Keeping Up With Trends: Coffee Break Episode 21

Sean: No wordy podcast intro. Today I want to talk about how we keep up with trends and professional development. That's it. Everyone knows they should do it. That's important. However, I feel like it's something that's easy to forget about and if you're doing, it's easy to let it slip, especially the longer you work or the busier you get. So we'll get into that. But first, this episode of Almost Productive Copyright is brought to you by a caper brothers and founders Devin and Bryce Thimbleton who realize the obvious that the paperclip industry is fundamentally broken. The paperclip as we know today started in the 1890s, well before the Internet was invented. Made with high grade aluminum carbon alloy, 100% assembled in the USA and sporting a lifetime guarantee, you can own the initial foundation series set of five clips for only $50. And don't forget to download the Caperclip app to register and activate your clips as well as unlock extra Savings. Visit Caperplip IO today. Welcome to an almost productive coffee break. The same bold flavor of our original podcast brew in a single shot. Perfect for those times when you need a quick marketing pick me up. I'm, um, Sean.

Julie: I'm Julie.

Addie: And I'm Addie.

Sean: And we are all marketing professionals at New Boston Creative Group in Manhattan, Kansas. Today I want to talk about how we keep up with trends and professional development specific to obviously the marketing industry, which probably m. I don't know more so than most. But as far as like it goes in industries, I think keeping up to date in marketing, advertising is very important. There's a lot of changing fads, trends, technology. The. The good news is that if you're just sort of paying attention day to day, you're consuming media, you're on social media, you're watching tv. Just being out in the world, you're going to be exposed to a lot of current marketing and advertising. So without having to seek it out, you can sort of already ingest what's going on. But obviously you're going to need to dive further down for specific audiences, different mediums. So my question first for you guys is what is your process for staying up to date on things? Is it something that you do daily, quarterly, yearly?

Addie: I would say on a broad level, following brands that you think have a good marketing strategy is a good place to start. So that can be interesting. Especially ones that are very on top of trends or breaking news and make an effort to integrate that into their strategy. That's more day to day, like organic Posting, um, but that can be a good place to get inspiration and then more consistently. Julie and I both subscribe to a slew of email newsletters. So if you find a reputable source that you enjoy, that's a good one, that'll hit your inbox. However, you know, weekly, monthly, et cetera. And then this is more boring but I would say like the Google Suite, we use Google Analytics and Google Ads and the Google Suite. So they sometimes update their videos on kind of the latest and greatest and how you can improve your efforts. And their videos sometimes are not super great or informative or easy to follow, but sometimes you strike gold and can learn some cool stuff.

Julie: They also have certifications that expire and so every year. I actually just recertified recently on my Google Analytics certification. Even though it's something that I use often, that little credential is a uh, built in mechanism that they have.

Sean: Is there anything else that you do routinely Julie, like daily to, to keep up or is it the same as as Addie?

Julie: Um, well, Addie mentioned newsletters and I definitely, I subscribe to probably too many. Sometimes I ignore them. But like I have a go to whom I love for content marketing, one for analytics, um, one for using AI and marketing. There's another for AI in general. Uh, I got a guy for email. I got a guy for writing. I got. You need a newsletter. I got your newsletter. It's over here. I read them maybe not every day, but a couple times a week. I'll kind of catch up on what's come in.

Sean: Yeah, I think it's similar for me and it sort of cycles where I'll get really excited and sign up for a bunch of things and then you start getting the emails and you realize that's too many things and then you unsubscribe from a few. Yeah, I think it's very helpful because as I mentioned I think it's hard to force yourself to keep up. Like you have to actively, you know, go searching this stuff out for the most part. So if you can sign up for an email newsletter that's going to get forced sent to you on a monthly basis, great. That sort of hit your inbox and sort of forces you to read it. And so yeah, I have one specific to website stuff. That thing is really great. Another one that I use a lot is subscribing to and uh, following people on different social media platforms who are, you know, developers or designers or what have you, AI specialists who can, they're already collating that stuff and pushing it in their feeds and I can sort of follow along. And I think that's a good way to sort of have little bits, maybe daily, depending on how often you check your, your social media.

Addie: Yeah. Because it can be hard, like you said in the intro, Sean, to prioritize this when it's not technically client work or what we're specifically getting paid to as marketers. But then the flip side of that is without the professional development, we won't be able to better help our clients on the other side. So sometimes I have to really force myself to have that perspective, to sit down and intentionally do professional development.

Sean: Right. Because I do feel like you kind of have to have it as a mindset of wanting to, to learn and improve. And it's something that when I was a student, like you just do naturally because you're like, oh, I suck. I need to get better here, let me follow all these people. Let's learn all these things. And then you get in the job and you just become consumed with doing the work. And it's easy to like, fall behind on keeping up and learning new things. We touched on a few tools and resources such as newsletters and social media. Are there any other avenues that you guys use? Are there specific podcasts or things like conferences or webinars that you try to attend?

Julie: Definitely conferences and webinars, not always the same ones. But if there's something that catches my eye or if there's a free event, uh, I love a free event. Or sometimes, you know, New Boston will have access. I shouldn't say. Nevermind. I shouldn't say that we share one login. We do not do that.

Addie: Redacted.

Julie: Right.

Sean: We. We pay a, uh, fair price for all of our access.

Julie: Correct?

Addie: Yes. Yeah, that's really all I can think of.

Julie: The.

Addie: Well, I guess. Sorry, that's not true. If there's specific platforms that you're using, like Canva for instance, we use. Fairly often they have platform specific tutorials that you can try. So if there's. Yeah. Whether that's Canva or others, they usually within the tool have stuff for you.

Julie: Yeah. And sometimes their like big rollouts are m. Informative, sometimes it's self celebratory and it's kind of boring. But the most recent Canva one, they introduced a lot of new features. So watching that, it's like, okay, wow, cool. Here are new and different things we can do with that.

Sean: Yeah. And I think it's gotten easier for the webinar conference area because everything is digitized now. So it used to Be you had to fly to Boston to, you know, be there three days to catch whatever sessions you want it. But now everything is going to be online after the fact. So even though you may have to pay still a steep price, you get more time and more access to all these resources is really great. I know one of the web ones that I really enjoy, they do an annual conference and I know like they're going to eventually post all of that on YouTube for free, which is really great. You just have to wait long enough. But then, you know, use a catalog of 30 YouTube videos that I can sort through. Um, which is really great to keep up with stuff. Julie mentioned getting some of the credentials. Have either of you, um, done any online courses or micro credentials for keeping up with things?

Julie: I did one through Kansas State University for Business analytics and got a micro credential through that. And that was interesting because at the time it was coding, which I do not do in my job, it was coding for data analysis. But with, um, AI becoming more ubiquitous, I was like, oh wait, I can use what I learned and not have to actually do the code, but know what to tell AI and AI can write the Pandas code and I can get to what I want. Now. Fingers crossed, AI doesn't hallucinate. But like that's a weird thing where one professional development opportunity built on another one that now I find, you know, have found a way to incorporate that in work.

Addie: Yeah, I haven't done any micro credentials. But what Julie mentioned to start the episode, the Google certifications. So Google Ad certifications and Google Analytics certification every year.

Sean: Yeah, I think it's definitely a developing area. As Julie said. She did the one at K State and I know there that's something that's going to be a big push to create more of these. So definitely something for people to keep an eye out on if they can get a credential or just take an online course that are shorter than a full four year college course that you can sort of catch up on different areas I think is really great.

Julie: And lord knows, or I should say and lan knows that they market to me because I always get these. Become a digital marketer in 10 weeks. I'm like, bruh, I've been one for 10 years.

Addie: Also I'm skeptical. 10 weeks does not feel like sound long enough Runway to be an expert. I don't know.

Sean: Yeah, there's nothing better than getting uh, an email for the job that you do. I get so many that are like asking to, you know, redo our website or if we need search engine help and it's like, that's. So we do.

Addie: That's kind of our whole thing.

Sean: It's kind of our thing. Awesome. Any other final thoughts or things about keeping up with trends or professional development?

Julie: This is nerdy, but I'll just say I really enjoy it. Like, everything is changing all the time. I mean, if you think about life five, ten years ago, things are different. And if you don't lean into and embrace change at the professional level, I think you're doing yourself a disservice. You're smart and you deserve great things. So get out there and learn what Julie said.

Sean: Yeah, it definitely can be scary. Um, especially with all the website stuff, it seems like it moves so fast and with the AI stuff that trying to keep up seems like you're, you're just losing ground. But to Julie's point, like, you know, you do, you do your best and you sort of need to if you're going to do good work and work in this space well.

Addie: And if you don't do it at all, then you'll be stuck. So trying to keep up and maybe falling short is certainly better than not trying and being completely left in the past.

Julie: And often people think of taking classes as getting a grade and maybe failing. And, uh, when you're in the professional sphere that really no longer exists, that gets taken out of the equation. There's no worry of failure. You just get to learn. And some things we're not going to learn, like what's the social media algorithm? Great question. Here are smart things that you can do on social media. That's the way around, you know, we're not going to know everything, but.

Sean: Right, right. That's a good point. Just in just being able to enjoy it is nice.

Addie: Yes. And the classroom setting, I think for a lot of people would be a great push and regimen because it is hard to prioritize this. And if you're struggling to carve out time, I think a specific class would be great because you're forced to do it. You have to. To Julie's point, you don't have to, I suppose, do anything because you have a job, but you know, it brings it to top of mind and hopefully you'll follow the schedule that they've set for you.

Sean: Thank you for listening to this episode of Almost Productive. If you'd like to learn more about what we do at New Boston Creative Group, you can reach us@newbostoncreative.com you can also follow us on social media. NewBoston Creative on Instagram and New Boston Creative Group on Facebook and LinkedIn. If you like this episode, please like follow, subscribe, leave a review and share the podcast with your friends. And if you didn't like the show, feel free to recommend us to your enemies. Tune in next time for some more more office shenanigans, thoughts on trending topics and marketing adjacent insights. Until next time, we hope you have a productive day.