Many people bought encyclopedias (yes, the door-to- door salesman) because they wanted to invest in their children’s future. Knowledge is power, etc. And one of the selling points was that they would update the information in the encyclopedia ---- yearly. That’s right, a supplement that would catch you up on the changes --- in a book.
Our current encyclopedia is Wikipedia and the search engines. Things move so fast today that almost anything in print is out of date? Some question the accuracy of Wikipedia – after all, we contribute and what do we really know? Even my spellcheck questions whether Wikipedia is a word. I personally question the timeliness of some conferences. By the time the agenda is announced, an important topic on the landscape has changed; hopefully, the folks speaking and attending know this. What is spoken of in the present - is really in the past in Internet moments.
We place so much stock in newness, in updates on the latest. We accept updates because, as a culture, we’ve become accustomed to incremental news. We’ve basically succumbed to the concept that it’s okay to give us rumor/speculation followed by a layer of facts, followed by a second layer of facts and removal of one layer of speculation – you get the picture. Often, we don’t know beyond what “they” are saying now – until much later. We do know the latest; we don’t know if it’s right, or even headed in the correct direction.
What happened to vetted time tested content? Oh, it’s still there, you just have to recognize it. Some of the long time marketers offer it. It’s not necessarily new content, but it’s dressed up in new ways. Hey, if that’s what it takes, it’s okay with me. Lately, it’s HOW we get our information that seems to count, not what the information is! That seems a bit backward. How is much less important that what.
Examples of useful content include lessons that span more than one tweet; more than one status update, more than one social media convention. It’s often a lesson shared after decades of proving its worth. It’s not, “10 things you should know… or 3 things that make… It’s good solid explanations of why things work/why they don’t, what to try, how to benefit from failure, how to focus, how to manage, and real case studies that cover a full range from the big dogs to us little guys.
I’m not a guru – just someone who believes there is a lot of noise out there that is, well -noise. Filter out that stuff, and go for the content --- real content, not slick stuff still waiting to cure under the light of real commerce.
The old encyclopedia people convinced us to spend good money for time-limited content. Important history wasn't changing that fast. It was good for its time.
Today, if someone offered to sell you information that was actually out of date by the time you bought it, would - you - pay - anything?
But now you can get all the information you want for FREE. Is it worth it? Some of it is –
But you have to pan for it, like the 49ers – sift for the nuggets and let the rest fall away.
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