In today’s hyper-connected world, brands cannot wait for market trends to mature they must listen and act swiftly. Social listening gives marketers the ability to monitor what audiences are saying in real time, while real-time trendjacking (or capitalising on emerging cultural or social media moments) allows brands to insert themselves in relevant conversations. This article explores how the two disciplines intersect, why they matter for modern brand strategies, and how businesses can harness them to stay ahead of the curve.
What is Social Listening?
Social listening is the process of monitoring and analysing what people are saying online across social media platforms, forums, blogs, news outlets to derive insights about brand sentiment, customer needs, market shifts and emerging trends. For example, one industry report notes that social listening has become organisations’ second-highest priority after direct engagement.
Why it matters
- It reveals what is being said and why not just the volume of mentions but the sentiment, emotion, and context.
- Modern tools allow brands to detect critical insights such as spikes in frustration, confusion or excitement.
- When aligned with business functions (product development, PR, customer service), listening becomes not just marketing-adjacent but operationally strategic.
Key capabilities
- Sentiment & emotion detection: AI-driven analytics now detect sarcasm, frustration, excitement not just “positive/negative”.
- Multi-platform and cross-media coverage: Beyond Twitter or Facebook, listening spans forums, review sites, video/audio media.
- Trend detection and alerting: Being able to sense when a topic is gaining lift, or when sentiment is shifting, gives brands a first-mover advantage.
Case in point
According to the 2025 edition of the Hootsuite Social Media Trends Report, around one-third of brands use social listening tools to stay up-to-date with current social media trends.
What is Real-Time Trendjacking?
Real-time trendjacking is the practice of monitoring emerging conversations or cultural moments (e.g., hashtags, memes, viral topics) and swiftly creating brand content or interaction that attaches to that moment with relevance, authenticity and speed.
Why trendjacking works
- Culture and social media move fast. A moment might only be “hot” for hours or days. Missing the window means the opportunity decays.
- If done well, it demonstrates that a brand is present, culturally fluent and responsive which builds audience affinity. The Hootsuite report found that consumers do like when brands engage in cultural moments provided it’s done authentically.
- Trendjacking, when backed by listening, becomes strategic not just chasing hype but tuning into what matters and aligning to brand voice.
Pitfalls to avoid
- Blindly jumping on a trending hashtag without alignment to your brand can look awkward or opportunistic. The social listening research cautions that chasing any viral moment is often ineffective.
- Timing matters. If you’re late, you either look like a follower or miss the engagement entirely.
- You must have a response or content that adds value or relevance otherwise it may be ignored or worse, criticised.
Example in practice
Imagine monitoring a spike in conversations about sustainable packaging on social media and then releasing a quick video emphasising your brand’s recyclable materials, timed within hours of the trend first surfacing. Listening identifies the trend; trendjacking executes the content response.
How Social Listening and Trendjacking Intersect
These two disciplines are most powerful when integrated. Here is how they align along the value chain:
1. Detect → Listen
Using social listening tools you monitor keywords, hashtags, sentiment shifts, and emerging topics. You ask: which conversations are rising? Which are fading? The real-time insight matters. For example, tools provide data on whether a trend is “peaking or tapering off”.
2. Evaluate → Analyse
Not every trend is relevant. Using listening, you evaluate:
- Is the trend aligned with our brand values or voice?
- Is our audience part of the conversation?
- What sentiment is around this trend? Is it positive, negative, mixed?
- Is there still runway for us to act, or is it reaching saturation?
3. Act → Trendjack
Once you decide the trend is relevant, you craft a timely content piece or campaign that connects with the moment—and you execute quickly. Because a delay may render the moment irrelevant.
4. Amplify & Optimise
After your content is live, you continue listening to evaluate response. Did the audience engage positively? Did sentiment shift? Did the trend evolve? Use the insights to adapt subsequent activations.
5. Measure Impact
Track outcomes not just reach or impressions, but whether the trendjack drove engagement, brand uplift, or measurable business impact. Listening tools now link insights to pipeline, acquisition or revenue metrics.
Strategies & Best Practices for 2025
Here are actionable strategies to build a robust social listening + trendjacking capability:
Build your listening infrastructure
- Select a social listening tool that offers real-time monitoring, cross-platform coverage, sentiment and emotion analytics.
- Define your listening queries: brand mentions, competitor mentions, topical keywords, culture/lifestyle signals.
- Set up alerts for trending spikes or sentiment shifts so you’re notified as patterns emerge.
- Integrate listening outputs with your content and social teams for rapid response.
Create a trend readiness workflow
- Identify which types of trends your brand can authentically respond to (e.g., sustainability, tech, humour, local culture).
- Pre-approve content templates or “activation kits” so you can move quickly.
- Assign roles: a listening lead to spot trends, a content lead to develop assets, a legal/comms lead to ensure brand safety.
- Practice with simulated trend scenarios to build agility.
Use listening to filter the right trends
- Focus on relevance: Are your target audience segments part of the conversation?
- Focus on sentiment: If sentiment is negative (e.g., the trend is about a brand crisis) you may decide to respond cautiously or not at all.
- Focus on timing: Is the trend early, ramping, peaking or fading? You want to act during ramp or early peak—not after decline.
- Focus on differentiation: What unique perspective or value can your brand add? Don’t just mimic what everyone else is doing.
Execute with speed and coordination
- Once you decide to jump in, act fast. Content could be contextual (a social post), live (Instagram/TikTok story), or interactive (poll, Q&A).
- Use trend-specific visuals or language that tie into the conversation, but ensure brand voice remains consistent.
- Monitor performance in real-time: if engagement is strong, amplify further; if sentiment goes off, pull back.
Measure & iterate
- Track key metrics: engagement, sentiment change, share of voice, conversion (if applicable).
- Use listening to assess post-campaign: did the trendjack generate more positive mentions? Did it drive new conversations?
- Feed learnings into your next activation: which types of trends worked, which didn’t, what timing was optimal.
Case Study: Trendjacking with Listening
A mid-sized consumer goods brand noticed through its social listening tool a rising spike in conversations on “zero-waste beauty” among Gen Z (mentions increased by 20% week-over-week). Recognising the relevance to their segment, the brand quickly produced a short Instagram/TikTok video showcasing their refillable packaging launch, tied to the trending topic, and using the hashtag that was gaining traction. Their posts rode the trend as it reached its peak, generating 3× their usual engagement rate and a measurable uptick in brand-search volume. This is a textbook example of listening → evaluation → action.
Future Trends to Watch
As we look ahead, the intersection of social listening and trendjacking will be shaped by several evolving factors:
- AI & predictive listening: Tools that forecast emerging topics before they become mainstream will give brands first-mover advantage.
- Multi-modal listening: Not just text; voice, video, live streams and even memes/images will become part of listening workflows.
- Cultural listening: Deeper analysis of culture, sub-cultures, regional nuances not just global trends.
- Privacy & ethics: Brands will need to balance listening capabilities with ethical practices and data compliance across regions.
Conclusion: Actionable Takeaways
- Develop robust social listening as the foundation: equip your team with the right tools and processes to detect signals early.
- Define which types of trends align with your brand and audience, and streamline a workflow for rapid response.
- When a trend is relevant, swift, authentic and value-adding activation wins but avoid jumping on every trending hashtag indiscriminately.
- Use real-time analytics to evaluate performance, refine in-flight, and learn for future activations.
- Look ahead: invest in predictive and multi-modal listening capabilities now to stay ahead of the competition.
By combining social listening with real-time trendjacking, brands can move from reactive to proactive cultural engagement, turning online conversations into meaningful engagement, brand differentiation, and business results.
