In the stream of never-ending news how do you make sure you stay abreast with all the important news, updates and trends?  Here are some of our tips to help you follow the news that matter in the most efficient and productive way.

Sign up to newsletters that really matter to you

While keeping your inbox clean and distractions down to minimum, it is also important to have the most important news delivered to you. Some of the newsletters worth considering are:

Updates from key brands and services

1. Think with Google – A weekly newsletter with all-Google related updates
2. Facebook IQ – Facebook for Business newsletters – top tips on making the most of Facebook features. Sent once a week
3. WordPress – If you built your website with WP consider signing up to their newsletters too as they offer a wealth of information
4. Twitter  for Business – Handy tips on how to make the most of the platform
5. Mailchimp – this is by far the most popular emailing platform among small businesses and startups. They newsletters offer a wealth of information on email marketing, A/B testing, automation and more

Updates from specialist services

MARKETING, ADVERTISING & TECHNOLOGY

• The Verge – Media and marketing news
• Digiday – Media and marketing news
• Marketing Week – UK-specific, a pot of updates from the marketing and advertising world
• Mashable – All the tech and marketing updates and trends
• AdWeek – everything advertising related
• The Drum – News for the marketing and media industries, with stories
• SEM Rush – a software helping you manage everything from SEO, to PPC to social and video advertising
• Business Insider UK – Tech & marketing industry news
  • 10 Things You Need To Know – In Technology
  • 10 Things You Need To Know – In Advertising

SOCIAL MEDIA

• Falcon.io – Social media management platform that offers a wealth of information and research into the social media world
• Later (for Instagram) – Instagram management platform with a lot of Instagram-specific updates
• Social Media Week – as name suggests – it’s an event and also a social media newsroom
• Sprout Social – Social management platform

CONTENT & WEBSITE

• Wordstream – content & advertising platforms. A lot on organic and paid content.
• SUMO – a set of tools to grow website traffic and generate a healthy leads pipeline
• Unbounce – landing page software
• Copyblogger – as the name suggests – all about blogging and copywriting

SEO

• Moz.com – SEO, optimisation, link building and more – software
• Neil Patel – the SEO guru
• Yoast – weekly emails with the best SEO hacks, a lot of them are Yoast and WordPress related (which isn’t a big deal since we are on WordPress)
• Search Engine Journal – as name suggests, everything SEO related
• Clickminded – SEO training

CRM & LEAD GENERATION

• Hubspot – Inbound marketing, CRM and lead gen software – wealth of information on everything marketing-related
• Kissmetrics – Email automation and CRM software, a lot of info on generic marketing too
• Inbound.com – Inbound marketing software, also send updates with marketing related stuff

EVERYTHING ELSE

• Growth Hackers – A community of marketers, data scientists and growth hackers focusing on the best ways of growing your leads, email lists and optimising performance – sharing best practices. Next level marketing – they send weekly emails with top 10 growth hacks
• Medium – No need to explain, a bible of everything, just pick your topic
• Quora – That’s where everyone goes with their questions on about anything. Just subscribe to topics of your interest

Make a use of Google Chrome extensions

My favourite Google Chrome extension is called zest and it is plays a feed of marketing news on topics of your choice whenever you open a new window. It’s a never-ending feed though so be careful as you might spend hours reading through it!

Make your social media work for you

• Unfollow people and pages on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/other social media platforms that don’t bring value and contribute to your procrastination. Follow brands and news services that bring value into your work instead
• Create a news stream on Twitter with hashtags relevant to your interests. While on Twitter, take advantage of the lists and create a list of influencers in the industry that inspire you and share valuable content
• Follow the right people on LinkedIn and ensure your LinkedIn newsfeed is filled with interesting facts and stats

Get rid off the distractions

Unsubscribe from all the emails that aren’t important – I am talking sales and offers emails, job boards emails that you don’t check anymore, reward emails, unsolicited emails you have never subscribed to. Less is more. I used to use unroll.me which stopped working post GDPR but there are other tools to help you manage your inbox – clean.email, cleanbox.io, mailstorm.co.

Use a content/news aggregator

There is a quite a good selection of those including: Flipchart, Pocket, Nuzzel, Feedly, Buffer, Digg reader, Inoreader, Paper.li – And more!

Set up Google Alerts

This are very useful if set up properly, so if there’s a niche subject or area that interests you, create an alert and get all the news straight to your inbox.