We do an awful lot of talking in social media about who’s doing it right, wrong, sideways. We get our feathers in a ruff when we think someone’s calling themselves an expert out of turn, or representing themselves as knowledgeable about social media if they’re really just a poser.

Is this really all that new?

There have been dumbasses in business since the dawn of time. Since capitalism was invented, there have been shills and posers and pretenders. There have been sleazy sales people, guys who got their education out of a textbook, women who have used their beauty before their brains to make something happen.

So why are we so shocked that there are people in “our” industry that are proclaiming themselves to be experts when they really aren’t? And why do we care?

You’re going to tell me that the lousy ones are going to ruin this for the legitimate ones. That the shillers are going to leave a sour taste in the mouth of businesses that are investigating social media, and that they’re wrecking it for the rest of us. That they’re undermining the credibility of our work and damaging the potential of this space.

Again I ask you, how is this any different than the crappy-ass web designers of yore that were telling businesses why they needed to get on the web for all the wrong reasons? Did it prevent everyone from doing it? No, but it made businesses consider more carefully why they needed a website, what they wanted from it, and look carefully for someone that could give them more than the cosmetic treatment. And I’d actually say that was a good thing.

Look, we need the craptastic shillers to showcase the good work when it’s done. We need examples of lousy results and scattershot tactics because the people that are really digging deep to do good work will eventually look that much more brilliant, and their results will be that much more compelling.

So rather than spending time rehashing the same territory and railing against the handful of smarms that are out there saying they can make you a million dollars and get you a jillion followers on Twitter, I’m going to let them have enough rope to hang themselves. They’re going to trip, stumble, fail to produce results and either get bored, skewered, or both.

And the companies that fall victim to that stuff? Maybe they ought to be doing a bit more due diligence in the first place. (Ouch, I know, but come on.)

In the meantime, I’m going to use my energy to work my butt off, share everything I know with the people that want to learn, do great work and hopefully provide great content, and contribute serious, number-driving results for my business. That, ultimately, is how I’m going to make these clowns irrelevant. Action. The kind of action that they just don’t know how to take.

You?

Photo credit: ReneS

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