With just about everything “trending” these days, it can be difficult to spot the latest and greatest when it comes to affecting your small business. To stay ahead of the game you have to keep your eyes open – because intuition alone can only take you so far.

Since business growth is spurred by monitoring trends, you’re going to need a comprehensive plan to analyze what’s buzzing to help your business. Here are ten trend-worthy tips to help you develop yours:

1.     Track Social Media

Listen to what people are saying about your business in their tweets, Facebook posts, blogs, etc. You can uncover a variety of new insights by monitoring this digital chatter.

2.     Measure Web Citations

Check to see how many times your business is mentioned on other pages. The more citations, the more likely your business will rank high with search engines such as Google, Bing and others.

3.     Monitor

Set up Google alerts that notify you when people mention relevant business topics. This is a surefire way to stay one step ahead of the game.

4.     Engage Your Friends (and Enemies)

Exchange ideas with colleagues, including your competitors. Your rivals have a lot in common with you, and many will happily talk trends at networking or industry events.

5.     Reach Out

Establish relationships with business bloggers and journalists in your community, and stay on good terms with these valuable resources that have the pulse of the industry.

6.     Network

Get to know the people who know your business. From seminars to LinkedIn events there are countless opportunities for you glean insights from others. Joining an industry association can also be an in to finding new ideas and trends.

7.     Leverage Webinars

No time or budget for a seminar? Take advantage of free industry webinars that can be viewed around your schedule. (Maybe even put your feet up while you learn!)

8.     Read The Latest News

Keep up on your field of business by reading industry publications and newspapers. Many successful business leaders dedicate a portion of their day specifically to this.

9.     Talk To Your Customers

To know your customers is to truly know your business. Don’t be shy about talking to them on social media or in your place of work. Ask them what they think about your business and your product. Most of all, listen.

10.  Watch And Learn From Your Competitors

What are they doing? Do they have anything new to offer? Are they expanding to new markets? Know what your competition is up to so you can plan to do better.

Sometimes trends are obvious and sometimes they’re not. Although it can be difficult to predict which ones are going to take off, knowing how to find them is the first step toward finding the hot ones – and riding them to success.