Titles Are As Meaningless As Ever
January 4, 2009
Author 
In There’s a bunch of buzz lately in tech and marketing circles with an ever-increasing disdain for self-imposed titles. The one which stands out in the marketing niche is some incantation of “social media (or new media) consultant (or expert or specialist).” Mix and match as you please.
As an aside, there is a backlash across the web with an ever-increasing disdain for the word entrepreneur as literally everyone who has created some sort of .com is slapping the title on themselves.
Literally throngs of individuals (and even agencies) are dubbing themselves with impressing-sounding titles and claims without evidence to prove they’ve had success doing much of anything.
But is this any different than how the snake-oil types trotted themselves around in previous years in whatever the hot industry of the day was? Not really – there have always been the types of people who prey upon those with a lack of knowledge.
On the plus side, the web makes it simple to see who is full of hot air and who actually knows how to produce successful, tangible results in the social space. Here’s what matters and what is meaningless:
What matters:
- Strong Google PageRank of their website/blog (not easily faked – look for 4-5 minimum). Some say it is the ultimate measure of online influence. This matters, if they can’t create a positive reputation for themselves, can they really help you?
- Number of RSS subscribers to their blog (or a client blog they helped build) through Feedburner (also not easily faked, takes great effort to acquire). Again, if someone doesn’t have experience building something themselves, how can they possibly help you?
- Consistent, intelligent comments and interactions on their blog/in the social web
- Client case studies/success stories showing tangible results from their online campaigns (links/traffic driven/responses/PR/sales, etc.).
- Placements/quotes/case studies in trade media
- Links from industry-leading blogs
- Their clients/their work is being talked about on popular blogs
- Lots of information and positive reactions available on them through a Google blog search/Technorati search/FriendFeed search/Twitter search.
- Past client testimonials from legitimate online businesses
- Referrals from other marketing agencies
- This one is a bit nebulous but I’ll say it anyway: true web “street savvy” (Have they made something that hit page 1 of Digg? Shared highly on StumbleUpon? Do they actually have people on staff who are bloggers/social media power users/message board gurus?)
- Creativity and knowledge behind building marketing initiatives/web apps that spread organically
- Understanding how SEO, online marketing, PR, etc. all come together
What is meaningless/worrisome:
- Number of followers on Twitter, number of friends on Facebook/MySpace, etc. (can be achieved through spam tactics)
- Big/instant promises, self-imposed titles without any social proofing
- Excessive use of jargon with no background/clarification supplemented
- Low score in SEO tools like Website Grader
- Pop-up subscriptions on their page
- Big success with traditional advertising/PR/Marketing isn’t necessarily an indicator of web-based results
- Not able to show you samples of successful campaigns
- Their blog or website isn’t organized, clean and usable
- Unwillingness to allow you to speak with previous clients
- No previous clients
- Suggests a paid blogging campaign
- Gushingly positive press releases about themselves (seen this tactic recently by some “expert” blatantly hyping the fact they had a high number of Twitter/Facebook friends – not sure anyone is gullible enough to fall for this, but it was actually quite a pathetic tactic.)
- Links from spam blogs or to spam sites
- They keep a blog but receive no comments/no subscribers/no traffic
The social web is not a new concept, and many people have been using it daily from the IRC days and the start of message boards/forums into the present incantation of what we have come to call social media. You can and should easily be able to find and work with people that will lead you down the right path.
There’s no rush — take your time and properly vet any individual or agency that you’re thinking of hiring, as you should with any type of business partner. Even feel free to ask someone if you’re not sure, there are plenty of helpful individuals who are willing to answer your questions to connect you with the right people.
Dealing with an unscrupulous or well meaning but inexperienced person or agency can potentially harm your brand on the web for years to come, hurt your positioning in Google, and destroy your chances of future success in the social web. Be meticulous and do your homework, as you would in any other area of business.
Titles, jargon, pitches and bullet points on a website are as meaningless as ever and should be treated so. They are necessary but empty. Proof, case studies, referrals, experience and tangible evidence of success are what matter.
Related posts from The Future Buzz
14 Reasons To Have A Web Guru On Your Team
Shouldn’t SEOs Rank Well? Shouldn’t Web Pros Blog?
How To Choose An Online Marketing Or PR Agency
Related posts from around the web
Who Isn’t A New Media Strategist? (Six Pixels of Separation)
Top 25 Ways to Tell if Your Social Media Expert Is a Carpetbagger (Livingston Buzz)
The joke of advertising on social media (WinExtra)
Internet Strategist replied | Jan 4, 2009 (13 comments)
I only want to say in my defense that I started using Internet Strategist looonnnnggggg before everybody was one. It has become so ubiquitous that it is now meaningless.
Adam Singer replied | Jan 4, 2009 (563 comments)
@Internet Strategist – this post was NOT meant to be a knock on any person or title. I think ALL titles, mine included are a necessary evil, but in-and-of themselves don’t have much value other than identifiers. Results, experience, creative application and knowledge are far more important than the title.
Mark Dykeman replied | Jan 4, 2009 (10 comments)
Well thought out, Adam, and full of good ideas. I was going to quibble about using Google Page Rank (I don’t place the same importance on it as Steve Rubel), but as long as you use it in conjunction with other factors, then I’m OK with that.
Internet Strategist replied | Jan 4, 2009 (13 comments)
LOL. I know Adam. I was simply expressing how I feel now about calling myself an Internet Strategist compared to how perfectly I originally thought that title fit what I do.
Great post – and thanks for the link to Website Grader. Awesome tool!
Julius Kuhn-Regnier replied | Jan 4, 2009 (3 comments)
I totally agree with you Adam in what is meaningless on the Internet and I think one of the best measures to see whether a blog is a good one is to look at the comments. Not actually at the number of comments but the quality, i.e. how related they are to the topic and whether they add to the conversation etc. Take a look at copyblogger.com, they only receive quality comments.
Anyway great article ;)
Tim Jahn replied | Jan 5, 2009 (59 comments)
Titles have always been a pet peeve of mine. 99.9% of the time they’re meaningless.
As you said, experience, reputation, and credibility matter more than any crazy 43 world title.
Tony replied | Jan 8, 2009 (1 comment)
Adam, you inspire an interesting debate – are titles too restricting in a professional and creative environment?
Jason Finch replied | Feb 25, 2009 (1 comment)
I call myself a retail specialist and a blended networking evangelist. It just sums up what I have experience in and what I do. I think ‘social media expert’ and ‘online entrepreneur’ have become pretty meaningless. I’ve been running one of the UK’s major (profitable!) niche online/offline blended social networks since 1995 so *could* call myself a social media expert *and* an online entrepreneur, but so what – I far prefer to evangelise about blended networking that hype up any connection to a pretty old school idea like ‘social media’… that’s surely just a replacement for the awful ‘Web 2.0′ and *so* 2005 ;)