This newsletter brought to you a day late. Yesterday I was watching Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky, Regan Smith, and Suni Lee win medals, and yes, it was worth it. And hey! SERPs during the Olympics have been fantastic (all the normal bad-thing caveats about Google still apply). I had a hell of a time clicking the bouquet button yesterday:

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August events

I'm the featured guest at two separate events on the horizon: A virtual meetup where we'll be talking about structured content and knowledge graphs and an in-person workshop here in the Twin Cities where I'll be covering content measurement:

  • August 14 - 6PM Pacific time - Virtual meetup and Q&A - Content Strategy Seattle - Free!

    Tackling the knowledge graph: How to structure content for an AI world
    For a moment, forget the new content that AI is generating. How are the machines reading — and regurgitating — what you’ve already written? Search powered by artificial intelligence is coming for our content, from the biggest search engines to the smallest intranets. What can content strategists do to prepare?
Join the August 14 Virtual Event
  • August 22 – 8:30 AM in-person workshop presented in partnership with the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association at Br8kthru Consulting in Minneapolis. Breakfast tacos will be served (!!!), and brand lift will be measured.

    Organic content performance for word people: How to use content analytics for editorial decision-making
    In this workshop, we’ll cover how to measure the true business performance of content. We’ll explore what content metrics mean, how to create workable benchmarks, and how to use what you’ve learned from content analytics to inform future planning.
Join the August 22 MPLS workshop

Like many of us, I read an exceptional amount of content that I love... and then lose sight of immediately in the swarm of my digital day. These days, social media algorithms disappear content almost instantly after I've glanced at it, pushing me to the next high-engagement post every time I scroll or reload. To mitigate feed media's insistence on immediate forced obsolescence, I subscribe to a ridiculous amount of newsletters and bookmark as much as I can.

Here are my regular influences, the ones I constantly like, follow, and subscribe to — the ones I'm deeply indebted to for creating brilliant content for readers, linking me to their amazing networks, and generally laying the foundation for The Content Technologist's deep focus on complex content strategy.

Most categories are presented in alphabetical order. I know I have missed some. Best-of lists always miss some obvious choices. If I missed your newsletter or your favorite influencer, please reply! I promise I will add their link to the forever blogroll that's going to stem from this post.

And the next time you hear someone say "the internet sucks now," please point them thisaway. The internet is still filled with brilliant minds and original thinkers.

Finally, I do not use individual click tracking because that's too much surveillance, but I have added UTM tags... so visit these websites and newsletters! Like, subscribe, and tell them who sent you.

Thank you for reading, sharing, and supporting.

Agency and organizational collaborators, idols, colleagues, and friends who create stellar content and make the internet a better place

Other agencies whose content deserves an honorable mention

Rolodex of content brilliance: Individual influencers, friends, collaborators, and colleagues 

Unmissable newsletters for content professionals: The greater content, creativity, and user experience universe

Tech commentary, culture, and reporting

Artificial intelligence

Media industry news, resources and critique

Business, leadership, and entrepreneurship

Professional communities

Book publishing (old habits die hard)

B2B newsletters from other industries

Newsletter OGs

Activism in data and tech

Independent Minnesota media

Damn good newsletters, websites, and curiosities

Cult classics

Religiously read, never-miss-an-issue newsletters

The Content Technologist is a newsletter and consultancy based in Minneapolis, working with clients and collaborators around the world. The entire newsletter is written and edited by Deborah Carver, independent content strategy consultant, speaker, and educator.

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Cultural recommendations / personal social: Spotify | Instagram | Letterboxd | PI.FYI

Did you read? is the assorted content at the very bottom of the email. Cultural recommendations, off-kilter thoughts, and quotes from foundational works of media theory we first read in college—all fair game for this section.

On repeat for the past two weeks: "Dog Days" by Dehd.

If you know which bar this is, give a shout. Maybe I have been there? It certainly feels like somewhere I would have visited in my 20s.

The video for this summertime DGAF bop is a one-shot depiction of a debauched night at a Chicago dive bar in picture-perfect detail, right down to the Malort neon sign. Fun times all around.