Russell Davies’ book Notice, Collect, Share starts off with some great instruction: To get better at the act of sense-making, you need to practice three things:
1.) Noticing what is interesting or useful in the world.
2.) Collecting the things that you’ve noticed.
3.) Sharing the most interesting of the things you collect in a way that helps you and other people understand it.
For years, BlogCampaigning was the tool I used for collecting and sharing. Because I had that tool - and the discipline to use it regularly - I was also in the habit of noticing.
The practice of all three has fallen out of habit for me. Being busy is my excuse, but it’s a poor one.
And in the spirit of getting back into it the work of Noticing, Collecting, and Sharing I’m going to get back to blogging. Or maybe even “newslettering.”
It feels like newsletters are filling that space that blogs did back in the day: A place for us to share our thoughts and research with the world on a channel that we mostly own and control with our readers and subscribers. A channel that isn’t subject to the same control or algorithms as posting on a social network.
Below are 5 newsletters that are quickly becoming replacements for blogs, and must-reads in my inbox:
Strat Scraps by Alex Morris - is the newsletter I wish I’d written. It’s thoughtful and cool and esoteric and meandering and edgy and artsy.
Aisha’s Saves by Aisha Hakim - A visual feast of inspiration. Admittedly, I’ve only just started subscribing to this, but that’s because Aisha just launched it a few weeks ago. She’s behind the incredible Art of Deck Making
Humour & Brands by Paddy Gilmore - I’ve really enjoyed getting to know Paddy Gilmore over the past few year or so, and have enjoyed his “Humour & Brands” news letter just as much. As Richard Shotton reminds us in Media Cat magazine, humour is a powerful tool to use in communications.
Playing To Win by Roger Martin - Really in-depth articles about different nuances of actual, real, capital-S “Strategy” vs the ‘strategy’ of planning out marketing.
Marketing Truths by Will Green - Punchy, short and really useful. Just like the copy that Will talks about.