2010 May

If only you had his ability to read through the BS!

I am on a bit of a rant here.  I spend time and energy traveling to conferences to learn from experienced peers and educating others on some of the fundamentals of online marketing and social media. So I am easily annoyed when I come across so-called experts online who are creating gimmicks and factoids, then using these to sell themselves as knowledgeable marketers. These “experts” have great selling skills, but have very little real marketing knowledge. What bothers me are the potential end results: A lot of self-promoting, non-qualified people selling snake oil to business people who really want to try marketing that works. This is making the hard working, qualified marketer or PR person fight harder to make a customer believe in a REAL plan – one they will actually BENEFIT from. And, when the snake oil marketer’s products and plans don’t work for the customer, he becomes skeptical of ALL marketing professionals.

What makes someone an expert?

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines expert as “having, involving, or displaying special skill or knowledge derived from training or experience.” Too many people selling themselves as experts are ignoring the training or experience part of this definition. They have a nifty idea they are trying to sell that maybe even worked for them, but have no background to justify its validity or to understand in what circumstances the idea may work. Just as important to note, popularity, age, beauty and their ability to talk BS does not make them experts, though it may make them well followed.

People are allowed to have opinions, certainly I have plenty of my own – including these. I think as long as they are easily understood to be opinions, then no harm is done. But selling opinion as FACT is low (blogs are really full of opinions). Without valid sources or citations, you can never be sure if what you are reading is fact or fiction.

I have witnessed people in fields all over the board – from event planners to wine aficionados  –  with no real background in helping businesses succeed, writing blogs and telling people how to market their products, pushing themselves on their unsuspecting prey, claiming that their gimmick is good marketing. In some cases, I have actually seen an “expert” chastising people publicly for not choosing to become one of his sheep.

What gives these people the right to market themselves as a marketing professional? Their limited experience or one success at marketing a product does not make them experts in ALL marketing. These people may be great communicators, but building a strategic marketing plan for a customer is MUCH more than lip service or a gimmick.  Even a strong understanding of a product doesn’t necessarily translate as knowledge of how people receive it and how it is best marketed.

Think of it – to practice law, it takes a specific training, a license, an outside organization that certifies a person is qualified. Our doctors are licensed. We want our accounts to be well-trained and certified. What about our marketers??

Putting out a once-a-year Twitter gimmick that creates buzz doesn’t mean someone has the skills to create and execute a marketing plan for a customer. Selling ad space on a blog may make the blogger money, but if he doesn’t show relevancy to the ad buyers and have the demographic that they are targeting, he is doing them a disservice. He is making money by fooling the ad buyers. If those following his blog are a relevant audience to the ad buyers – good work! That is a win-win situation. But too often, the blogger is drawing in an audience with little or no relevancy for the ad buyer based solely on numbers.  Does the blogger-playing-marketer know or care about this? Heck no! All he wants to do is sell ad space and make some money.

It’s this kind of piss poor random money grabbing opportunism that gives real, professional marketers stomach cramps. When the plan that the self-proclaimed expert pushed on a client fails, the real pro has to pick up the pieces and try to start over with a client who has lost money at marketing, so his budget is strapped and he is skeptical and questioning of each marketing recommendation put forth.

Have an opinion, share it on your blog. Want to be in marketing or PR? Get some education, go see the real pros speak – I can give you a flurry of names who would love to help you.

Or continue to be a hack. It’s not your fault, right? The customer made the choice to listen to you, right? It’s not your fault it didn’t work out as expected, right? Buyer beware, right?

Did that customer ever have a chance? Did he really ever know you couldn’t help him? Did you recognize that your limited opinion wasn’t really the marketing support he needed?

Well, some of us did!