Conversation Trends is a game-changing feature for Soundboard users. Still, you might be wondering how it all works. We got you! Here's our in-depth guide on how to use Conversation Trends.

Firstly, to get Conversation Trends, you must have a subscription that includes Conversation Trends. The Basic plan does not allow access to Trends, while both the Pro and Team Plans do allow access.

If you log in to your Soundboard account and do not see the conversation graphs, this most likely means you don't have a subscription that includes Trends. If you don't have Trends but want them, click here to upgrade to a Pro or Team plan.

At the top of your Soundboard dashboard, there are large blue phrases called categories. These are general industries like Marketing, Wellness, etc.

Each of these categories have their own separate Trend graph. So, when you click on Marketing, for example, the system will generate the biggest conversation trend phrases for marketing content. Click on a different category, say Wellness, and the graph will change to match trends related to wellness content.

Note: Conversation Trends only appear on category content, if you use the search function to find articles for a specific topic, no Trends will appear.

Once you have your category selected, the Conversation Trend box will generate 20 keywords. These keywords are generated straight from articles from the industry's biggest sources, and we display their usage over time in either a pie chart or line graph form.

The pie chart displays the 20 keywords in a circle, using the size of the circle to indicate how large a percentage a keyword takes up in the conversation of that category.

If you take your mouse and hover over any piece of the pie, it will show you exactly how many times that keyword has been mentioned in articles within the given time frame.

Clicking on a piece of the pie creates a new, more specific "source" pie chart that displays which sources have mentioned the given keyword (now displayed at the top of the Conversation Trend box), and how often they mentioned it. It looks like this:

Next to this pie chart, articles will pop up based on the keyword you selected.

To back out of a "source" pie, click the "Back to Keyword Phrases
button in the upper right-hand corner of the Conversation Trends box.

Unlike the pie chart, the line graph shows how a category's keywords change over time. The line graph tracks the rise and fall of all 20 keywords over the given time frame.

As you can imagine, it can get a bit hard to see 20 different lines on the same graph, so you have some options as to how you want to get a better look at the Trends happening around these keywords.

Firstly, each keyword is given a distinct color-and-shape combination to help distinguish trends from one another. To the left of the graph is a list of the keywords which displays the unique color and shape found on the line.

Another way to make the line graph customized to your preference is by limiting keywords. On the keyword list (pictured above), you can click on any of the keywords to remove it from the graph. This could be helpful to eliminate trends that don't apply to you, or simply to de-clutter the graph.

You can limit the graph all the way to one keyword if you'd like, so as to get a solo look at how a trend performed during the allotted time frame. To bring a keyword trend back, simply re-click it on the list and it will pop up on the graph again.

One more helpful tool for navigating the line graph is the zoom-in function. All you have to do to zoom-in is click and drag your mouse over the graph. Drag it over the date range you wish to view, then release the click.

Immediately the graph will zoom-in to that date range and give you a close up of how the trends were performing. Pretty cool! To go back to the full graph, click the "reset zoom" button in the upper-righthand corner of the Conversation Trends box.

Whether you're viewing the pie chart or line graph, you can easily adjust the time frame for the keywords by clicking the dropdown menu in the Conversation Trends box. It looks like this:

You can choose trends from the past day, 3 days, 7 days, or 30 days. No matter what date range you select, Conversation Trends will gather data on keywords from that date and display them in a graph.

The most comprehensive trends come from the 30 day range. However, if you're looking for an up-and-coming trend, the 1 or 3 day range might be better suited to give you the data (and articles) you need.

Both the pie chart and the line graph can be exported. Soundboard gives you the option to download the trends as a PNG, JPEG, PDF, or SVG vector image. You can also print the trends if you'd like.

To access this, click on the four horizontal lines in the upper right-hand corner of the graph. A dropdown menu should appear where you can choose how you'd like to export the graph.