Information Consumption Sometimes, you just need to get the word out about something— an event, a sale, a fundraiser, and so on. Email tends to be a high-investment way to do it. Even with email marketing tools from MailChimp ( www.mailchimp.com ) or Constant Contact ( www.constantcontact.com ), it may take a lot of setup time and hand-wringing about whether people open their email. Social media is very quick and requires a low investment by comparison. Just update your status, and instantly your message will show up on your friends’ and fans’ Facebook News Feeds.