Becoming a Tidbit “Source Spot” for Indianapolis Blog Writers

Desk #95 at the back of the U.S. Senate Chamber is where you find the candy.

When George Murphy came to the U.S. Senate in 1965, he brought along his sweet tooth, and, even after he lost his seat five years later, the “Candy Desk” kept going, maintained today by Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois.

Since I fancy myself something of a “source spot” for business blog content ideas, collecting tidbits of information like the Candy Desk story has become my stock in trade.  If we open our minds to it, I’m convinced, we Indianapolis content writers can make very good use of such on-the-surface-useless information. In fact, I have a name for the process of pinpointing these gems – tidbit mining. Two of my favorite tidbit “gold mines” are Mental Floss magazine and The Book of Totally Useless Information.

The whole idea, as I explain in corporate blogging training sessions, is to provide information most readers wouldn’t be likely to know. Tidbits help engage online readers’ interest.

A couple of really good tidbit examples from the September issue of Mental Floss magazine have to do with handwriting:

• How does the post office decipher bad penmanship? When a machine finds an illegibly addressed letter, it sends a digital image to a special plant in Salt Lake City, where 700 specially trained clerks crack the code, usually in under 3 seconds. If the process fails, the letters are christened nixies and ultimately end up in the shredder.
• The Institute of Medicine reports that 1.5 million injuries occur each year because pharmacists or hospital workers misread the handwriting on the prescription.

Who might incorporate this information into their marketing blog posts?  Well, corporate mailing handling and mail forwarding service companies, for starters. (I found no fewer than 50 million Google results by searching “mail handling services for business). Then what about someone blogging about teaching cursive in public school? Tutoring services might use this information to talk about preparing students for the world of work. And what about pharmacy schools and physicians’ assistant degree programs attempting to attract students?

Business blog content writers – never underestimate the power of a good tidbit!