Editor’s note: Robin Boytos is the director of analytics for Ayzenberg Insights. AListDaily is the editorial and publishing arm of the Ayzenberg Group, the parent company of Ayzenberg Insights.

At Ayzenberg Insights, we’re often tasked with understanding the conversations happening on social media. Twitter continues to be a platform where those conversations (within the parameters of 140 characters) tend to spread like wildfire.

We decided to take a look at trending Twitter hashtags and topics, in the US and globally, as they say a lot about the passions of the moment. We’re looking at the platform each month to see what we might glean from conversations, digging into post volume and length of trending.

What surfaces has some implication for brands about maximizing on the currents of conversations happening at any one time. Here’s our take on the trends for this month—stay tuned to see how these trends evolve.

Top 25 US Twitter Trends For April 2017

Unsurprisingly, days of the week were top trending topics. Because they reoccur weekly, they racked up the most hours trending and most tweeted topics for April.

Outside of days of the week—in the US, we’re highly influenced by television shows. Whenever there are big televised events, finales, or reunions of our beloved shows, hashtags go viral. Titles that fell into this category: FeudFX, Scandal, SDLive, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and GirlsHBO.

Other TV shows trended in the US without any major event sparking their virality: Dancing with the Stars, Real Housewives of Atlanta and Love and Hip Hop Atlanta. These shows were able to capture consumer mindshare by leveraging celebrities involved in each of the shows and their real-life drama. We’re passionate about our characters and drama in the US, thus causing debates to get heated online and hashtags to go viral.

US Hashtag Spotlight

The hashtag of most interest to marketers in the US this month was #NationalSiblingsDay. Many brands were able to hop on this trend and experience exponential lift to their engagement metrics. Silly, heartwarming and encouraging, this trend allowed brands like Xbox to receive nearly 1,500 retweets by tying the trend to gamer culture, and Vampire Diaries to capture a relevant moment in their show driving more than 3,000 retweets. Even smaller organizations like the Special Olympics tweeted a heartfelt message that received over 200 retweets, which is well over the channel’s usual engagement.

 

Top 25 Global Twitter Trends For April 2017

Days of the week also trend on Twitter worldwide in different languages. Futbol is also a consistent favorite outside the US, trending globally on multiple occasions. Cruz Azul, Arsenal, #اوامر_ملكيه, Isco, # صباحات_الهلال, and Felipe Melo fall into this category.

Global Hashtag Spotlight

Hashtag spotlights for global marketers this month include #NationalPetDay, #DiaInternacionalDelBeso, and #bucciovertimechallenge.

#NationalPetDay had an overwhelming amount of self-expression and love, with many accounts posting photos of themselves alongside their furry companions. Several brands jumped on this trend on social media to exponential success. This topic tended to be popular for gaming brands such as Fallout, Smite,  World of Warcraft and Watch Dogs 2, who used the hashtag to showcase relevant in-game content or fun pieces to tie to gamer culture.

Brands in other verticals such as Blue Cross Blue Shield Association were able to use this hashtag as an opportunity to share health tips and facts related to animals. Even @Twitter capitalized on their own trend with a piece of content themselves that received a significant lift in engagement.

#DiaInternacionalDelBeso, or International Kissing Day, trended in April and all of Latin America took to Twitter to make tongue-in-cheek jokes, political commentary and share pictures of kisses between loved ones. CloseUp Argentina, a toothpaste company, found a clever way to get in on the action and received a nice lift over their usual engagement.

Last but not least, an interesting case study for unexpected viral trends—ESPN anchor John Buccigross capitalized on a longstanding hockey tradition of picking the winning goal-scorer if a playoff game goes to overtime. His Twitter overtime challenge offering simple prizes went viral and made it into our top 25 trending worldwide hashtag lists.

 

Interested in more? Stay tuned for next month’s top trending hashtags list and subscribe to alistdaily.com. For more on Ayzenberg Insights, visit ayzenberg.com/insights.