to come along, join in.

Translated from Utsudo’s original Chinese column.

Slowly growing social media numbers

Anyone here who runs their own media probably understands: numbers usually grow at a snail’s pace, and when they occasionally jump by a few, it makes you happy for quite a while.

That’s usually how it is for me too. I rarely check the numbers on fiction sites, but on social media, the ups and downs are right there. I can’t help noticing.

The thrill of riding a trend for the first time

Once, when I posted on Twitter, I got my first taste of “riding a trend.” In just a day or two, I gained more than 300 followers. Notifications barely stopped—every few seconds I’d refresh and see another like or follow. It was really easy to get hooked. After the wave passed, notifications went back to normal. The buzz came fast and left fast.

But that feeling of nonstop notifications is truly addictive!

I even found myself wondering when the next trend would come along to ride. That mindset isn’t good. But if you can cleverly use various techniques to ride the wave, it could make running your social media far more effective.

Come to think of it, in all my years of running social media, I’d never ridden a trend before—on Facebook or Instagram. Not that I post to chase trends anyway. But Twitter’s ecosystem makes it easier; even posts from accounts you don’t follow can be seen. As a Twitter newbie, I got lucky once, and my followers are now almost 500.

No need to deliberately chase trends

I’m not recommending you work hard to ride trends and spend lots of time waiting for chances. Do what you should be doing, and if you happen to spot a trend, give it a try. Your long-stagnant follower count might suddenly shoot up.

But you can’t ride traffic whenever you like. Unless you spend lots of time on social media and post about everything, you won’t have a better chance than ordinary users. We all have our own things to do, so for such hit-or-miss opportunities, let it happen naturally.

Otherwise, if you spend loads of time and never ride a trend, wouldn’t that be a waste?

Twitter is still a good place

Also, not long ago Twitter introduced rate limits. I’m not sure how it affects users, since I don’t scroll Twitter constantly, so it doesn’t affect me much. But since new users are limited to 500 posts a day, I think it will restrict traffic somewhat.

By the way, many social platforms now quietly cut reach or are overrun by ads—Facebook and Instagram, for example. Will Twitter be the last pure land?

At least so far I haven’t seen ads on Twitter, and it has hashtags and other features, so it’s quite convenient. If you have the energy, I think it’s worth running a Twitter account—it’s probably the social platform with the highest reach I’ve ever used.

I don’t know if things will change in the future, but until a stronger platform comes along, Twitter is still a good place.

You can also meet users with the same hobbies through hashtags, which I think is great. On top of that, there are DMs to chat with users, and you can post videos and livestream. It has every feature and is simple and easy to use.

FAQ

Further reading

• Previous: Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #195: Afraid of Missing the Chance to Say Goodbye
• Start from the beginning: Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #01: Utsudo’s Debut — A Road to the Dream Covered in Frost
• Utsudo’s books

About the author

Utsudo is a Taiwanese light novelist and novelist VTuber with more than ten years in the industry and 40 commercially published print books. Her novel 《遺失的情書》 received a 2022 Ministry of Culture youth creative award. The 《嘿！聽說妳在鬼島當作家》 series records her experiences as a novelist in Taiwan.