My ever-evolving Expert Tracker is a powerful tool for simplifying complex tasks, such as improving access to curated lists of influencers. Here’s another example of how mind mapping with Mindjet MindManager can help you fully organize, assess, and expand large amounts of detailed data while still providing visibility into details and prompt access to the information you’re after.
Last week, Silicon Valley’s Witty Parrot published a SlideShare presentation and blog post listing 2015’s Top 100 Content Marketers to Follow on Twitter. It was the latest in their frequently updated resource compilations of the top performers in various categories, such as human resources and social media.
Since the list contained many content marketers I wanted to learn more about, (and because I was included on the list — see Slide 83!), I used my Expert Tracker mind map to create a mind map of the curation — which you’re invited to view or download.
Dashboards Offer Endless Possibilities
The Mindjet mind map version of Witty Parrot’s curation offers endless possibilities for leveraging information into benefits. Here are the Top 10 ways I’m benefiting from my mind map of 2015’s top content marketers on Twitter:
- Easy way to follow each content marketing expert. Instead of wasting time searching for each individual’s name on Twitter, I can go directly to their Twitter profile with one click and see whether or not I’m following them. If I’m not, I can easily fix that.
- Creating a Top Content Marketing Influencers List. While I’m on an influencer’s profile, I can click the “gear” icon and select from lists I’ve already created. This saves me a lot of time, as I can easily review the influencer’s latest posts, rather than trying to locate their posts in the tsunami that is my fast-moving Twitter feed.
- Add their photographs. Mind maps make it easy to add a photograph to each content marketer’s profile. This builds familiarity, which will pay big dividends at future Content Marketing World events, as it will be easier to recognize fellow content marketers in the hallways and after-hours social events.
- Direct access to key online websites. While on an expert’s profile page, I can add a link to each individual’s primary website. Creating a direct link from their name to their site saves time when monitoring their latest blog posts and online offerings.
- Using notes for profile information. I can create a custom profile listing the titles and URLs of their books and key accomplishments. MindManager makes it easy to review the key information associated with each influencer by displaying it online when I move the mouse over the Notes icon. Many of the content marketers listed on the Witty Parrot compilation have separate blog sites for each of their books or recurring events.
- Add subtopics for social media key information. Because MindManager makes it easy to collapse and expand the subtopics associated with each individual, I can add — and easily access — links to the individual’s other social media links, i.e., Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, SlideShare, or YouTube.
- Links to portal pages. Using subtopics, I can add links to their portal pages on additional blogs where they frequently post, such as the Content Marketing Institute, Entrepreneur, Fast Company, Forbes, Hubspot, Inc., the Huffington Post, or Marketing Profs.
- Direct links to pillar content. Even though most content marketing experts have written hundreds of blog posts and articles, usually they have summarized their core beliefs in a few key pieces. You can enhance your mind map by creating “best of” links to their most significant articles and blogs. This is especially important because their key writing on different topics may have appeared in different locations. Note: you can use MindManager’s Insert, Date and Time feature to help you see at a glance when an article or blog post appeared.
- Ranking 2015’s Top Content Marketing. Chances are, as you familiarize yourself with the various content marketers and their ideas, some will be more relevant to you than others. This is actually a necessity, because 100 experts represents a lot of individuals to keep track of on a regular basis! By adding Mindjet’s Priority icons, you and easily subdivide the list of 100 into categories of relevance, i.e., the 10 Top Experts you want to follow every day, the 20 Experts You want to Review every week, the Top 40 experts you want to review every month. This will permit you to revisit just the experts you have time for at different intervals.
- Categorizing the experts. In order to focus your attention on the most relevant content marketers to your career or self-improvement learning, you can subdivide your list into categories using tags. The list of 2015’s top content marketers contains experts in many fields, including analytics, copywriting, graphic design, information design, landing pages, search engine optimization, traffic conversion, and more. After adding categories, you can use MindManager’s powerful Filter command to display 2015’s Top 100 Content Marketers to Follow on Twitter by their areas of specialization and influence.
Suggestions and Tips
It’s important to remember that you don’t have to be a current MindManager user to benefit from the Witty Parrot’s list of 2015’s Top Content Marketers to Follow on Twitter. You can explore the map on Maps for That and click the link associated with each name to directly access each individual’s Twitter Profile. This eliminates the need to copy and paste the link, or search for the experts you’re interested in on Twitter.
If you are a MindManager user, you can download the template and enhance the existing information. As described in previous Mindjet Dashboard posts discussing the Expert Tracker mind map, which contains names of individuals, always enter the names individuals in the proper order; last-name, then first-name. This allows you to Sort your mind map and easily locate desired experts.
In order to make large maps easier to manage, I recommend you create 4 subtopics to organize the map into four alphabetical divisions; last names ending with A-F, G-M, N-S, and T-Z.
- When entering names, first select the appropriate subtopic.
- However, after copying/ pasting or importing lists, you can drag the names to the appropriate subtopic.
Creating Your Mind Map is Just the Beginning
As you can see from the Endless Possibilities above, creating your mind map — or downloading and customizing my mind map template of 2015’s Top Content Marketers to Follow on Twitter — sets the stage for greater learning and productivity.
View the map as an opportunity to exercise your creativity. Always look for ways to link your maps to a Dashboard, or other maps. Look for underutilized MindManager commands and features that you can use to build on and leverage the information of your existing maps.
Downloading and customizing the template is the first step in better managing your time and committing to a disciplined approach to learning from today’s top experts. More importantly, it’s also a crucial tool to use when exploring ways to create personal relationships with the top influencers in your field.
You might consider integrating the Witty Parrot’s curated list with your existing lists of content marketers and influencers in your field.
If your experience is anything like mine, once you commit to a disciplined approach to managing your influencers, you’ll find more and more ways to use MindManager to be your top learning and research tool.
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How do you manage your experts?
How do you keep track of your influencer’s last thinking and writing? Do you use Twitter lists, or do you have another way to manage and access the relevant information of the influencers in your field? Would this help you do a better job of seeing your influencers at a glance? Do you have additional suggestions for ways to enhance the latest version of my Expert Tracker? Share them in the comments section, below.