If you try to keep up with the Internet and social media marketing industry throughout the week, you already know that there is too much information for people to ingest let alone digest (that is unless you don’t have a job or a family or hobbies or a life in general). People like to talk about signal to noise ratios which sounds really cool but if you would like to hear it in layman’s terms I’ll spell it out for you. Most of what passes as news these days is C-R-A-P. I should know, I add to it as the managing editor of Marketing Pilgrim. I try not to, but every day I get caught up in passing things along to my readers that are really a distraction and don’t do anything to help them understand Internet and social media marketing better or, even more importantly, apply it to their business. Guilty as charged but I am trying to make it better.
So maybe that’s why I am “telling on myself” to a degree. Maybe now I might stop it because this week has several prime examples of things that people (you know “important” ones) consider “news.” Truth be told, they really aren’t for those who have work to do (meaning you are not an analyst or investor etc etc). They may seem interesting but they literally mean nothing. I will review the Top 3 and tell you what the “news” was but then tell you what you really should be paying attention to
1. Yahoo’s CEO lied on his resume – I’m not saying ignore it but there is nothing to see here folks even if he is let go. It doesn’t concern the day to day of Internet marketing.
What you should be looking at – With regard to Yahoo you should be looking at their new SMB marketing dashboard. You should be deciding whether an investment in paid search still makes sense with Yahoo’s fading search presence. You should be looking at how your business may work with Yahoo and its still ridiculously large traffic numbers.
As for the C-suite shenanigans. They may impact overall direction of the company but not today or tomorrow or in the next 30 days. You know why? Betty in Omaha who wants to buy your product has no clue (and could care less) about these things. She is using Yahoo to get something done so if you want to reach her Yahoo, in her mind, is the same one she has always used regardless of whether their CEO pads his resume or not.
2. Facebook’s IPO – News flash! Facebook is going public! Mark Zuckerberg wears a hoodie on the investor road show! He’s too immature to be the CEO!
What you should be looking at – Facebook is rolling out Offers to smaller businesses. They have improved their Insight metrics in recent weeks. The cost of Facebook ads are going up.
Face it. Most of you reading this are not going to be in on the IPO for Facebook. If you buy you will likely buy later when it’s overpriced and you’ll be left holding the bag. Or maybe the stock will go up, up, up and you be a thousandaire. So what? Facebook’s value is not your concern. it’s only value to you is how you can use it to get to your market. End of story.
3. AOL is “rumored” to have Engadget and TechCrunch for sale – Really? You should care about this?
What you should know – Read these blogs and if they help you then great, and if they don’t then move on. There is nothing to see here folks. (Unless, of course, you are the handful of people who will make some serious cash in a sale of either one but you aren’t, so who cares?)
Every week there are diversions that are similar in nature to these three. And these are just 3 of literally hundreds of completely useless posts, articles, white papers, research and more that steal your precious time from your work, your family and your play.
Don’t feed this pig. Don’t read the stories. On that note, if I put one up on Marketing Pilgrim call me out in the comments. I’m a big boy, I can take.
So please don’t add to the crap out there by letting it suck the purpose out of your day. Unless there is something that impacts you directly, don’t “dig deeper to learn more.” Look at the headline and say “That’s nice, but it doesn’t impact my business” and move along your merry way to doing something of real value for yourself.
Have a nice, productive day!
