The Top 10 Content Topics for 2019 & How to Use Them on Social

With 2019 just getting started, it's about time to flex your creative muscles and think out content strategies for your clients for this year. But how can you foresee what topics will engage your audience in the future that hasn't even come yet?No matter how ingenious you are, guesswork isn't the best source of inspiration. It may be worth a try, but can hardly guarantee anything. What's more reliable is an insight into real users' search queries to help guide your web and social content.Content trends don't emerge on their own. Target audiences dictate them.People are already googling topics related to 2019. To be exact, there are over 892K search queries with the modifier, "2019."You probably want to know what topics you should be following and creating content for. Search information can help you find the right ideas and concepts to target for your clients' websites and social profiles. If you play your cards right, your social content will end up in organic search results. That's a huge opportunity you won't want to miss out on.

Keyword Research and Social and Web Content Strategies

I've done a simple Ahrefs keyword search on the term "2019." There are hundreds of thousands of results already, and what's most interesting is that they have a low to medium Keyword Difficulty score right now.This means that you'll likely find it easier to get your content to rank well on the top ten organic search results.The content you produce for social will likely get more eyes on it too as these topics are less competitive at the moment.Here's why:These search queries and ideas are nice and fresh. They're brand new!All the content that currently ranks on Google or is being produced for the new year is new too. So are the discussions around it all.These pieces of content haven't been heavily promoted on social yet. They also have weaker backlink profiles compared to older pages. These two factors in combination with one another will make it much easier for your agency to swoop in and create content that will be seen online.Check things out yourself: the query, "Phoenix housing market predictions 2019," has 7 out of 10 pages that rank at the top ten without a single backlink. Thus, it has a zero difficulty score.

The bottom line is that creating social and web content around your target query will give you a pretty good chance to push to the top of your niche in social and in organic search. This will help you improve your clients' brand awareness and online presence.Using hashtags will help you get your clients' content found on social networks. Don't just use popular hashtags. Try using more specific, longer, more niche, and less popular tags. This will help your content get in front of smaller niche audiences.This will help you attract a new audience in the short run and get extra social shares by following top-ranking, niche keywords on blog and social content.

Top Ten Topics to Follow in 2019

1. Auto Topics 2019

This year will be a bumper year in the auto industry. Drivers are already anticipating new car releases, which gives you a lot of easy content opportunities like photo slideshows, videos, and podcasts. The main modifiers their queries contain are:

• vehicle types (SUVs, minivans, sedans)
• manufacturers (Ford, Honda, Toyota)

Many search queries relate to individual car models. Their modifiers include pricing, gas mileage, towing capacity, and other specs.

If you're going to write content on this topic, then don't publish a separate article for each modifier. Instead, use them all as sections of a single post. That way, you'll come up with a long-form piece of content, which is the best food for Googlebot.If you're going to write on this topic then your post must meet all the critical content standards. Keep it detailed, well-structured, and interactive with illustrations and videos. Otherwise, things won't work for you.It's also best practice to do some deep dive social content on these details. Once you have all the information, you can really elaborate and talk details in short videos through IGTV, Youtube, and Linkedin, for example.Social Media Potential:16 shares (based on 2,824 posts analyzed with "new cars 2019" in the title)Note that this is an average number of shares on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

2. Education Topics 2019

The 2018 academic year began a few months ago, right? But the search for education opportunities in 2019 is already in full swing.Students are exploring schools, scholarships, deadlines, internships, and education information.If your client is an educational institution, then you should definitely focus on creating tangential content about the courses, scholarships, and internship opportunities that your client offers.For example, you can try a roundup carousel image that displays all your client's scholarship opportunities. That's sure to get lots of shares and engagement on social if it's executed properly.Here are the main modifiers of their queries:

• target field (accounting, computer science, marketing)
• season (spring, summer)
• companies that accept trainees (Google, Amazon, Microsoft)

Social Media Potential:425 shares (based on 958 posts analyzed with "best schools 2019" in the title)

3. Financial Topics 2019

This year is going to be the year financial industry clients.Nobody wants to run into problems with the tax man, and everyone wants to be more financially literate. Tax season is fast approaching, so 2019 tax-related queries are getting frequent searches now.The target audience of this niche is also concerned about social security, minimum wage, and possible pay raises.

A lot of financial queries for 2019 are quite pessimistic. As you can see, people ask about economic collapse, budget cuts, and pay freezes. But no worries, that's optimistic for you as a content and social media strategist. This gives you lots of breathing room for more topics you can get your client to speculate on and talk about.Finance is a great video and audio content opportunity to cover because it's complicated and better to work through with spoken word. Get a transcript of your video content and publish it with your video content. You'll be able to double down on the searchability of the content. This will help your client get found on organic and social too.Social Media Potential:176 shares (based on 1,951 posts analyzed with "taxes 2019" in the title)

4. Design Topics 2019

Search queries in the design niche for 2019 are all about upcoming trends. If you're working with a client who's in the design industry then trends must be your ultimate focus. This rings true for graphic, web, and interior designer clients and beyond.

The beauty of working with these clients is that they are likely to have so much visual and video content on their hands. This will make your strategizing and content creation process much easier.Have your clients send your agency all the graphic design and photo content they've got so you can create highly visual top ten posts for social. This is great for Instagram Stories, and Facebook and Instagram carousel content.If your clients are interested in producing some video content, you'll be sure to get them some great visibility on Youtube and organic, since this content is indexed on Google search.If you're able to go a step further and complete a marketing campaign that has a lead generation component, then consider adding a separate page with downloadable templates to translate viewers into leads.Social Media Potential:427 shares (based on 508 posts analyzed with "design trends 2019" in the title)

5. Technology Topics 2019

Tech is the most volatile sphere. Trends are changing at the speed of light.Techies are keeping their fingers on the pulse of technologies to make sure no new gadget goes off their radar. Keyword research can be hugely helpful, but they can also be dangerous in this niche because of how quickly things change.Use keyword research to find popular niches and ideas, but also look to industry blogs, social media influencers, and your social feeds to stay on the ball in your clients' industry.As of now, the tech audience are interested in hearing about new information on:

• new devices (iPhones, Motorola and Samsung phones)
• software updates (Microsoft Office, 3DS Max, Revit, Maya)

Try keeping your tech clients' Twitter feed game strong going into 2019. It'll be one of the best opportunities to help keep your clients' brand on the ball while maintaining a conversation in this fast-paced environment.Social Media Potential:14 shares (based on 281 posts analyzed with "new iPhones 2019" in the title)

6. Fashion 2019

If you're working with a fashion brand, then you definitely need to help them stay on top of the fashion industry's ingenious trends and ideas. Fashion followers will be watching fashion brands. Stay on their radar by ensuring you're producing social content that covers fashion trend forecasts for 2019.Fashion is a great niche to be in for content creation and social media marketing.Take your clients' product photos or try user generated content inspired by top-ranking keywords. Once you find the keyword sweet spot, use it on visual-forward social networks, such as Pinterest and Instagram (try the Instagram shop feature on your clients' posts).Your compilations of fashionable items can differ by:

• season (fall, winter)
• sex (male, female)
• clothes (senior shirts, wedding dresses, swimwear)

Social Media Potential:102 shares (based on 302 posts analyzed with "fashion trends 2019" in the title)

7. Traveling Topics 2019

Sometimes it seems like social media was best made for travel content. If you're working with a travel or hospitality client, then travel trends will be your best friend this year.According to our research, cruises are in the highest demand among people planning to hit the road in 2019. If you're working with a travel and tourism brand, then cruises should become your top content priority.Even if your clients doesn't immediately service or have cruise products, you can still create tangential content about cruises to get seen from this up and coming niche keyword.For example, if you're working with a fashion brand, create content on the top fashion accessories for cruises this year. If you're working with a hotel, create content on the best cruise lines in the hotel's vicinity for 2019.You'll want to focus on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook for travel content as this content can go viral fast.These modifiers will help you create a lot of easy-to-rank and easy-to-find articles and social content for a travel site:

• cruise theme (Christian, music, Disney)
• time (in January, February)
• locations (Southern Caribbean, to Cuba, from Boston)

Sure, you can't blog about cruises all the time. To diversify your content, overview the best traveling times, vacation packages, and new tourist attractions.Social Media Potential:168 shares (based on 220 posts analyzed with "travel destinations 2019" in the title)

8. Movie Topics 2019

We just leapt into 2019 and people are already searching for upcoming movies to watch.If your client is a production or media brand, then creating socially relevant content on social media and their websites will be a breeze.Helping your client produce and schedule reviews, discussions, memes, and visuals that relate to up and coming films and genres in 2019 will allow you to get them in front of an audience. You can also use film as a great source for culturally relevant, tangential content ideas that relate to your client's' target audience even if your client isn't in the film space.Top movie queries include:

• studios (Pixar, Disney)
• genre (horror, sci-fi, family, animated)
• release time (January, summer)

Social Media Potential:418 shares (based on 560 posts analyzed with "upcoming movies 2019" in the title)

9. Gaming Topics 2019

Gamers are restless folks ready to hold a joystick from dusk till dawn. No wonder, they can't wait to see what games are coming out in 2019. To have them land on your site, create compilations of upcoming games for different consoles (PS4, Xbox One, 3DS, Nintendo Switch). That's the most popular modifier of such queries.

If you want to review some games individually, focus on the most sought-for releases of 2019. Here's your low-hanging fruit: Zelda, Skylanders, Resident Evil 2, Pokemon, etc.Your best bet for social content is on Youtube, Twitch, Facebook, and Twitter.Social Media Potential:18 shares (based on 198 posts analyzed with "upcoming games 2019" in the title)

10. Sports Topics 2019

We all know how active sports fans are in stadiums when cheering for their favorite team. They're as enthusiastic in their social media lives and their Google search habits.They use social and search to find the top events to attend in 2019, the best players, fantasy pools, and more.

To approach sports fanatics as your clients' agency, you can share a list of upcoming championships and your predictions about a particular playoff as that brand.Your client need not be a sports team or league in order to take advantage of sports searches. Clothing and equipment brands and NPOs can use sports content to relate to their target audience and get found on search and social. This topic is great for any brand whose target audience are sports lovers.People who pursue a sporting career are also googling the info about recruiting, salaries, and free agents. If rules in some games are going to change next year, consider this topic as another traffic channel.Social Media Potential:137 shares (based on 2,422 posts analyzed with "championships 2019" in the title)

Conclusion

The lesson you should take away is that no matter what niche you're in, your target audience is already searching for information about it for 2019. Their search query behaviour helps us find relevant content trends, but it also dictates them.The good news is that not all content strategists and social media marketers have focused on topics for 2019 yet.You can outrank competing pages and show up in social feeds by creating content that gets your clients seen in relevant searches and concepts that are new to 2019.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR, Nick Campbell

Nick Campbell is a content guy behind Ahrefs SEO toolbar. He's passionate about technology, social media, and blogging trends. When Nick is not researching a new topic, he must be at some tech event. Feel free to tweet to Nick any time.