360 Trends

360 Trends is a practical tool for uncovering user needs

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My Real Experience Using This Tool to Find Topics and Analyse User Needs

Official website: https://trends.so.com/

I previously helped a friend come up with topics for a skincare brand, and it was a constant headache trying to work out what users actually cared about — I wrote several pieces about “sensitive skin” and the click-through rates were all low. It was only after switching to this tool that I realised how badly I had slipped up earlier. A mistake beginners often make with tools like this is to search a keyword right away and judge solely by how high the popularity curve is, concluding “this term is trending”, then building content around it — only to miss the real demand entirely.

What I care about most in a tool is its **genuine data feel**, as I’m wary of inflated popularity built up through fake traffic. This platform’s data sources are all rooted in people’s everyday behaviour: content searched in the browser, related news from the security suite, and real shares on social platforms — not just isolated search clicks. That’s the kind of data you can actually use with confidence — it won’t make you mistake the “hit keywords” pushed by merchants for real user demand, which makes it far more reliable than other tools of its kind.

• When I was working on pet topics and searched for “cat supplies”, the demand graph returned not only terms merchants usually push, such as cat litter and cat beds, but also “how to bathe a cat”, “what to do about shedding” and “how to relieve cat stress”. These are problems users genuinely struggle with, not needs invented to sell products — far more useful than other platforms that merely list keywords for similar products.
• The audience demographics section uncovers fine details: when I searched for “smartphones for the elderly”, I found that many middle-aged and older users in third- and fourth-tier cities were searching for it. I had always assumed users of such products were concentrated in first- and second-tier cities; only this time did I discover there was still considerable latent demand. After adjusting my topic direction, the click-through rate of my content rose immediately.
• With the Public Opinion Manager feature, beginners tend to read everything, only to have real feedback buried under all sorts of news and promotional content. I later learned to filter by type and look only at Q&A and posts, which makes it quick to find users’ specific complaints and needs without having to dig through various platforms for material myself — saving me a great deal of time.

Compared with other similar platforms, the trending categories here are more down to earth — other platforms always pile their hot lists with celebrities and entertainment, while this platform’s rankings also include local services, home and daily life, study materials and other categories ordinary people genuinely care about. You won’t end up chasing irrelevant trends, and the content you produce will better fit the general public.

There are also a few pitfalls to avoid when using it: don’t rely on the default time range — always choose a suitable period yourself. For recent content topics, pick the last month or two rather than a multi-year span, as the data becomes too messy and you’ll miss the real trends. Don’t just look at the popularity of the main keyword — be sure to click into the demand graph to check derived terms, as many genuine user pain points hide in these smaller words. When looking at audience demographics, don’t fixate on age alone; pay attention to region as well. The same keyword can mean wildly different needs in different cities — for example, “camping gear” is all about refined experiences in first- and second-tier cities, while in third- and fourth-tier cities value for money may matter more.

This tool really suits people who regularly need to get a firm grasp of user needs: content creators looking for topics, brand operators digging into user pain points, and new media professionals chasing genuine trends will all find it handy. However, if you are doing very niche market research — say, targeting only overseas users, or drilling down to a few particular high-end circles — it may not be enough. Its data covers the majority of ordinary Internet users and doesn’t lean towards niche, precise data, so think this through in advance.

Nowadays, whenever I create content or proposals, I open this tool and run a search first — not to look at surface-level popularity, but to dig deep into real user needs. I’ll never again write content nobody reads based on fake popularity, as I did before.