Any of this sound familiar…
“10 Sure Fire Ways To Improve Your Google Ranking”, “3 Essentials For Effective Networking”, “7 Simple Steps To Boost Your Sales”, “100 Ways To Promote Your Business Online… For Free!”, “12 Web Site Mistakes To Avoid”, “50 Great Web Sites For Publishing Your Articles”, “Top 10 Secrets Of Search Engine Optimization”, “15 Things You Need To Know About Twitter,”…
Stop! Hold it right there.
A person can overcome addiction in 12 steps, and the world’s largest religion can parse a comprehensive moral code down to only 10 commandments, yet there are 15 things I need to know about Twitter?
Get real.
All These Numbers Don’t Add Up
Well, actually, they do… and the total keeps growing, ad infinitum. The titles listed above are a modest sampling of real articles found online espousing some type of “quick step” path to success. The internet is rife with would-be blogging bhagwans, pundits and prognosticators, sages and savants outlining the “things you need to know”, the “things you need to avoid”, as well as the “most important things” in business – often in convenient numeric order.
The numbers are daunting. Many such articles offer useful and worthwhile advice provided by competent professionals with legitimate credentials. Many more don’t. The problem is weeding through the pretenders to find the contenders.
Success Is Not A Mathematical Formula
Entrepreneurs and business owners all have moments of self-doubt along the way, wondering if they could, or should be doing something differently. That’s where these “quick step” articles can drive you bonkers. Keeping pace with them all is impossible. More than likely you’ll be left feeling like there’s more you’re doing wrong than you’re doing right – because you’re darn well not doing everything they say you should be doing. Trying to manage it all can stifle you with the suffocating fear that you’re so far behind the curve you’ll never catch up.
Take a deep breath. Clients and the competition are not passing you by because you aren’t maximizing the 10 best ways to optimize your web site for search engines. Can you improve your online presence? Sure, who couldn’t? Should you? Yes, at some point – because a business must adapt it’s message and methods to remain vital. But, don’t panic because you’re not doing everything some article says you “must” be doing – now. In fact, maybe you shouldn’t be doing any of what that article says at all.
There are no universal formulas for success. What works to improve someone else’s sales might not be what speaks to your particular customer demographic. Perhaps social media web sites like Twitter can help an independent restaurant chain spread the word about happy hour specials, new items, or monthly features – and significantly increase dinner traffic. But, that doesn’t mean Twitter is also a valid marketing approach for a dental practice seeking to attract new patients.
The Good, The Bad, and The Total Waste of Time
The internet is full of terrific resources for entrepreneurs, business owners and professionals looking to connect, share, and learn. Warning: Posting articles online or writing a blog can create the appearance of credibility, but appearances can be deceiving. Sometimes the author is a hack, and you need to know before you start acting on their advice – because bad advice could be devastating to your business. So, how do you determine who is trustworthy?
Start by thinking for yourself. Don’t simply take everything you read at face value. There are very few gurus or experts, but lots of people playing them in social media. For instance, if somebody is claiming to be “certified” in something, but they don’t disclose from where they received such accreditation, then, well… you get the point.
Challenge their thinking by commenting on their blog posts or in their Twitter feed. If you politely raise questions or counterpoints, and they respond with invective and personal attack, rather than with thoughtful, reasoned rebuttals, then you know you’ve put a snake oil salesman’s back to the wall, and exposed him as a fraud.
Pay attention to the quality of the information being offered. Anybody can acquire and post a random list of 50 web sites where you can publish articles, but do you have time to visit 50 web sites to see if they offer what you need? Probably not, so what good is the list? Someone posting an article called “50 Great Web Sites For Publishing Your Articles” isn’t trying to help you, they’re merely trying to draw attention to themselves.
On the other hand, a competent, knowledgeable expert in online publishing is going to offer quality rather than quantity. They’ll edit the list down to a manageable overview providing useful facts and information to help you determine if these sites are right for you – and worth the considerable time investment.
Every now and then the so-called “expert advice” in articles is so obvious that it falls under the “no duh” category. For instance, if an article explains why your professional email should read along the lines of, chuck@insert-name-of-business-here.com, versus, chuckyboy@gmail.com, this author is not offering expert advice – because that juicy little business-101 factoid, while relevant, should be self-evident to anyone. The author might have good intentions, but you’re not likely to learn anything in the article that’s going to propel your business to the next level.
Crunching The Numbers
We all need a little guidance along the way, and I’m truly grateful for the wealth of knowledge and experience that is shared online. You can’t follow all the advice out there – and the good news is that you don’t have to. Understanding that, and separating the useful from the useless, will keep you on the path to success – however many steps it takes.
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The first wave of web 2.0 was inhabited by technicians.
So when people were talking those people had electronic skills. It was a greek culture. In their conversations the technicians began to comment and develop threads of conversation about subjects they were interested in but were outside their area of expertise. Areas like, art, music, wine, bicycles, food, pop culture and marketing.
After services were created that minimized the tech. skill needed to enter into the 2.0 conversation everyone was in on the discussion. A computer technician that started a business blog, wine blog or music blog appeared to be a “business expert” or “wine guru” “music critic”. In reality they are amateurs.
In time after delivering enough bad free advice the technicians will go back to writing programs and fixing computers.
Brian,
Thanks for commenting. Lets hope that the cream continues to rise to the top, and that the rest just fade away.
Cheers
that is great insight Brian
Oh and top notch Ken
Ken-great post. Well needed in this era of self-proclaimed gurus. There’s a well-worn quote from screenwriter William Goldman (he wrote Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid) about Hollywood: “Nobody knows anything.” I think his point was that you have to learn your own lessons, experiment and trust your gut, especially in a world where there is no pat answer. As it seems like everything is changing in business and marketing these days and there’s a natural tendency to want the 5 simple steps.
As I’m learning, there’s lots of great people and knowledge out there. You can find it by chatting, connecting and sharing what you know…and that’ll come back to you in spades. As you say: be wise, assess the quality of the advice, and be willing to call the king naked when he is. That’s three tips you can trust.
Russ,
I was trying to come up with a long response to your thoughtful comment, but you’ve said everything so well that all I can add is that I agree completely.
Cheers
Does everyone that offers advice/information in some area claim to be a “guru” or “expert”? Rarely do I see articles that say ‘do this b/c I am an XYZ guru.’ Usually they are just trying to share info and though it may be common sense to some, it may not be for others. I question anyone claiming to be an ‘expert’ in any subject b/c to me that indicates that they think they know all there is to know. How is that possible?
Tamara,
Questioning anyone giving advice is a good policy. One of the reasons I wrote this post was because I encountered a guy claiming to be a “certified” marketing coach. I asked him what that certification meant, and whom bestowed it upon him. Long story short, he wasn’t actually certified by anyone, he just felt that his experience qualified him to say he was certified. To make it worse, his advice was questionable at best.
So, there we had a guy tacitly claiming expertise, while not really having any. There are far too many folks out there like that.
Cheers
Ken, I agree with all that you said here and I love the title. I’ve stopped subscribing to a lot of blogs because of their content approach of pointing out the obvious to keep the posts regular. I’d rather see an update every 3 months, than a daily top 10 list, or a rehashing of old content on a huge list.
Also, this reminded me of a tongue in cheek post I made a year ago about top 10 lists > http://www.spokenwhirred.com/index.php/2010/07/the-top-10-reasons-top-10-lists-are-overused/
Cheers.
Quality over quantity. I’m with you on that! Thanks for commenting and for sharing your link.
Cheers.
Great advice. So true about so many social media “gurus” out there. A question I ask is, “Ok, they have a book, yet what do their clients say about them?” “Did they make a difference in their business by incorporating their tactics?”
Sherry,
Excellent point. Being able to demonstrate actual results for past results/clients is essential for credibility.
Thanks for sharing.
The bottom line is that unless theses people are challenged, nothing will change. Thought leadership is also about challenging stupid thinking.
Great post as always Ken.
Jeffrey,
100% agree. I know you’re on the front lines of challenging, and I sleep better at night because of it. :-)
Thanks for commenting.
Ken, in the start, when we’re first starting out, I think we need to hash through a bunch of the garbage out there to eventually bump into the right information.
I try to keep my blog reading to a minimal and read blogs written by authorities who “do what they say.” Blogs like SEO.com/blog that give genuinly good info on optimizing your site.
I swear, over a year ago, from the shit I was reading on the internet, I thought the law of attraction was the largest determinant for success. Now I think it’s a bunch of BS, along with a lot of the spiritual/new age crap out there.
Books I read now days are written by people who have practiced what they preached and have living examples for their principles. I find anything too esoteric or vague, or just plain obvious(can’t be verified by common logic) is a waste of time.
We live in an age of “everyone’s an expert” which comes with blogs and e-books. After being subjected to bullshit for so long I can tune into what’s real and fake pretty fast. I know when a blog post titled “10 Things Your Start-up Must Have…” starts with “Business Plan” or “Logo” or “Website” I immediately know where it’s going. I’ve read dozens of “…Your Start-up Must Have…” posts and most of them say “web site.” I think whether or not your business needs business cards, a logo, a business plan or a website becomes self-evident pretty fast when you learn about your own business. If you need someone to tell you on a list of 10-things your business needs business cards, you have a lot to learn.
I read books by Felix Dennis, Donald Trump, MJ DeMarco, founders of large companies, succcessful people with real insight in their industries, not some guy that needs to sell books or ten volumns of CDs on “the law of attraction”…or some other BS!
In the information age, you have to take in information but know what to do with it. You need to be mentally independant and able to see through crap.
My 2 cents:)
Clinton
Clinton,
I’m paraphrasing, but Twain once cautioned against taking advice from medical books because a typo could kill you. It’s a similar situation with much of the advice online; taking the wrong advice could kill your business.
People want a quick fix, or a fast path to success. Truth is, there are millions of paths to success, but none of them work unless you do. There are no magic bullets.
Thanks for your comment.