Author: Alexandra Saab Bjertnæs, Chief Strategy Officer at Meltwater
The world moves at the speed of light, and conversations online happen just as quickly. So, how can innovators in ESG keep an eye on emerging trends in order to remain competitive and positively contribute in the realm of social sustainability?
The answer lies in trendspotting – collecting market information from different sources, monitoring it, evaluating and analyzing it, while looking for insights and patterns.
My experience as a strategist working in Corporate Strategy for global companies for more than 25 years, has solidified my belief in the power of data for good. Data is essential for any strategy, and can fuel the next wave of ESG programs that will positively impact our world for the better.
So what is trendspotting?
Trendspotting is how you stay ahead of trends and identify them before they actually become clear trends.
I think of this as sorting through the noise to find the themes that are growing in momentum and will drive whatever industry you are in. There are billions of data points that companies can choose to track – M&A, job postings, social chatter, etc – to understand how the market is shifting and how companies are responding, in order to predict the trends of tomorrow.
Whether it’s your product investments, social strategy, or sustainability initiatives, trendspotting is crucial in order to know what is relevant for your business.
I see trendspotting in two parts:
Predicting a trend before it enters the mainstream
Analyzing whether or not this is a trend worth taking seriously and investing in for your business.
You don’t always need or want to be the first to jump on a trend, but you do need to use media and social intelligence to gain a deep understanding of how your consumers, influencers and media are talking about a trend.
At Meltwater, we analyze billions of data points each day across news and social media in order to understand what is driving the conversation online, using AI to pull out key themes and trends.
Our customers use Meltwater to analyze the conversation around the most important topics to them, looking at macro trends, but also drilling down into the speed, reach, geographic trajectory, and demographics through which a trend is spreading.
Analyzing the conversation around the UN SDGs in order to identify emerging trends
As part of Meltwater’s partnership with SHE Conference, we recently launched a research project of our own, looking at the online conversation around the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to identify emerging trends.
Based on the SDGs with the most growth in online mentions YoY, we pulled out key themes and conversation drivers to inform teams working in ESG on the trends picking up speed.
These included:
We are diving into these trends and the data behind them in the upcoming SHE Digital Conference on April 19, where I, Meltwater’s Global VP Zubair Timol, and Astrid Rønning Skaugseth have a fireside chat about these insights and how teams can leverage them to create innovative, timely and relevant ESG strategies. Join us then for a deeper dive and greater insights on this topic.
ESG and Corporate Sustainability are key conversation drivers that are not showing signs of slowing down, and tracking and analyzing trends should be a key part of any companies’ ESG strategy. The internet holds billions of data points ready to be turned into valuable insights – it’s about harnessing their power to make sure that companies can remain on the cutting edge of ESG initiatives and remain competitive.
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