Top Bloggers Essential Research Tools - How Amy Gahran Maintains Info-Provocateur Status

Like many conversational marketing consultants, Amy Gahran wears a whole closet full of hats. Besides consulting, Gahran edits Poynter's group weblog E-Media Tidbits, and the weblogs Contentious.com and RightConversation.com. Keeping up with information to fuel all these ventures is no small task. Here's how she does it:

B.L. Ochman What are the top four or five information tools or sites you use to keep track of information about your business?

Amy Gahran:
o mail (with the GTDinbox plugin for Firefox/flock)
o iCal
o Freshbooks (for invoicing & Time tracking)
o Basecamp (for project coordination with my biz partner and clients)
o Del.icio.us
o Twitter

B.L. Ochman Do you still subscribe to email newsletters? How many?

Amy Gahran Probably only about 5 or 6 at this point -- and ONLY when it's info I absolutely need that I cannot get any other way. I vastly prefer feeds.

B.L. Ochman How many publications in your RSS reader and how often do you read the feeds?

Amy Gahran Close to 1000 feeds, but I group them according to projects I'm working on and only look at the latest stuff when I need to produce something for those projects. There are only about a dozen feeds I feel I need to stay caught up with.

I'm a great believer in serendipity -- I subscribe to enough great sources that on any given day I'll find something really cool that will meet my immediate needs. And if I miss something important, it'll bubble up through the other feeds and I'll eventually find it (or hear about it via Twitter).

B.L. Ochman Are you active in social networks? Which ones? How often? Why?

Amy Gahran Really the only ones I use with any regularity are Twitter and Linked In. Twitter I use daily, because it gives me useful and fun info and provides the sense of human connection I often miss from working home alone, but at my convenience. LinkedIn because I find sources and useful contacts that way. (Follow Gahran on Twitter)

NOTE: Gahran says, "Anything I've said in this message represents only my own personal thoughts and opinions."

Great interview - for most these types of info aggregation can be intimidating but when organized properly (especially how she effectively does it) it can be more beneficial than one can imagine. This definitely prompted some ideas on this end. Thanks for the article!