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Research Trends to Prepare for the Upswing

Three-legged Stool of ResearchIn the last two blog posts, we covered market research tools and methods for Customer Intelligence and Competitor Intelligence. Today we add a third leg to the proverbial stool by listing website resources for gathering trend information to inform business strategy.

1. What are the most popular searches on the web right now or over some past period of time? There are countless tools and methods to gather this information but if you want to capture a snapshot “pulse” of the web, here are a few suggestions.

Explore real-time hot topics and hot searches with Google tools such as Google Trends. For more advanced analysis from search data, try Google Insights which provides drill down capability by category, geography, seasonality, and properties of search.

SEOmoz has comprehensive tools for search engine optimization but for the purpose of trend monitoring, there are several free keyword tools that can help you with trend research. SEO Book and WordStream are also SEO tool providers with a variety of keyword research, competitive research and web traffic evaluation capabilities. I won’t speak to their respective strengths and weaknesses but offer these tools only as a means to monitor current trends.

2. What is the buzz on the blogs, forums, and social networks?

Blog Pulse : gives you a real-time snapshot on the hot topics being discussed in the blogosphere. In addition, a searchable archival database of topics over the past 180 days can be used to research on any topic and provide popular blog pots on the topic based upon user engagement.

Social bookmarking sites such as Digg, StumbleUpon and Delicious show popular content such as articles and blog posts submitted by and voted on by their respective web communities.

What the Trend provides information on top trending topics on Twitter as well as trends over the past 30 days. Twitter keeps a running log of the top trending topics worldwide and in selected locations. Twitter Search provides real-time hot topics and advanced search capabilities to find tweets on any topic you choose.

Biz Sugar provides social bookmarking focused on small and medium business information. As with other social bookmarking sites, content is submitted and voted upon by the community but in this case, the community consists mainly of entrepreneurs like you.

3. My personal favorite places to follow trends combine the wisdom of the crowds with analysis from professional trend analysts into a combination of real-time aggregators and analyst reports (free and fee-based) covering every conceivable social, economic, and political trend.

Trend Hunter: You could lose days in this community of over 30,000 scouts who contribute real-time trends to this site which analyzes and aggregates the data on 100’s of categories of trends. Once you find your way through the site, subscribe to the newsletter or create separate subscriptions and notifications based on your topics of interest. (I continue to recommend Exploiting Chaos as one of the best books for business inspiration I have read – please check it out!)

Trend Watching : Great free and subscription based reports with analysis of key trends from 100’s of trend watchers worldwide. I subscribe to their newsletter and find it an invaluable tool.

Poll Daddy : Not only does Poll Daddy offer widgets you can embed in your website or Facebook page to poll customers but the company provides an amazing searchable database of millions of active and archived polls and their results.

Trendpedia : Check out popular current topics from the blogosphere, along with top trends from the past week and month. In addition, compare the relative buzz on several topics and gage interest on those topics in the blogosphere.

Following the trends provides inspiration for new product lines as well as ideas for re-positioning existing products. Many of the tools noted above have more advanced and professional versions available for a subscription fee. I suggest you begin with this list of tools and subscribe to those which provide the most insight for your strategic thinking process.

Again, this is simply a short list of web-based resources I utilize. What are you using to keep abreast of the social, economic, and political trends?

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Ignoring the Trends?

This is the second entry of our series Mistakes Small Businesses Make Preventing Web Profitability.

As fate would have it, I came across a terrific blog post this morning by Gerd Leonhard of Media Futurist describing the 8 Key Trends he sees regarding the future of new media. As I describe in my upcoming webinar “They ARE Talking About You”, many small businesses are ignoring the rising trends in technology that can help them leverage their brand to new sales channels using social media tools. One of the biggest trends that should not be ignored is the significant functionality and value provided by this technology for free or for unbelievably low fees.

I think Gerd Leonhard does a great job of describing the future of ubiquitous communications and its impact on media. Small business owners would be wise to become educated about the groundswell of changes in technology and revise their business strategy to take advantage of the opportunity these trends provide for them. The winners will be those who acknowledge the trends and ask “how can I add value?” to new and existing customers within these new markets.

What do you think? Is your small business crafting a customer experience across your offline and your online sales channels that profitably leverages the use of pervasive communications and your customers need to participate with your brand?

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Are Marketers and SMB’s disconnected?

Just finished reading “Marketers and SMB’s Disconnect over Online Tactics” by Marketing Charts detailing results from study completed by Bredin Business Information. Two separate groups were interviewed in 2 separate studies: “Marketing to SMB’s in 2009” was a survey of 50 marketers in large companies such as IBM, Cisco, Comcast, Dell and other banks and technology companies who market to small and medium businesses. The second survey was for over 700 small and medium businesses to understand their marketing preferences entitled “SMB Media and Brand Preferences.” There is some great information and you can draw your own conclusions. I will be fascinated to see the results of the same studies performed a year from now.
My initial take-aways (based upon my own anecdotal evidence combined with the statistics) are that there is not so much ” disconnect” in the results as much as there is a lag in adoption between the groups simply due to resource limitations:

1. Both SMB’s and Marketers are looking for high value and low price in purchasing decisions. Not a surprise in the current economy.

2. Considering the marketers and the companies they represent, I am not surprised that they have been putting a full out effort in online advertising and marketing. They have the resources to a) understand the technological options, b) apply significant enough technical and marketing staff to create and manage social networks and technologies. Today’s SMB’s are stressed from the standpoint of resources, more so than I have ever seen. As a result of credit lines diminishing, resistance in adding to payroll and the plethora of technology options they are unable to fully understand, SMB’s are stretched thin – how many ways can you divide a small staff?. Marketers are simply making the shift to online faster than the SMB’s because they have the financial and people resources to make the shift quicker.

3. The study says “Marketers say their biggest challenges in 2009 are funding new projects (24%), growing business with limited resources (15%) and increasing awareness (15%).” These are the exact issues I hear from SMB’s every day.

4. I think the wager marketers are making to invest in online marketing while reducing off-line presence is a smart bet to make especially with constant reports validating a huge increase in adoption of social technologies across all demographic groups.

5. Old habits die hard. SMB’s are still reliant upon old methods of learning about potential suppliers. However, the growing trends towards increased online research of brands among consumers before purchase are also showing increase in SMB’s. The more marketers actually “engage” potential customers online, not just with traditional awareness programs but with education and connection programs, the more the SMB’s will become retrained to rely upon online resources.

Who will the winners be? Marketers who use their social technology presence to teach the SMB’s not only how to use their products but how to implement social web technologies to achieve strategic objectives such as leads generation, customer awareness, brand loyalty and as always, increased sales and profits. Dell and Intuit are two of my favorite companies whose marketers are using the web to educate and engage SMB’s with their social applications. As a consequence, both companies are well positioned to benefit from increasing loyalty between SMB’s and their brands.

What are your thoughts? Which large company marketers are earning your loyalty as a SMB? What is preventing you from a quicker adoption of social technologies?

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Is Social Media a Waste of Time for Small Business?

I am the first to admit that I have easily lost days of my life investigating the features and benefits of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and other social media sites. Yes, they can be time wasters for the small business owner, the last person with extra time on his or her hands. But, I think the opportunities for new and developing markets far outweighs the risk of lost time as long as you surf with purpose. Remember, if we are mesmerized with the new media (just as we previously have been with web surfing and the greatest time waster of all, the television), doesn’t that mean hordes of customers will be wasting their time there? So, if you can remain slightly detached in your interactions, just enough to look at the new mediums as potential new markets, you may unearth a new possibility for profit for your business. My suggestions are the following:

1. Become a purposeful lurker. Surf without guilt for a specific period of time. Consider it “brainstorming” time, market research. Observe who is in the social media world and what they are doing. How are other businesses using YouTube, podcasting, blogging, social networks?
2. Keep notes on whether your customers are currently using social media and consider new ways they might be interested in using it.
3. If your customers aren’t there, are there potential new markets for you? Perhaps Facebook doesn’t reflect your current demographics, but have you ever considered how you could reach out to that market?
4. Get involved in the discussion. Join some of the small business groups on Facebook, LinkedIn and Ning. Follow Twitter conversations regarding small business or your products (I use tweetchat.com to monitor certain phrases). It’s a virtual chamber of commerce out there so join the conversation.
5. Start small. Blog. Create a newsletter. Podcast. Test market. Evaluate results.

Remember social media is all about the conversation. What message do you want to communicate to your customers? How do your customers want to engage in conversation with you? Introduce yourself!

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News Fast

Starting today, I begin a “news fast”. I am over the news. All I hear is bad news! More layoffs. Markets falling. The prognosticators say this is “the worst economic crisis since the Depression.” I don’t remember the Great Depression but I have lived through a few recessions, gained and lost in the markets, and have experienced great hardship with few prospects.

Sure, I have seen decline in business. Yes, budgets are tight. But, there has never been a better time to be a small business owner. In my memory, there has yet to be a time when the cost of entry into entrepreneurship was less. Global commerce has never been more attainable for the small business. Technology enablers have chipped away at the obstacles and hurdles for entering new markets to the point where the walls have fallen almost completely. Access to labor at staggeringly low prices is accomplished at the click of a mouse. The small office/home office is poised to receive the greatest benefits of this current technological wave of innovation.

We have been through times like these before. As before, lack of capital did not lead to a shortage of great ideas. Restrictions led to ingenuity and new methods of productivity. Simplify, skimp, cut back, clean up, organize, re-focus, plan, and evaluate the ROI of old methods. If “necessity is the mother of invention”, I sense a time of great innovation is upon us.

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