How to Spot a Trend

Trend spotting in the world of internet marketing is as important as it is in any other aspect of marketing. You have to figure out what people are interested in before everyone else does and you have to jump on it before everyone and their brother is doing it.

In order to spot an upcoming trend you have to set some personal criteria. Some trends are here today, gone tomorrow while others will be around for some time to come. It would be a waste of time and resources for any one person to try and capitalize on every emerging trend, but by being selective we can weed out the ones that will become the most profitable, the most interesting, or help us achieve whatever kind for fulfillment we're looking for.

The most important criteria for scouting trends is diversity. It's easy to develop tunnel vision when you're only exposed to one form of media, so it's important to branch out as much as possible. Reading pop-culture themed magazines day in and day out will only expose you to a limited number of emerging trends and will not help to determine their potential longevity, and trust me there is more of interest today than Paris Hilton.

Instead, try diversifying the number of news outlets available to you. I personally receive several online newsletters, listen to the radio, watch television, subscribe to multiple blog feeds and receive a variety of periodicals in the mail. I spend several hours each day perusing my sources to get an in-depth feel for the world around me and am consciously aware of new ideas in everyday conversation. When I see or hear three or four references to an emerging technology, fad, or concept, I start monitoring it as a possible emerging trend. If those references are spread across several different media outlets I know I'm on to something.

Some of the most useful tools I've found in trend-spotting are internet tools freely available online. Here are a few of my favorites:

Digg.com, Furl.net, del.icio.us, slashdot and other social networking sites. Although they can contain an inherent bias from their operators, these sites show you in real time what large groups of otherwise unrelated people are interested in. The Digg.com feed has its own section on my personal homepage just for that reason.

Other tools I have found useful for trend-spotting include Google's trend search, Yahoo! Buzz, Ask IQ, and the MSN Search Insider (which may now be defunct). These sites are administered by popular search engines and can give you a 30,000 foot view of what the public is interested in. Of particular note as well is my favorite blog searchengine, Icerocket.com. Plugging a search term into this query will bring you results limited to blog feeds, which in itself makes an effective social networking resource.

An example of trend spotting in action

Several months ago I saw an upsurge in the interest in alternative fuels on Digg.com. This coincided with a dramatic rise in gas prices that led to several discussions related to alternative fuels on local talk radio programs. This also coincided with an episode of MythBusters where a diesel car was run on vegetable oil. Putting all this together, I decided to capitalize on what I believe is an emerging trend with a high potential for longevity and started a blog focused on one specific emerging niche within the alternative fuels sphere of interest. By spotting this trend early I'm hoping to develop one of the first comprehensive websites devoted to the use of alternative fuels in day to day life.

Whatever your interest, spotting an emerging trend can be a highly effective marketing tool and can massively increase the results of your effort. It allows you the opportunity to take full advantage of public interest and to establish personal presence and authority on the topic.