Are You Aware of these Key Trend Spotting Resources?

Keeping on top of the ‘new’ has never been as important as it is now. Thankfully, there are key trend spotting resources out there to help you. Here are 20 of the best of them.

Google Trends 

key trend spotting resources
Key trend spotting resources.

So, you have a website selling footwear, and you need to discover the best time to market boots. So, you’ll need to know when in the year the demand for boots starts to go up. Here’s what Google Trends says:
As you could probably have guessed there are great peaks in the winter and troughs in the summer for boot sales, but what it does indicate is that people start their searches earlier than you would think: July and August. So that’s when your marketing efforts should start as well.

You can also see that June is a rubbish time to be selling either boots or shoes, so perhaps you should focus your efforts on selling sandals.

A more interesting trend in the graph below indicates that demand for DVDs is sadly in decline, no doubt caused by increasing availability of tv and film from digital providers and streaming services. You’ll see that that’s reflected in demand for online tv is most definitely on the up and Google’s forecast tells us that these trends will probably continue.
Google Trends also suggests related terms (Wordtracker’s Keywords tool also does this, of course).
And you can search by image, product mentions on the web. Or you can choose to narrow it down by country, restrict it to a specific period or search by category.

You can, for example, find out how popular searches for DVDs are in the category ‘Technology’ rather than in ‘Arts & Entertainment’ if you’re interested more in recordable DVDs than movie DVDs.

(Google chooses these categories based on broad search patterns they’ve seen searchers make).

Yahoo Search Clues

Next, let’s look at how useful Yahoo Search Clues is at trend comparison:

We can see from this graph that Coolpix (the compact digital) is overall very slightly more popular than the Digital SLR D300 but their graphs over a year are largely similar. The split between male and female searching for the terms is broadly similar with a slight preference by male searchers. The smaller camera appeals to an older demographic than the more complicated DSLR. And the biggest market for these cameras is the United States.

From this information, it’s possible to decide which groups to target in advertising or marketing campaigns – with Coolpix we would have to decide between specifically targeting a new, younger demographic to bring in a new type of customer, or concentrating our marketing efforts on older customers to whom the product already appeals.

Alltop.com

Alltop is a fantastic news aggregator that gathers together news only from quality websites – they’re an “information filter” (their phrase). They even have a ‘Trends’ filter (just type trends into their search bar. Or any other keyword you’re interested in.

You can create your page by clicking on the + icons beside the individual topics:

If you’ve ever spent hours trawling through Google, you’ll see the value in this website.

what is trend spotting
What is trend spotting?

YouTube Trends Dashboard

The YouTube Trends Dashboard is a great tool for tracking the popularity of, unsurprisingly, video content.

If you wanted to narrow down the search results to those most popular with or most shared by 13-17-year-olds in the UK, this is where you would do it.

And if you wanted to compare what the young ‘uns are viewing with those videos popular with the more mature, perhaps even in a different country, you can do that, too.

Best Ads … Google Reunion Video and Its Value of Creative Story

BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed organizes the most shared pieces of content on social media. Sign up for their main daily RSS feed or select a section you want to subscribe to, for example, Viral, Sports or Movies.

Getting a handle on the type of content being shared will help give you some ideas as to the kind of content you should have on your site.

Key trend spotting resources … Mashable

Mashable is another great resource for discovering the type of content that’s getting shared on social media. Their Watercooler section is a great source for finding out what’s current. The day I wrote this, Mashable told me that Twinkies were being mourned on Twitter:

If you’re a rival calorific confectioner, you may want to be taking advantage of this. And if you’re a video-maker, like …

… The Nicko Network you can earn some well-deserved coverage from that particular news story with a video on how to make Hostess treats at home

Predictions

Check out the predictions for your industry, especially at the beginning of the year. Here are the results for “travel predictions 2012.”
USA Today in January 2012 predicted a great year for doom and gloom tourism. The Titanic anniversary. And increased interest and tourism marketing in Central America with the 2012 Mayan prophecy about to come true …

Both of these predictions have come true. Belfast has done fantastically well from the Titanic this year, and according to this article in October, Maya Mundo bookings have risen by 8% That’s despite the terrible image that Mexico has with a massive increase in drugs-connected deaths since 2006.

Back in June 2012 Hamley’s predicted this year’s favorite toys and their conclusion was that retro toys would do very well. That’s certainly something to bear in mind if you’re a retail site or someone who blogs about toys or gifts.

Trendwatching

Watch the people who are watching the trends: sign up for Trendwatching’s free monthly and Trend Hunter’s free weekly trend reports

Or if you can afford to spend some money on more detailed analysis try Trendwatching premium or Trend Hunter Pro

Springwise and Entrepeneur.com

Glean inspiration for that brand new business idea from business sites like Entrepeneur.com and Springwise.com

This article about an enterprising lady with a fantastic business idea selling secondhand wedding dresses with a guarantee to buy them back after the wedding is a great new idea with a realistic business model:

Topsy analytics

The social search engine Topsy features a Twitter analytics tool which you can to use to compare up to three subjects where you can look at up to a month’s worth of trending links. Topsy only includes ‘significant’ tweet mentions, i.e., mentions that have been retweeted or include a link.

The data comes from Twitter, and Topsy only includes ‘significant’ tweet mentions, i.e., mentions that have been retweeted or include a link. Spammy tweets have apparently been excluded from the results. Here’s one that compares mentions of the Furby, Nintendo 3DS XL and LeapPad 2:

It’s obvious which is getting talked about the most.

Twitter Trends

Twitter Trends is the list of often hashtagged (#) terms you’ll see on the left-hand side of your Twitter account. You can track trends by location (there’s a choice of 150+ locations), or there’s an option to have ‘tailored trends’ – these are trends that are focused on your location and who you’re following. My tailored trends today are telling me that Nokia’s HERE maps have been launched on iTunes:

Now, there’s an idea for an article for travel, telecommunications or tech website.

WeFollow and FollowerWonk

Find out what the influencers in your particular industry are talking about by finding out who those influencers are. In WeFollow add a tag, and it will suggest who are the top influencers in that niche. Mind, it’s user-generated. They gather their statistics from people who have submitted their Twitter name to them.

FollowerWonk also makes it easy to find influencers:

Click the ‘Search Twitter bios’ tab, and ‘more options’ then complete the details that you’d like to include in your search. You can sort by influence rating and some followers among other options.

Pinterest

Have a look around Pinterest to see which infographics and images are being shared (cupcakes, pastel colors and young children are big on this site) and discover which are the most popular shares (repins) on Repinly. Would you have known, for instance, that the most popular animal board on Pinterest isn’t one featuring dogs or cats: its pigs?
To search for pins in your subject area, click on the magnifying glass icon at the top:
Beware that as of August 2012 79% of Pinterest users were female so if you’re hoping to find out what images males are sharing this might not be the ideal social media environment to look in.

Huffington Post

Opening up the Huffington Post home page first thing in the morning will give you a very a good idea as to what’s going on on the web.

There are now editions available in Canada, US, UK, Spain, France, and Italy and it’s easy to switch between locations by clicking on ‘Edition’ in the top left-hand corner of the home page. The trends tag is of particular interest for those wanting to sniff out the most talked about subjects of the moment.

Reddit

trendwatching
Trendwatching.

Reddit is a huge social media news aggregator. It’s ‘Funny’ section (or ‘subReddit’ – just click on the relevant tab on their homepage) gets around 6,500,000 page visits per day, so it’s enormously influential, and many internet memes (concepts that spread like wildfire through the web) and viral content starts there. So it’s worth keeping an eye on what’s being voted up the Reddit charts as it might just keep you ahead of the curve.

The replies to this post in the ‘New’ subReddit …

… asks questions that will surely provide some interesting answers, some of which may be worthy of an article or even serve as inspiration for a budding inventor or designer. And popular posts on Reddit get lots of comments.

Offline resources

Read magazines, books, and newspapers.

At a recent Guardian Masterclass (a course run by one of the biggest UK newspapers), journalist Jay Rayner told a story of how he used to buy piles of specialist magazines for article idea inspiration. One item he spotted in the 1980s appeared in a greyhound racing magazine where a stadium had had its betting license withdrawn, yet it was still holding greyhound race meets.

He wondered why they would still be racing the dogs when no bets could be placed and phoned to find out. They were doing it to give the men who raced the dog’s something to do. Unemployment was so high in the town that the stadium was providing a necessary service to people without much going for them. He turned this into an article about how unemployment was affecting 80’s Britain.

Think of Google

A very useful newsletter to sign up for is Think with Google

Since Google are the ones with all the data, the marketing insights they pass on are surely worth a look. A current example on the site is a report on how and where users interact with their smartphones:

eMarketer

Subscriptions to eMarketer cost a small fortune.

According to the blurb, a third of Fortune 500 companies subscribe to receive their reports, but for a small business, the cost just isn’t feasible. However, they do post free articles: here’s a useful one with lots of juicy statistics: Online Travel Sales Explode in Latin America.

So, sign up for their daily newsletter and follow them on Slideshare to take advantage of some of their insights.

TopTenz

Another way of investigating the zeitgeist is to have a look at the home page of TopTenz. This list of articles will tell you what people are writing about at the moment, and it will give you tons of ideas on the subject matter you can write about yourself.

Google Instant

Last but not least is yet another Google tool, Google Instant: i.e., the drop-down menu that you see when you carry out a search on Google

Typing in “travel 2013”, for example, throws up some very interesting ideas on how you could be marketing your hotels, what to write about on your blog or which holidays to feature on your travel site. And it may even suggest terms that you hadn’t thought of before (for more long tail suggestions, try Wordtracker

Most shared

Get in the way of looking at the ‘Most shared’ or ‘Most Popular’ links on sites as you surf the web. This will give you a great insight into the mindset of the general public. Or on more niche sites, into the mindset of that particular audience.

customer relationships
Build customer relationships.
Need some help in building better customer insights from your customer engagement? Creative ideas to help grow your customer base?
 
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job of growing customer insights and pay for results.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new insights that you have learned.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?
 
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change.  We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
 
Check out these additional articles on market trends from our library:
Lessons from the Yale Customer Insights Conference
Generational Differences … What Matters for Marketing Campaigns?
The Story of How JetBlue Turns Customers into Advocates
An Actionable Approach to Target Market Segmentation?
 
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+FacebookTwitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.

 

Trend Marketing … Minimalist Guide to Explode Trend Spotting Results

How do some people seem to know about the next big thing way ahead of everyone else? Because they know how to recognize early signs of change. That leads them to key trend spotting techniques and trend marketing.

trend marketing
What is trend marketing?

What is a trend?

A trend is a general tendency or direction in which something’s going to move, develop or change.
It’s defined by a shift in mentality or behavior that then influences a large group of people.
Pay attention though. This is not to be confused with ‘fashions’ or ‘fads’ which increase dramatically followed by an almost immediate decline.
Trends last much longer and have a much greater impact on society.
A new behavior. A new attitude or opinion. A new expectation. Any of these can form the basis of a trend.
Underneath our definition lies a model that juxtaposes multiple dimensions. Dimensions include external change against human nature.
Basic needs such us status, creativity, self-improvement don’t change. The way we address these needs is through new products and services. These  changes form the basis of a new trend. Can you give an example of a fundamental trend that doesn’t change?
But it’s not enough to simply understand a trend. You want to know where and how trends will emerge. More importantly,opportunities they will present to you.

 

Why trend spotting?

It’s important to be on the lookout for the newest trends. They will allow you to plan more effectively for the future and introduce more successful initiatives to your business.
By focusing on what will happen next, you can make more informed decisions in less time. This will save a lot of energy and money in the long run.

 

Trend marketing … fundamental trend elements

There are three fundamental elements that drive all trends:
  • Basic Needs
  • Drivers of Change
  • Innovations
The secret ingredient of trends, however, isn’t any of one of these elements. Rather, it’s the tension created as the three elements interact with one another.
This tension can best be identified by understanding customer expectations. And understanding for gaps between what customers want – both now and in the future – and what they are currently being offered.
Understanding this enables you to hit the sweet spot of trend-driven innovation with your new offering. It also allows you to beat customers’ expectations and resolve this tension.
For example, think about how Airbnb changed our expectation from travel towards a more authentic experience.  Also consider how Uber changed the way we expect to move through the city.  Or how Tesla changed the way consumers thought an electric car could also be sexy to drive?

Listen and observe

Today, there’s too much broadcasting and not enough receiving. Everyone is focused on pumping out information.
But turning off our signal and receiving and digesting, that’s a skill that has disappeared.
How do I do it? I like to immerse myself in a topic by reading about it.
I schedule an hour in the morning, and again before bed to this to reading.
I schedule it. I also carefully observe things going on around me. It is amazing how much you can learn. Pay close attention and take notes.

Distinguish between short-lived and long-term

Strive to identify big changes. Changes that create lasting problems that lots of customers will be happy to pay to solve.
The idea is to wind up with a business model in which revenues are much larger than costs for a long period. Not a model that limps by on slender profit margins before competitors take even that away.
To filter out fads, talk to the potential buyers of the solution to the problem.
The more frustrated they are, the more likely they are to pay for a solution. In extreme cases, potential customers may be willing to fund the development of solutions.
Also, talk to experts. While they may not be able to write checks, they can provide insights and point to possible solutions.
Solutions that customers could not even imagine.

Trend marketing careers … follow trustworthy thought leaders

When selecting your sources for news and information, find reputable resources you can trust. These are people who are experts in their field. And brands whose information you find to be reliable and valuable.
I follow some marketing bloggers who have been in the business for years.
Most of them I’ve found through other people I follow or trust. When their blogs are too gimmicky or inauthentic, I stop reading.
Be selective and filter out the noise.

 

 

Look beyond your boundaries

You have to look around and ask: ‘What are the general trends going on, even though they haven’t affected me or my business yet?’
For example, many noted that people weren’t yet ready to buy music by the download. Few also noted that the way they found new music was shifting.
They could see how companies could become major players launching new music, such as Apple through its commercials, or Starbucks with its stores.
What was the trend? It was where people weren’t necessarily interested in discovering music by walking into a record shop or watching MTV anymore.

connect the dots
Connect the dots.

Trend marketing brands … connect the dots

Once you’ve collated information and the latest news from your chosen area, you can start to group articles together. Then assess them and find connections between the elements.
Tools for collating and bookmarking your findings:
  • Evernote – A great tool that lets you assign photos, docs, scans, notes, for future reference.
  • Pinterest – A great content sharing service that allows members to “pin” images, videos and other objects to their pinboard for future reference.
  • Delicious – An online social bookmarks manager that lets you save, organize and discover interesting links on the web.
  • Freemind – great free tool for creating mind maps
  • Old fashioned pen & paper, sticky notes & white boards!

  

Key trend spotting techniques … test assumptions

Once you have connected the dots between your findings and found re-occurring themes and connections, you can then assess the potential trends. See how they are doing in the current landscape, and make potential predictions for the trends in the future using the following:
Google Keywords: By using Google keywords you can see the average number of searches that your potential trend is typed into Google each month. Compare them to other trends and keywords.
Google Trends: Google Trends is really good for seeing the fluctuation of trends. It also permits how well they’ve done in the past and how well they’re doing now. They also permit predictions of how well they’ll do in the future.
Then ask yourself the following:
  • What are the needs that the trend satisfies (is it a trend or fad)?
  • How many people won’t be able to or be interested in taking advantage of the trend?
  • What will affect the speed of the trend?
  • Where is the trend now – who’s currently using it on the innovation curve?
Once you have a solid idea that’s a  trend and that it will survive, find out the following:
  • What demographics are you targeting (get to know them and ask them questions)
  • What is the investment required and how profitable is the idea?
  • What’s the longevity of the concept?
The basic tools of the trend tracker are seeing, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.
In other words, every sense that can be used to get information about the world should be employed in looking for upcoming changes.
Start by reading and watching everything you can. That should include general interest news outlets, trade publications, blogs, government reports and casual conversations.
Be especially alert for problems people are talking about.

Create a competitive advantage

To get the biggest benefit, be the first mover. It is rare for any single entrepreneur to be the only one who sees an opportunity. Most will hesitate and not move at all.
Many others will not move swiftly enough. Lasting competitive advantage usually goes to the first entrant to stake a market out and capture customer loyalty.
Those who come later usually have to settle for slimmer profits and more competition.
Being first is not enough, of course. Business history is littered with well-financed startups directed by well-regarded leaders. Leaders who committed too much, too early and in the wrong place.
So test before committing. Again, look for revenues that overwhelm costs and customers who are overjoyed.
For every trend that supports a future startup star, any number go ignored. Many leave potential customers searching for solutions and opportunities for established companies to fill their needs.
But it only takes timely identification of one trend to get a startup in flight, and these techniques can point you to the one you need.
There is no silver bullet when it comes to spotting trends. Trends reveal themselves over time from a variety of places.
Spotting a growing pattern means you must have your eye on multiple sources long enough to notice changes.
This takes some intentionality, but it doesn’t have to tie up all of your time.

Take care on choosing sources

key trend spotting techniques
Key trend spotting techniques.
Just as it took multiple sources—bloggers, Facebook, word of mouth—to realize that the time is ripe. It will yield a visit to Colombia. Spotting a trend in other industries is much the same.
As you put together a list of blogs, news sites, social media channels, and other sources, here are some tips to help you hone in and filter extraneous content:

Look outside your industry

In addition to watching what’s going on in your niche, it often pays to expand your horizons.
Our world is so interconnected; true trends pop up everywhere.
Keeping an eye on developments in other fields can sometimes be key in predicting changes closer to home.

 

 

The bottom line

Many successful businesses were started by entrepreneurs with an ability to see a trend before everyone else. They were able to take their insight and capitalize on it in a new and creative way.
Businesses from Uber and Lyft to Airbnb and HomeAway are just some of the most recent examples of entrepreneurs benefiting from emerging trends.
But just because it’s been done before doesn’t mean it is easy to see trends first and find ways to capitalize on them.
Smart entrepreneurs are always looking for an edge.
They want to know how they can identify trends and how they can use that skill to build and grow a business. Fortunately, there are steps you can take develop this skill yourself.
 
Customer engagement
Customer engagement improvements are worth the effort.
Need some help in building better customer insights from your customer engagement? Creative ideas to help grow your customer base?
 
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job of growing customer insights and pay for results.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new insights that you have learned.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change.  We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
 
Check out these additional articles on customer insights from our library:
Lessons from the Yale Customer Insights Conference
Small Business Customer Insights 101
Remarkable Marketing Using These 17 Customer Insight Techniques
A How-to Guide for Small Business Social Media Marketing
 
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+FacebookTwitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.

 

Trend Spotting Tools I Employ to Skyrocket Performance Results

How do some people seem to know about the next big thing way ahead of everyone else? Because they know how to recognize early signs of change. They also know which trend spotting tools to use.
trend spotting tools
Trend spotting tools.

What is a trend, and why should you be spotting them?

A trend is a general tendency or direction in which something’s going to move, develop, or change. It’s defined by a shift in mentality or behavior that then influences a significant number of people.
It’s important to be on the lookout for the newest trends on https://zenserp.com/trends-data-api/ so you can plan more effectively for the future and introduce more successful initiatives to your business. By focusing on what will happen next, you can make more informed decisions in less time, saving a lot of energy and money in the long run.

Anticipate change

I frequently remind coaching clients that the only constant is change. Believe it. Assume that change is coming and look for it. Change can be either social — as in the rise of socially responsible business — or technological, as exemplified by the growth of mobile commerce.
Sometimes change can be both. Social media is a great example of that.
Don’t forget the cyclical, up-and-down, back-and-forth nature of business while you are looking. Change doesn’t have to be permanent to provide a viable opportunity for business creation and growth.
For example, when the real estate crisis hit in 2008, construction activity shrank, and many people were forced to make do with what they had. But trend-spotting entrepreneurs were able to adjust their plans depending on the market.
In another example, savvy interior designers marketed their services to those who wanted something new but couldn’t find or afford a new home.

See it coming

The basic tools of the trend tracker are seeing, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. In other words, every sense that can be used to get information about the world should be employed in looking for upcoming changes. Start by reading and watching everything you can.
That should include general interest news outlets, trade publications, blogs, government reports and casual conversations overheard in elevators. Be especially alert for problems people are talking about.

Trend spotting tools… your sources

Just as it took multiple sources—bloggers, Facebook, word of mouth—to realize that the time is ripe to visit Colombia, spotting a trend in other industries is much the same.
As you put together a list of blogs, news sites, social media channels, and other sources, here are some tips to help you hone in and filter extraneous content:

Follow trustworthy thought leaders

When selecting your sources for news and information, find reputable resources you can trust. These are people who are experts in their field, brands whose information you find to be reliable and valuable.
I follow some marketing bloggers who have been in the business for years. Most of them I’ve found through other people I follow or trust. When their blogs are too gimmicky or inauthentic, I stop reading. Be selective and filter out the noise.

Look outside your industry

In addition to watching what’s going on in your niche, it often pays to expand your horizons. Our world is so interconnected; true trends pop up everywhere. Keeping an eye on developments in other fields can sometimes be key in predicting changes closer to home.
Once you’ve started a list of potential sources and brands you want to follow, it’s time to optimize your trend-spotting with a few tools. Consider using trend-tracking tools to help you zero-in on trends that are worth investigating further.
You won’t be the only entrepreneur looking for business ideas on these platforms, but you can use them to dig deeper to validate hunches.
what is trend spotting
What is trend spotting?

Trend spotting tools … Google News and Alerts

This first point is two tools. Google News allows you to create a stream of news stories for a specific keyword, person, or brand while Google Alerts will notify you every time that keyword is mentioned on the web.
 

Google News

To harness the Google News tool, follow these simple steps:
  • Go tohttp://news.google.com
  • Click the black down arrow on the right side of the search bar to pull up Advanced Search options
  • Enter a search term you want to track
  • If relevant, include where in the article you want to search for the term, a date range, and any specific periodical sources or locations.
  • Your search will pull up recent news stories related to the search term
  • For further filtering options, click the “Search tools” button to adjust your news source (Blogs or All News), time frame, and whether relevance or date should sort the results.
You can keep track of these alerts in your feed. To do this, copy and paste the URL from your search to add it as another content source. That way, whenever a new article with your search terms is published, you’ll see it in your Feedly reading list.
For detailed instructions on how to set up Google News sources directly in Feedly Pro, check out this tutorial.
 

Google Alerts

To use Google Alerts, do the following:
  • Go tohttp://www.google.com/alerts
  • Enter a search term
  • Click on the “Show options” dropdown
  • Specify any restrictions you want on type of sources, language, region, and some
With Google Alerts, you can opt to get immediate notifications. Alternatively, you can add the stream of alerts to an RSS reader, like Feedly, and check in on your own time.
To do this, where it says “Deliver to,” select “RSS feed.” Then click the “Create alert” button. Next, click on the RSS feed icon to view the feed URL for your Google Alert. Copy this URL (it will start with http://www.google.com/alerts/feeds…) and paste it into your search bar in Feedly. Press enter, and you’ll be able to add the feed to your reading list.

 

Twitter lists

For minute-by-minute trends, Twitter may be the best source of breaking news. Although Twitter can be a noisy world, with Twitter Lists, you have the power to filter the input down to what matters to you.
Create lists for Twitter accounts of people or brands who share your interests, or who are thought leaders and influencers in your field. That way you can stay on top of their updates without the feed getting cluttered by irrelevant tweets.
To create a Twitter list, follow these steps:
  • Click on your profile image in the header (once you’re logged in to Twitter)
  • Click on “Lists” from the dropdown that appears (alternatively, you can type in http://twitter.com/yourusername/lists to get to the same page)
  • Here you should see any lists you’ve already created or subscribed to
  • Click the “Create new list” button
  • Type in a name, description of the list, and select whether it should be public or private
  • To add Twitter accounts to the list, go to each user’s profile page
  • On the user’s profile page, click the gear icon and select “Add or remove from ”
  • From the pop-up box, check the box for the list you want their tweets to show up in
  • Repeat the last three steps for each Twitter account you want on your list
 

Feedly

For your own, hand-picked blogs and websites, you can use Feedly to quickly and easily curate a reading list. Here are a few tips for getting your Feedly primed for trendspotting:
  • Use the search bar on the top right or the Add Content button to find and subscribe to new feeds by pasting in an URL.
  • Use theChrome extension or a Feedly bookmarklet to add feeds to your reading list from any web page.
  • Type a topic (example: social media) into the Feedly search bar to look up suggested sites from other Feedly users
  • With Feedly Pro, you can use the Power Search, including hashtags (example: #socialmedia) to help you find specific stories related to that topic.
  • Notice the popularity rating of the articles coming through your feed to see which ideas are getting more traction
  • To discover new sources, you may not have known about; you can check out theShared Collections from other users who have recommended similar content

Google Trends

So, you have a website selling footwear, and you need to discover the best time to market boots. So, you’ll need to know when in the year the demand for boots starts to go up. Here’s what Google Trends says:
As you could probably have guessed there are great peaks in the winter and troughs in the summer for boot sales, but what it does indicate is that people start their searches earlier than you would think: July and August. So that’s when your marketing efforts should start as well.
You can also see that June is a rubbish time to be selling either boots or shoes, so perhaps you should focus your efforts on selling sandals.
Google Trends also suggests related terms (Wordtracker’s Keywords tool also does this, of course).
And you can search by image, product mentions on the web. Or you can choose to narrow it down by country, restrict it to a specific period or search by category.
You can, for example, find out how popular searches for DVDs are in the category ‘Technology’ rather than in ‘Arts & Entertainment’ if you’re interested more in recordable DVDs than movie DVDs.

Yahoo Search Clues

Next, let’s look at how useful Yahoo Search Clues is at trend comparison:
We can see from this graph that Coolpix (the compact digital) is overall very slightly more popular than the Digital SLR D300 but their graphs over a year are largely similar. The split between male and female searching for the terms is broadly similar with a slight preference by male searchers.
The smaller camera appeals to an older demographic than the more complicated DSLR. And the biggest market for these cameras is the United States.
From this information it’s possible to decide which groups to target in advertising or marketing campaigns – with Coolpix we would have to decide between:
Targeting a new, younger demographic to bring in a new type of customer
Or concentrating marketing efforts on older customers to whom the product already appeals.

YouTube Trends Dashboard

The YouTube Trends Dashboard is a great tool for tracking the popularity of, unsurprisingly, video content:
If you wanted to narrow down the search results to those most popular with or most shared by 13-17-year-olds in the UK, this is where you would do it.
And if you wanted to compare what the young ‘uns are viewing with those videos popular with the more mature, perhaps even in a different country, you can do that, too.

BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed organizes the most shared pieces of content on social media. Sign up for their main daily RSS feed or select a section you want to subscribe to, for example, Viral, Sports or Movies.
Getting a handle on the type of content being shared will help give you some ideas as to the kind of content you should have on your site.

Topsy analytics

The social search engine Topsy features a Twitter analytics tool which you can to use to compare up to three subjects where you can look at up to a month’s worth of trending links. Topsy only includes ‘significant’ tweet mentions, i.e., mentions that have been retweeted or include a link.
The data comes from Twitter, and Topsy only includes ‘significant’ tweet mentions, i.e., mentions that have been retweeted or include a link.
It’s obvious which is getting talked about the most.

Twitter trends

Twitter Trends is the list of often hashtagged (#) terms you’ll see on the left-hand side of your Twitter account. You can track trends by location (there’s a choice of 150+ locations), or there’s an option to have ‘tailored trends’ – these are trends that are focused on your location and who you’re following. My tailored trends today are telling me that Nokia’s HERE maps have been launched on iTunes:

WeFollow and FollowerWonk

Find out what the influencers in your particular industry are talking about by finding out who those influencers are. In WeFollow add a tag, and it will suggest who are the top influencers in that niche. Mind, it’s user-generated. They gather their statistics from people who have submitted their Twitter name to them.
FollowerWonk also makes it easy to find influencers:
Click the ‘Search Twitter bios’ tab, and ‘more options’ then complete the details that you’d like to include in your search. You can sort by influence rating and some followers among other options.

Think with Google

trend spotting marketing
Trend spotting marketing.
A very useful newsletter to sign up for is Think with Google
Since Google are the ones with all the data, the marketing insights they pass on are surely worth a look. A current example on the site is a report on how and where users interact with their smartphones:

Google Instant

Last but not least is yet another Google tool, Google Instant: i.e., the drop-down menu that you see when you carry out a search on Google
Typing in “travel 2013”, for example, throws up some very interesting ideas on how you could be marketing your hotels, what to write about on your blog or which holidays to feature on your travel site. And it may even suggest terms that you hadn’t thought of before (for more long tail suggestions, try Wordtracker.

The bottom line

To be effective in this new era, we as marketers need to see our jobs differently. No more just focusing on metrics like clicks, video views or social media shares. We must successfully integrate our function with other business functions to create entire brand experiences that serve the customer all the way through their experiences throughout the business.
We can do better. Much better. But first, we need to stop seeing ourselves as crafters of clever brand messages and become creators of positive brand experiences.
word_of_mouth
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More reading on marketing strategy from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Pinterest Marketing … Rich Pin Tips for Discovery Shopping
Improve Success with Small Business Tagline Designs
How to Get Small Business Press Coverage
 
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.