Keeping yourself up to date with latest industry trends is not a choice but a necessity if you want to succeed in life. It is essential for students and working professionals alike to keep themselves informed about latest developments in the field of business and economy. Companies today are changing fast with exponential innovations in technology redefining the way they operate their businesses. There is daily something new coming up which has to be followed for upgrading knowledge. Keeping pace with latest developments in your chosen field of business ensures that you get a competitive advantage over others in the job market.
Most important aspect to succeed in present day business world is effective communication. And it goes without saying that articulation and eloquence in communication requires a broad bandwidth covering general awareness about industry, economy and emerging trends. Staying well informed can improve communication skills and lend credibility to your actions and increase chances of success at work.
Here are a few simple ways to keep yourself abreast with current industry trends that can yield good returns for you in future. To start with, devote sometime from your daily schedule each day to practice these steps so that it becomes your habit later.
Your Network is Your Net Worth:
One of the most effective ways of remaining well informed about latest trends in business and economy is to stay connected with right set of people. Building networking relationships helps to leverage shared wisdom and expands your knowledge base. It is one of the most innovative modes of learning and working together. Students and working professionals alike can participate in relevant interactive forums, on social media etc. as meeting and interacting with people leads to a lot of knowledge sharing and co-creation opportunities. This eventually helps in staying updated with current business trends and practices.
Read Relevant Content/Publications:
Reading magazines, journals, and newspapers is a time tested way to keep yourself updated with the latest trends. These publications render great source of information of all sorts. Devoting daily time for reading can drastically improve your general knowledge on current affairs. You can read magazine publications such as ‘Harvard Business Review’, ‘Smart Manager’ and ‘The Economist’ for keeping yourself updated with upcoming trends in the fields of politics, business, science and technology, arts and literature and many more such interesting areas. Today, there are certain mobile apps as well which are known for their content discovery and distribution application. Inshorts is one such app that aggregates news and other content such as videos, infographics, and blogs, and summarizes them in 60 words or less. It is a very useful tool to remain updated with latest trends and developments in various areas of general awareness.
Television as a Tool of Empowerment Via Infotainment:
The millennial generation is heavily hooked on to television these days. TV shows are gaining popularity day by day. News channels play a pivotal role to keep us updated regarding all business, political and economic development globally. Watching dedicated TV shows on business, entertainment and current affairs increases level of awareness.
Social Media:
Social media is a very powerful and popular way to remain in constant touch with happenings around the globe and in almost every sphere of life. By following specific professional groups, joining online communities and liking pages on various social media channels such as Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, YouTube, Blogger etc. one can get huge amount of information on what is trending in the field of business and economy. These sites empower individual users to build global communities by sharing user generated content on your chosen area of interest. For e.g. if you are a digital marketing aspirant or perhaps interested to learn more on exponential technologies, you can search for those groups and communities on social media and become a member. Or in case you are a budding entrepreneur and want to remain in touch with all that is happening in the world of startups, you may wish to sign up for ‘YourStory.com’ which is India’s biggest platform for startups and entrepreneurs related stories, events, news, research reports and analysis and other resources.
Following industry thought leaders on social media can provide you with quick tips, links to important articles, and new insights saving your precious time that you would like to spend searching for the good stuff on your own. You can look for your industry contributors on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Subscribing to email alerts and specific blogs is another useful way to keep track of upcoming news regarding business and market trends.