Industry Trends
It is just as important to network within your local area as it is to be aware of trends affecting your business. We live in such a social world that it is imperative to know where to find the most important industry developments.
- How do people search for your services?
- Would you know if someone speaks about your business in a blog post or an article?
- What are people in your industry writing about?
- What are the hot topics and questions that interest the public?
- Wouldn’t it increase your traffic if you were to write about hot topics in articles or on your blog?
Here is a short list of some resources that can help you achieve these goals:
Google Alert
If you don’t already, you should have a Google alert setup to email you when someone writes about your business. It’s easy to do, and very valuable for being informed about when your business is being discussed on social media or blogs.
Technorati
While Google is the top search engine for web content and YouTube is the primary source of video content, Technorati is one place to go to find top blogs. When blog sites are setup, they can be registered with this service. You’ll tell Technorati what your blog’s main focus will be and then connect your blog feed to your account. Technorati then monitors the feeds of the millions of blogs registered with them. To find relevant blogs using keywords, you just need to go to the website and begin a search for the topics that interest you.
Google Trends
Google knows what we are searching for, so Google Trends takes that information a step further. Would you like to see the trend chart for a particular keywords or phrase? Enter the words into the Google Trends search bar and you’ll be presented with a chart that shows how that phrase has trended over time. It’s a valuable learning tool for seeing how the public searches for your services.
Stumble Upon
Stumble Upon helps you see which topics are being written about within your industry. Set up an account and the categories you are interested in, and Stumble Upon will present you with a list of articles on your topics. You can modify your settings anytime.
Digg
What is trending on the internet right now? Digg lists top stories and popular topics that are being discussed in real time. Being social, it allows its members to submit an article and Digg it with a thumbs up vote. Digg then positions articles by the number of Diggs given to it. This way, by visiting the site, you learn which topics are hot currently.
Reddit is another social site that allows its members to submit and vote on articles found on the internet.
With all the tools out there, you can become overwhelmed. But, if you set aside a few minutes of time each week, you can read about industry news and trends. Once you set up Google Alerts, Google will send you an email anytime your keyword is mentioned online. This way, your business can be ahead of information and part of hot trend discussions within your industry.