I saw someone on FriendFeed recently, who described himself as a “medical expert.”
Turns out he isn’t. When I asked him what his medical qualifications were, he told me he had none, but he had, “read some great books over the years.”
I read a blog last week, written by a lady who claimed to be an “SEO expert.”
Turns out she isn’t. Her website is very poorly optimised and lacks some of the most basic forms of SEO.
I saw someone on Twitter earlier, who describes himself as a “social media expert.”
Turns out he isn’t. He simply using Twitter to ReTweet other people’s posts and post links to the tunes he’s listening to. No conversation, no connection – not very social.
When someone isn’t getting the results they want, it’s often simply because they are taking the wrong advice.
Yes, we need to remember not everyone is who they say they are, check them out first.
x
Yeah, I’m an expert with the ladies…
…damn.
The first example is fine because in order to be a medical expert there are qualifications recognised for that.
For SEO and “social media expert” (god that makes me sick even saying it) there are no qualifications, any man and his dog can call themselves that after they read a post or a book, and they believe it to.
Makes live very difficult for those searching for that service and for those of us who provide it legitimately.
How can anyone ever call themselves an “expert” or a “guru”? Surely that’s for OTHER people to call them, unless you admit openly to being “self appointed” (tongue in cheek!?
Thanks Howard,
Interesting. I spoke (tweeted) with Chris Brogan about the term ‘guru’ and found he feels the same way about it that I do. He detests it.
The term ‘expert’ is less pompous, but needs backing up.
I personally prefer (and use) the terms ‘marketing professional’ and ‘marketing specialist.’ I’ve run a professional, international marketing business for 15 years and have specialised in marketing all my working life.
Titles like Dr are easier to define. I would rather speak with a qualified medical Doctor, than a self-appointed ‘medical expert.’
BTW: The ‘social media guru’ I mentioned in that post is followed by over 15,000 people and he follows 15,000 people. Not sure any of them knew him though.
Jim I love reading your blog it’s full of common sense, what worries me is the people who need to be reading this blog may not be, they may be following the wrong marketing professional.
I guess it’s time to get educating people as to what to look for in an expert and how to validate what they say.
Sarah,
Thanks for the kind words.
Expert and Guru is Buzzwords.
I don’t know if anyone can truly be experts in Social Media yet, it is a new media and we are all still learning.
Urlreviews,
You make an interesting point. I think there’s so much negative baggage associated with the term ‘social media guru’ or ‘social media expert’ that it’s probably the biggest hurdle anyone working in that field must face, when marketing their services.
Wow, you hit that one home for sure! Makes me not want to retweet from here on out.
Thanks for bringing this up. Its almost like a fake resume.
Thanks Jim!
Shani
Shani.
Although joking, you make a really good point. If you are going to attach your name / brand / reputation to someone (even via a retweet), check them out first.
On Twitter, my description is about the service I provide and what my clients can expect to receive as benefits.
Am I an expert in what I do? Don’t know. Don’t care. I like to concentrate on providing a ridiculously amazing service, whilst finding more ways to provide value to my clients.
Labelling myself as an expert isn’t going to provide me with the same returns as providing a valuable service. And it’s just tacky, isn’t it?
Jeremy,
I personally have no issue with an expert calling themselves an expert.
The challenge is that many people don’t check people out before taking advice from them. They often see a title and assume that because the person has a nice website and 50,000 followers on Twitter, that they MUST be genuine.
Thanks for the comment.
I entirely agree but it is very hard to persuade customers that you are the expert and not the competition especially when they charge a lot less.
Stu,
You make a good point!
This might help: http://jimsmarketingblog.com/2009/06/09/the-right-choice-or-the-cheapest/
Agreed, thats a fair point Jim. Your such an expert on marketing
(Seriously, you are)