Internet Marketing & Social Media Connections

Are You Missing Out On the Benefits of Trends?

Hey! Fabulous to see you back =) if you haven't already, subscribe to the RSS feed so that you don't miss a beat & sign up on the right to the Exclusive Members List & get your free Visibility Strategy & Enchanting Forest for Marketers report so you can find your money sites among other goodies!

For a long time now we’ve heard people say “Twitter’s a trend”, “Social Media Marketing is a trend”, etc. Let’s say for a moment that something is a trend - the real question is are you reaping the benefits of these trends while they are around?  Or are you letting everyone else reap the benefits, and the profits, instead?

If you stay on top of the trends, you will consistently reap the benefits; if you don’t, you won’t.  Marketing has always been about trends, and it remains the same today, online.

Being ahead of the curve allows you to maintain visibilty and not be hidden by everyone else who is riding the wave.

And let’s say you are actively utilizing social media and utilizing networks like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn; are you benefiting from the trends within?

Within these networks are trends, new resources, new potential - are you reaping the benefits or are you missing out because you don’t keep up with these trends and juice them when they’re the juiciest.

Yes, things change rapidly online and in social media; things literally change everyday, and because it’s so, are you missing out?

Can you spot a trend when it appears?  Is your ear to the ground so that you know when something is going to make some big waves…or even some little ones that are still worth riding? Are you able to think outside of the box to see the benefits of these trends when they happen instead of seeing just another ‘new feature/tool’?

In today’s web era, these are 3 extremely important questions.  Actually, in marketing, they’ve always been important questions but today, where millions have access to market their services online, are you a front-runner or are you at the back of the pack trying to keep the dust out of your eyes?

Let’s look at a new addition to Twitter - Twitter Lists.  I talked about Twitter Lists several days ago.  In that article, I was very excited and rattled off some of the benefits I saw in these lists (and I can think of more).  I’ve been watching some of the chatter on Twitter about these lists and the feelings about these lists are starting to change; and more and more lists are popping up.

Some people went from thinking ‘whatever’, to ‘oh, I like this’.  The benefit gained from them will vary from person to person, there are often variables that will determine the type of use or benefit one person can gain vs. another but as I thought more about the lists and their various benefits and uses, I wondered about their longevity.  Will they be something that people continue to utilize, grow, refer to, etc. for a long time to come or will they be forgotten about in the near future?

So what’s the answer?  It doesn’t matter.

Why?  Because, regardless of if it’s a short-lived ‘trend’ or a long-term resource, if you utilize it now, while it’s hot, you can still reap the benefits until it’s time to move on to the next ‘trend’ (again I am referring more to trends within social networks more than anything right now but this can be applied to social media in general as well).

Again, I pose these 3 questions:

1. Can you spot a trend when it appears?
2. Is your ear to the ground so that you know when something is going to make some big waves…or even some little ones that are still worth riding?
3. Are you able to think outside of the box to see the benefits of these trends when they happen instead of seeing just another ‘new feature/tool’?

It’s a full-time job to stay in the loop of the fast-paced web and social media.  If it’s not your full-time job, you may not be able to give a strong ‘yes’ to all, or any, of these.

If you can’t give a strong ‘yes’ to at least 2 out of 3 of these questions, you need to find a way to stay connected.  There is a reason that people who are successful online (no matter the type of business or service) are successful - and it’s not because they fell behind the changes and missed the trends.

Hiring someone is a good idea.  There are reasons people do this as a “full-time” job, because again, it takes that to stay on top of the changes (definitely make sure they are genuine and experienced).

But other ways you can at least stay reasonably in the loop are:

• Sign up to a blog reader (like Google reader) and subscribe to good blogs on these topics. READ THEM! Don’t just sign up and never come back to it.  Carve some time into your day to scan over them; you don’t have to read each one in full if it doesn’t catch your interest or appear directly on target for the info you seek.

• Follow some good resources in these areas on Twitter and check in on their updates at least once every day or two and scan what they’re talking about.

• Utilize the new Twitter lists and follow lists that cover these topics so that you can scan the lists every day or two and see what’s being discussed.

• Don’t just say, “I’ll come back to it later” because you probably won’t and by the time it crosses your mind again, you will have missed out on something that could have been of some benefit to your business.  Ride the trends.

• TAKE ACTION! This is the most important step! Without ACTION, there is NO satisfACTION!

The more of an effort you put in, the more benefit you will see but you have to keep your eyes open.  There are opportunities everywhere but you have to seize them and consistently develop and improvise your strategies.

Are you missing out? Why do you think you are, or do you still believe social media and social networking ‘doesn’t work’? Are you benefiting from the trends?

Social Media Maniac,
@areaK

Tweet This Post

Related posts:

1. The Impact of New “Twitter Lists”
2. Twitter Marketing - Using Lists to Find Your Targeted Audience
3. How Social Media Continues to Change the SEO Game
4. Google Social Search - Social Media Stocks Rise