This week I brought my daughter to have her wisdom teeth removed. Before leaving she looked up all of the information on the procedure posted on the Internet. By the time she was done, she might have gotten a few credits for dental school. And by the time we got in the car to leave for the surgeon, she was in pieces because she knew exactly how and what type of instrument was going to remove the teeth and that she would possibly vomit because 30% of the patients do. Shall I just say that thanks to TMI, we had to practice deep, cleansing breaths on the way.
It’s nearly the same story when my friend gets an ailment; from a dizzy spell to a bump on the skin, she visits WEBMD to look up her symptoms and has herself diagnosed with some form of terminal illness two out of the three times she looks. Their tagline is “Better Information. Better Health.” It should be “Too much information (TMI) is unhealthy.”
So I ask you, when is all this information just TMI? Online communities are abuzz with discussions, polls, blogs, etc. At no time in history has marketing ever had this much expert knowledge at their fingertips. Particularly social media marketing How-To articles.
I skim through the daily treasures from Ragan Communications, Social Media Examiner, PR 2.0, and Social Media B2B and I’ve decided to compile five of the best articles that have actually given me useful information:
1. How LinkedIn is Helping Businesses Grow
LinkedIn is becoming a strong tool for event marketing in that it obtains invites from people through networking and uses their networks to further the reach of the invites. Here’s a great video–you have to watch Lewis Howes, author of Linked Working, who explains the how-to at the beginning.
2. 10 Best Facebook Apps You’ll Actually Find Useful
Good for business users. My favorite is Feedburner, which you can use to feed your blog to your Facebook site.
3. Why Facebook Should Not Replace Your Website
I get asked once a week why someone needs their website when they have Facebook. Jason Matthew Murphy so eloquently puts it in this article–a short read, but valuable to show any proponents of ditching the website for this ever evolving platform.
4. 10 Quick and Easy B2B Blog Post Ideas for a Thursday Afternoon
What can I say, these 10 ideas will jumpstart any writer’s block when writing your blog. I especially like #8, “List Your Favorite Industry Publications and Websites,” you can see I’m doing that here!
5. PR Pros: Ban These Terms From Your Writing
Words that make your writing sound cliche–another favorite of mine from Ragan Communications. I have to confess that I use 1, 5, 8 and 9 too much–how about you? Post a comment and let me know your top used word from the list.