Tips for keeping up with the changing communications industry.

1. { being an
INFOVORE }

2. { An infovore* is a being that has a
voracious appetite for information. }
*I borrowed this term from Clay Shirky and Mitch Joel.

3. { You have to have an appetite for learning
to be successful in our industry. }

4. { }
why?
keep up with our constantly changing world
present yourself as intellectually curious
because it is really, really interesting

5. { }
what?
email newsletters: a few that I like
Adweek
AdAge
eMarketer Daily
Fast Company (Design, Create, Lead, Exist)
SmartBrief (4As, Social Media, Web Marketing, etc., etc.)
Social Media Examiner
Find things particular to your interests, specialties and
consumption preferences, but also sign up for subjects that you
might not otherwise read: you will be surprised by the things
you learn and the correlations you can draw to your own work.

6. { }
what?
blogs: a few that I like
AdAge
HBR
Influx Insights
Mashable
Pew Research
PSFK
Read Write Web
Six Pixels of Separation
Smart Insights
Social Media Examiner
Spin Sucks
Pull these into an RSS reader to make them easier to scroll through and
skim each day: I like Google Reader for the feeds then Reeder as an app
that syncs Reader across desktop, iPhone and iPad. Zite (iPhone/iPad) is
great, too. Both allow for easy social sharing in-app experiences.

7. { }
what?
twitter: a few that I like
Ann Handley @marketingprofs
Gini Dietrich @ginidietrich
Lee Clow’s Beard @leeclowsbeard
Len Kendall @LenKendall
Maria Popova @brainpicker
Mark McClusky @markmcc
Nielsen @NielsenWire
PSFK @PSFK
Read Write Web @RWW
Steve Rubel @steverubel
TED News @TEDNews
The Atlantic @TheAtlantic
Monitor and adjust your Twitter feed/following list constantly. If someone is
not giving you content you like, stop following them. Start following people
you find through retweets, authors of blog posts you like, speakers at
events. Don’t let you feed get clogged with those that you just skim over.

8. { }
what?
magazines: a few that I like
Fast Company
Inc.
Popular Mechanics
The Atlantic
The Economist
The New Yorker
TIME
Wired
You don’t have to read them cover-to-cover.

9. { }
what?
podcasts: a few that I like
HBR IdeaCast
Princeton University
Six Pixels of Separation
Stanford: Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders
TED Talks
In the car, on the treadmill, in your office.You do have time to listen.

10. { }
what?
other places you can pick up interesting tidbits
Google Alerts
Officemates
Newspapers: NY Times,Washington Post,WSJ
Facebook
Google+
Listen more than you talk.

11. { }
how?
keep track of what you hear and learn
Delicious: social bookmarking, allows for notes and tagging
Twitter: can set Delicious to save any link you share/retweet
Evernote: app for desktop/iPhone/iPad to save text, images, audio
Notebook and pen
Don’t fool yourself into thinking you can remember everything.Take notes.

12. { }
where?
share of what you hear and learn
Delicious
Twitter
Facebook Group: but tell us why it is good though, don't just share a link sans commentary
Blog: really dig into why you found this interesting and relevant
Sharing requires you to process your thoughts about topics and hones your voice.

13. { }
when?
on the treadmill
first thing in morning
over the lunch hour
before you go home
sitting in front of your TV
You do have time.

14. { }
tips
it is not about consuming everything
you will never be able to read everything, so
don’t stress yourself out trying
it is about finding the things that interest you
and can grow your knowledge
and make you more valuable to your company,
to your client and even to your friends

15. { thank you }
@reeves501
msadverthinker.com
ereeves@stoneward.com