There is an old saying, “If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse.” Staying on top of the latest business trends can help your business continually improve and stay ahead of the competition. These are five ways you can keep up with current business trends.
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Attend Trade Shows
Trade shows can be a good source of information about trending topics, such as machine learning models. Trade shows exist that focus on just about every industry. You can learn about upcoming trade shows by following industry publications and becoming a member of industry organizations. Set a goal of attending two to three trade shows every year.
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Read Newspapers and Magazines
A good way to stay on top of what your customers are interested in is to read general-interest magazines and newspapers. Everything from the articles and photos to the advertisements can give you a feel for the changing habits and tastes of your target audience.
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Network With Other Companies in Your Industry
You should have made some valuable contacts at those industry trade shows you have been attending. Use those contacts to network with other companies in your industry. They probably won’t give you all their secrets, but you can still glean some useful information about the trends they are paying attention to.
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Hire the Ex-Employees of Successful Companies
Company secrets are usually protected by non-disclosure and non-compete agreements, but you can still find out what is happening in the industry around you by hiring former employees of other successful companies. Be sure to solicit feedback from all of your employees. They may have picked up on trends you have missed.
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Follow Social Media
Customize your feeds on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to help you quickly scan for trending topics related to your industry or your customer’s interests. Utilizing apps that allow you to save information for later, can be a good way to avoid getting bogged down while doing this task.
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Use SEO Tools
SEO tools, such as Moz, can be used to identify the most popular keywords people are searching for on Google and other search engines. Analyzing patterns in search behavior is a good way to spot emerging trends. Pay particular attention to keywords that are not yet getting a lot of volume, but are trending upward. These offer the most opportunity to beat others to the punch on an emerging trend.
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Read Trade Journals
Trade journals are still one of the most effective ways to learn about important issues in your industry. Set aside some time every week to review trade journals relevant to your industry and research topics of interest.
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Solicit Customer Feedback
The most direct way to find out what customers are interested in is to ask them. Try interacting with customers through social media posts, surveys, polls and other methods.
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Read Websites and Blogs
Compile a list of useful websites and blogs and take some time to regularly scan them for useful information. If you start noticing the same topics cropping up on the various sites you are scanning, that is a pretty good indication of current business trends heating up.
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Listen to Podcasts and Watch Videos
Podcasts and videos are now more popular than blogs in many industries. Picking a few relevant podcasts to listen to and YouTube channels to follow can give you valuable insight. Podcasts and videos can take time to scan through, try to focus on trends you have identified through other means. You can use this option to gain a deeper understanding.
Whether it’s traditional methods, such as attending trade shows and reading trade journals or more modern ones, such as listening to podcasts and interacting on social media, it is important to utilize all the tools you have for staying on top of trends. While it does require a substantial time-investment, it is less costly than allowing your business to become stale.
