Page 210 - Social Media Marketing

Becoming a Lifelong Learner 197

the investment well worth it. Some of the best sessions are the ones
that happen by chance in the lobby.

Read Industry-Related News and Reports

To stay on top of your game and ahead of the curve on late-breaking
news and reports related to your industry, subscribe to one or more
of the top industry publications and read them religiously.

In addition, read several articles a day on industry-related topics
that interest you. Instead of hunting down articles using a generic
Internet search tool, you can have news alerts delivered right to
your e-mail inbox with Google News Alerts. Go to Google News
at news.google.com, click "News Alerts" in the left navigation bar,
and set up news alerts to have Google automatically notify you
about late-breaking news on topics of interest. You need to know
what's happening in your industry as well as in your market and
the world in general.

Tip: Enter very specific search instructions, so you are not inun-
dated with articles that do not interest you. If you have a unique
name, create a news alert for your name, so if you appear in the
news, you'll know what people are writing (and reading) about
you. Also create a news alert for your company, your company's
competitors, and any clients who may be newsworthy.

I spend about an hour every morning checking and reading my
Google News Alerts stories, so I can intelligently discuss topics of
interest with my colleagues and clients.

Read a Book

Pick up a book about selling or any industry-related topic that in-
terests you and start reading. You can find plenty of great books
on the market that reveal new techniques that you may never have
discovered on your own and that can teach you new skills (like this
book, for example).