Staying informed
In this section you will learn how to keep up to date with your industry.
Most people work in changing competitive environemnts; this is why it’s important to stay on top of industry news and trends – you’ll not only build your expertise, but you’ll make better decisions, and you’ll be better placed to identify and exploit opportunities (as well as spoting threats early on).
Sources of Information
Find a Mentor
Not only can mentors help you solve career issues and develop your career, they can provide you with a wealth of knowledge.
Trade Organizations
Your industry may have one or more trade organizations that you can join. These are useful, because they can help to keep you informed with their newsletters and publications, and they provide networking opportunities with meetings and conferences.
Trade Shows and Conferences
Trade shows and conferences are great for learning about competitors, new products, and industry trends; and they can provide ample networking opportunities.
Face-to-Face Networking
You have a wide pool of people you can network with. People directly related to your industry are an obvious choice, but so are industry suppliers, customers, and people working in related fields.
Blogs
Many bloggers are respected for their high quality work and honest opinion. Do a web search for keywords that are commonly used in your industry. Once you’ve found several you like, you can sign up to receive posts through RSS, or subscribe to the bloggers’ Twitter profiles for regular updates (see below).
You can also find top blogs by using Technorati, a well-respected blog ranking service. With it, blogs are ranked by their authority, which is determined by how many other sites link to them. Rankings go from 1-100: the higher the blog is ranked, the more reputable it is.
Use it to find people in your industry who are in-the-know, by searching Twitter for relevant keywords. (You may get more out of Twitter if you start a dialogue with those who you’re following.)
Using LinkedIn is a great way to connect with colleagues, trade groups, and industry leaders. You can join industry-specific groups, and get the latest updates from individuals and organizations.
Google Alerts
The Google Alerts service notifies you when resources featuring certain words are indexed by Google’s search engine.
The advantage to using Google Alerts is that you no longer have to surf the web looking for industry news. However, you might find that you simply get too much information this way – if this happens, tweak your settings or use a longer keyword-string. Also, be aware that not every new resource will be indexed by Google – this is especially true for subscription-only content.
Forums
Membership sites and discussion forums can be full of insider-information tailored around specific topics or industries; and talking with other professionals in your industry can help you network.
If you’re unsure of which forums to use, ask colleagues, have a browse online, or ask your Twitter or LinkedIn connections for recommendations.
Tip:
You may find that the most useful forums are on community websites, and you may need to pay a subscription to access these.
Making Time
Once you’ve identified the best sources to use, you need to schedule time to get the most from them. This can be challenging, especially if your day is already filled to the brim with regular commitments. But it’s important to create time in your day to devote to staying current, where you need to do this for your job.
First, schedule time daily or weekly to devote to reading and networking. Staying up-to-date requires a regular commitment if it’s to pay off, so work time into your schedule whenever you can. Some good times might be over your lunch break, or during a « low-energy » period of the day.
You can also stay up-to-date using « open time » outside of work. For instance, if you commute to work, you could listen to podcasts or audio books while you’re driving. If you take a train or bus, you could read blog posts or industry magazines during your ride. You could even listen to podcasts or audio books while you’re at the gym.