The Most Discussed Topics on Facebook and Instagram in May [Infographic]

Facebook have released their latest monthly look at the topics generating the most discussion across both Facebook itself and Instagram. These 'Hot Topics' reports provide great insight for marketers, with the charts provided showing not only discussion volume, but who, in terms of audience demographics, was most active in each discussion, highlighting the issues of highest relevance to your target market.

So what were the big issues in the US in May?

As noted by Facebook:

"With holidays scattered throughout the month, May was a time for Americans to pause and reflect on what matters."

This is reflected in the presence of Mother's Day, which was clearly the most discussed topic, followed by Memorial Day. Sports discussions dominated amongst younger men, while Cinco de Mayo was a big discussion point amongst young women.

Interesting to also note on this front that the entire volume of conversation on Facebook skewed towards younger women in May. Without access to the full stats it's hard to draw any significant conclusions from this, but it does seem to indicate that young women, in particular, are very highly active on the platform.

Oh, and if you were wondering about the potential of Facebook Live to reach an audience, that mention of 'Chewbacca' at the right of the chart (within the Mother's Day discussion bubble) was almost entirely driven by the viral 'Chewbacca Mom' video. The video's creator, Candice Payne, has now received more $400,000 worth of gifts as well as an array of other commercial opportunities. The original video has now been viewed more than 157 million times, and countless more via copies which have been shared on other platforms.   

That's not to say that everyone has the potential to go viral in the same, but everyone does have the opportunity to give it a shot.

Over on Instagram, the story was similar.

As you can see, sports – the NBA Finals in particular – got a lot of attention from Instagram users in May, but holidays and seasonal events were still the main focus.

This is a relevant note for marketers – there are several major events in May, and all of them were key points of discussion on both Instagram and Facebook. While most people would already have been aware of this, it may be something to factor in when planning out your social media marketing plan for next year.  

Young men lead the discussion about the new video games 'Doom', 'Uncharted 4' and 'Overwatch' on Instagram, with 'Blizzard Entertainment' also rating a mention, while 'Prince Harry' was very popular amongst older female users.

As noted, Facebook's monthly 'Hot Topics' reports provide an interesting and valuable overview of what's capturing people's attention across two of the biggest social media platforms in the world. While most brands have a fairly good handle on their target markets, it's always worth looking at what's driving the wider conversational trends – you just might find something you hadn't even considered.

As always, Facebook has also produced reports for:

Australia

The UK

Canada

Always worth checking out and mapping against your target audience demographics and brand outreach efforts.

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Original source: The Most Discussed Topics on Facebook and Instagram in May [Infographic].
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