When What You Know, Isn’t Accurate

We’re living in the age of Know-it-allism. And why not?  Any person with access to the internet can literally find information on any topic known to man. We are only limited by how quickly we can consume that information.

At least that’s how some people look at it.  But there’s a difference between “knowing” something and experiencing it.  That’s especially true when what is “known” is built on a lot of subjective variables and viewpoints.

Tom Nichol’s book The Death of Expertise: The Campaign against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters walks through a multitude of reasons that most people aren’t consuming reliable information. However, they take action on the information regardless of its validity. 

Digital marketers should be concerned with established knowledge for two reasons. 

The first is that we leverage the same social media and content publishing platforms that are so prevalent in assisting bad actors to disseminate unreliable information.  That means we have to keep our content compelling and accurate to credibly garner attention and build an engaged audience.

The second reason is that digital marketers need to critically review the content and best practices that they want to adopt for their marketing campaigns. There’s no shortage of people striving to establish themselves as a “thought leader” who will dole out advice just because they think it sounds right.

Speaking for myself, I must see dozens of affiliate or link-building “experts” on YouTube every day.  Each one claims to have the secret sauce to help me get rich . . . and quick.  For all I know, one of them might have a fool proof plan.  But I also know I’d have to wade through ninety-nine frauds before I found something legitimate.  And the legitimate one still might not work for me because of timing or my personal style.

Best practices always need to be reviewed for individual suitability. What doesn’t work well for one company or industry, might be a valuable strategy in another.  Think critically as you consume digital marketing ideas and participate in a social or online platforms that can set ignorance and inspiration on equal ground. It can be difficult to challenge our own digital marketing biases without having ill-advised outside influences guide us toward ineffective ideas.