Hashtag and Topic Research

Find the topics, questions, trends and search terms your audience is already engaging with, so every content idea starts with evidence of interest.

Research Your Topics

Knowing What to Talk About

One of the hardest parts of running social media is deciding what to post. Many businesses fall back on the same few types of content, run out of ideas after a few weeks, or chase whatever happens to be trending regardless of relevance. The result is a feed that feels repetitive or disconnected from what the audience actually cares about. Meanwhile, the platforms themselves hold rich signals about interest: what people search for, which topics generate discussion, which questions come up again and again, which trends are rising in your category, and which conversations your competitors and admired accounts are part of.

Topic research systematically gathers these signals and turns them into a practical bank of content ideas. It identifies evergreen topics your audience will always care about, seasonal topics that recur at certain times of year, emerging trends worth joining while they matter, and the specific words and phrases people use, which inform captions, on-screen text and social search visibility. Hashtag research is one part of this, identifying relevant tags that help categorise content, but the larger value lies in knowing which subjects to cover and how to frame them.

ViV Softech Solution is a website designing and digital marketing agency in Delhi. We conduct topic and hashtag research for businesses across India as part of our organic social growth services. This page focuses on researching topics and trends for content planning. How hashtags and keywords are written into individual captions is covered on our captions, hashtags and calls to action page.

What Our Research Covers

Social Search Terms

What people type into Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest and LinkedIn search.

Audience Questions

Recurring questions from comments, messages and communities.

Trend Evaluation

Rising topics, formats and sounds assessed for relevance.

Seasonal Topics

Subjects that recur with festivals, seasons and business cycles.

Hashtag Sets

Relevant, specific hashtags grouped by topic and location.

Topic Bank

An organised, growing list of ideas linked to content pillars.

Where Topic Ideas Come From

Platform search suggestions

Autocomplete suggestions and related searches on Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest reveal how people phrase their interests.

Your own insights

Your best-performing past posts, plus the questions in your comments and DMs.

Search engines

Google search suggestions, related questions and Google Trends for broader interest patterns.

Communities

Groups, forums and Q&A sites where your audience discusses problems openly.

Competitors and peers

Topics that earn strong engagement for similar or admired accounts, and topics they ignore.

Your team

Sales and support staff who hear customer questions every day.

Combining sources reduces the risk of relying on one biased signal. We focus on topics where evidence of interest overlaps with your expertise and business goals. See social media audience research.

Evaluating Trends Before Joining Them

Trends can bring reach, but not every trend suits every business. Before recommending a trend, we ask several questions. Is it relevant to your audience and offering, or would joining feel forced? Does it fit your brand voice and values? Is it still rising, or already fading, given that many short-video trends last only days or weeks? Can you produce a good version quickly enough to matter? Is there any risk, such as a trend that started in a controversial context, uses copyrighted audio unavailable to business accounts, involves unsafe behaviour, or touches sensitive cultural or political themes? Trends that pass these checks can be adapted creatively to your business, adding your own angle rather than copying. Trends that fail are better skipped. Longer-lasting trends, such as shifts in what people care about in your industry, are often more valuable than fleeting meme formats, because they can shape content for months. We track trends through platform features, trending audio lists where available, Google Trends, industry news and observation of your audience’s behaviour. See Reels and short-form videos.

Social Search Terms and Wording

Social platforms increasingly function as search engines. People search Instagram for restaurants and salons in their area, YouTube for tutorials and reviews, Pinterest for ideas, and LinkedIn for professional insights. Platforms use the words in captions, profile names, on-screen text, alt text and hashtags to understand content and match it to searches. Knowing the exact phrases your audience uses, such as budget wedding photographer in Jaipur or how to choose a water purifier, helps you create content that answers those searches and use those words naturally.

We compile lists of search terms by topic, including local variations, regional language terms and Hinglish phrasing where your audience uses them. These terms guide content titles, video scripts, captions and profile descriptions. Unlike website SEO, social search changes quickly and platforms share less data, so we combine search suggestions with observed performance rather than relying on exact volume figures. See content SEO.

Hashtag Research Done Sensibly

Relevance First

Tags that accurately describe the content and are used by your audience.

Local and Niche

City, neighbourhood and specialist tags alongside a few broader ones.

Avoid Problem Tags

Checking for banned, spammy or misleading hashtags.

Hashtags are less central than they once were on some platforms, and using many generic tags rarely helps. We research small, relevant sets grouped by topic, review how each tag is used before recommending it, and update sets as platform guidance and usage change. Branded hashtags for campaigns or community content are checked for uniqueness and unintended meanings.

Building a Living Topic Bank

Research is organised into a topic bank: a shared document or spreadsheet listing content ideas grouped by content pillar, audience persona, customer stage and season. Each idea includes the topic, evidence of interest, suggested formats, relevant search terms and hashtags, and notes on angle or examples. Evergreen ideas can be scheduled any time; seasonal ideas are flagged with timing; trend ideas carry an expiry note.

The topic bank feeds directly into the monthly content calendar, making planning faster and reducing reliance on last-minute ideas. After content is published, results are added back to the bank, showing which topics performed well and deserve follow-up content or different formats. Over time, the bank becomes one of your most valuable marketing assets. See monthly social media calendar.

Keeping Research Responsible

Topic research respects privacy and accuracy. We study public conversations and aggregated signals, never collecting or exposing personal information about individuals. Ideas inspired by competitors are adapted into original content rather than copied. Topics involving health, finance, law or other regulated areas are flagged for expert review before content is created. We avoid recommending topics that exploit fear, insecurity or sensitive events for engagement, and we take care with religious, political and social themes, where missteps can cause offence or harm. Trend participation is always assessed for cultural sensitivity and brand fit. See educational and informational posts.

Our Process

We confirm platforms, audiences, pillars and goals.

We collect search terms, questions, trends and competitor insights.

We assess relevance, timing, risk and fit with your brand.

We build a topic bank with formats, terms and hashtag sets.

We update the bank with results and new research regularly.

What Affects Cost

Number of platforms and pillars.
Languages and regions.
Depth of competitor review.
Trend monitoring frequency.
Topic bank size and refresh cycle.

Frequently Asked Questions

They still help categorise content on some platforms, but keywords and topic relevance matter more.

No. Only trends that fit your audience, brand and timing.

An organised list of researched content ideas used to plan posts.

Trends monthly or more often; evergreen topics periodically.

Yes, including Hindi, Hinglish and regional terms where feasible.

We can, through our content creation services.

Related Services

Never Run Out of Relevant Ideas

Tell us about your audience and platforms. We will suggest a topic research approach and share a clear quote.

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