It’s always a good idea to watch trends and stay up to date on what people are talking about; it’s not always necessary to incorporate every trend into your work life. Being an early adopter of a trend can help you stand out from the competition, but if it doesn’t work for your community or your team, it can be a big waste of your time and effort. How do you know if a trend is really going to pay out or if it will just be a short-lived fad?

Here are five questions to ask yourself when considering jumping on the latest technology trend.

1. Can it build my database?

Lead generation is one of your most important daily tasks, so the tools you use must be efficient and effective, not simply popular. When you’re trying to expand your lead generation and prospect awareness, technology should help you reach and engage your targets, then take the next steps toward developing those relationships — in a way that others can relate to and take seriously. You can add a filter or geofencing around your community, but make sure you take the next step to capture contact information or gain other valuable insights along the way.

2. Can it help manage my leads?

It’s not only vital to build a database of prospective renters, it’s vital to manage those leads — including converting them to tours and those tours to leases — and to calculate your cost per lease and track your marketing ROI.

A customer relationship management (CRM) system can help you organize your lead management efforts, including making immediate responses to inquiries, consolidating leads from multiple sources, personalizing your communications, automating tasks, tracking your performance and costs, and identifying where you need to make a course correction — you can even use it to keep in touch with past residents.

There are several CRM solutions available with trendy bells and whistles to make your life easier, but the best CRM for you will be the one you actually use.

3. Will it showcase my community?

The most useful technology trends combine elements of communication, entertainment and engagement that allow you to share your content with an audience, receive comments on it and track your performance. These trends don’t place any limits on where, when or to whom you share your community information and brand messages.

Snapchat is all about telling a story in the moment — after all, what are your marketing efforts but ways of telling your community’s story to attract the perfect renters? Snapchat is also a highly engaging platform, so you’ll know how well you’re bringing your audience into your life by your open rates and the responses you receive.

4. Does it fit my community’s brand personality?

In other words, will adopting this technology be a logical and seamless next step for marketing your community, or will it be a complete non sequitur that confuses your audience and dilutes your brand? For example, if you had used Facebook or Instagram to post beautiful rental photos and suddenly switched to Snapchat, will your audience follow you to the new platform or will they feel confused and left behind by your new tactic?

5. Do I see myself using it in six months?

Like fitness equipment, a trend can start out being wildly popular with an audience who imagines all the benefits they’ll get from using it, but wind up dusty and forgotten in the back corner of their consciousness. Technology trends like cloud storage or smartphone apps have longevity because you use them every day; others like Blab or Meerkat wither away from neglect or obsolescence.

Facebook started out as a trend, just like many other social media platforms, but after more than 10 years, it’s proven itself to be one of, if not the most popular social media of them all. It reached that status because it’s easy for anyone to post and respond, and it continues to add features, such as videos and live streaming, that people really want and can use every day to attract bigger audiences through engaging content.

If maintaining the technology has a cost associated with it — for example, an ongoing subscription fee — make sure you have the budget to keep it in place, the on-site resources to launch the product or feature, and the training resources to ensure your team adopts it and keeps it going if it’s effective in marketing or managing your community.

By all means, explore trends that gain popularity — you never know where the next game-changer will come from — but ask yourself if it’s a tool you can use to achieve your day-to-day goal of marketing your community. If not, enjoy it for entertainment purposes, and save your time and money for trends that help you build your brand and increase your business.

This post was originally published on September 22, 2016.