Marketing, Internet, SEO & SEM Experts? and CEOs? Charlatans Everywhere!

If you were to judge the amount of Tweets you get from people who claim to be Marketing, Internet, SEO and SEM experts or CEO's, you'd think the US economy was booming. Jobs galore. But it would all be just an illusion.

I often get Tweets from people who claim to be "Internet Marketing Experts" or "SEO Marketing Experts..." I wonder by what measure they use to give themselves this sort of classification? 

JERRY LEE LEWIS - YOUR CHEATIN' HEART

The ones that immediately raise red flags for me are the ones who claim to be "CEO" of some company yet, judging by their photo, they don't look to be much older than 25 or 30.

I've never met any good CEO's who were under 35-years-old. I'm not saying they don't exist, but the big guns and real players are not 30-year-old CEO's of little companies with classification of LLP, LLC or family organizations.

Those are the sorts of titles I hate. Why even bother with the title of CEO?  I mean, who are they trying to impress? Other clueless people? Clueless people usually haven't much money. Why impress them? 

What's the point of being a CEO of a dinky company that has one or two employees? Bragging about it is even more embarrassing. If you do that, stop... It might be OK for picking up some witless boyfriend or girlfriend, but for picking up any investment, it is a detriment.

It certainly isn't any credit to your worth or credibility.

Would you buy a used car from this man? How 

about letting him set up your company SEO?

Do these people use the CEO title because they think they can fool someone into investing into their little company or throwing a big contract at them? Maybe. But I don't think that will work.

"Fools and their money are soon parted"... Most rich people are not fools. That's why they are rich.

I haven't really noticed any serious CEO's using Facebook or Twitter too often. I suppose they do, but not too much. I do know that, and I won't say his name, the CEO of AirAsia X uses Facebook. We became friends that way... And I did arrange a few promotions for them in Japan because of it...

But I think he is the exception to the rule.

I don't think most CEO's have time to bother with this Social Media stuff. The CEO's I know avoid this, if they can, and I know from experience that they try to avoid even looking at their email if at all possible.... Spending time on Facebook and Twitter?! I don't think so. 

I get these invitations for Twitter and such, and, if the photo looks like a young guy and his title says "CEO" or "SEO expert" I know it's BS.... But I'm a nice guy, I friend them anyway... It's just quicker that way and I don't have to think about it for more than a second. Friending them takes one click. Deleting them takes two clicks. Friending them is faster. 

I check their photo and go to their Twitter page. If I don't see at least a blog or a company page, then I know they are bullsh*tters. That's OK. Everyone needs to start somewhere... Maybe they will learn some useful lessons along the way. I certainly have.

One of the big lessons I learned was not creating idiotic titles like CEO for myself when there are only one or two employees at my company in order to impress people I don't even know. Impressing people who haven't a clue is a waste of time... People who do have a clue will know it's BS, so it is actually self-defeating to do so.

Here's a good test for you. I never claim that I am an "SEO or "Internet expert" yet go to Google Search and search the words, "Japan China." You will get 1 billion 380 million results. On page one of search results you will also see two articles that I wrote. See here: http://bit.ly/rjaMbu

Even with that, I do not claim to be an SEO expert. 

If you are a customer, and the guy is telling to you to give him him your business because he is an "SEO expert" then give him this test:

1) Do they blog? If so, check their blog and see when they started. 


Blogging for six months is nothing to brag about. That's not even a rookie. Search some generic titles and see if you can find any results where they show up at the top of the list (and, no, I don't mean specific searches for the exact title of that particular blog post. I mean, if they write an article about, say, "Sicily pizza"... Search "pizza" or "Sicily" and see if you can find their article on the first few pages of results. If they are hot at SEO, you should be able to).

1a) If they do blog, check to see if they post everyday. Posting everyday for at least a year shows dedication and resolve (and that they are crazy). If they don't do that, or haven't, then they are poseurs and not players or, at best, students of the game.

2) Go look at their Facebook or Twitter account. Check the dates when they began. Is there a corporate page for this person's company? If not, forget it.     

On the other hand, If you are one of the many who are guilty of making these wild claims on expertise or being a "pro", then I suggest you stop. There are far too many charlatans running around as it is. If you get the label "charlatan" it will be quite hard to shake. 

Building trust and a good reputation takes a long time... It isn't made in an instant by creating a Twitter account and claiming, on the spot, that you are an expert. As former Soviet president Michale Gorbachev once said, "A lie told even ten thousands times never becomes the truth."

Stop claiming that you are "Internet savvy" if you are not. Just being able to do Internet searches or use G-mail does not make one internet savvy. Stop claiming you are a "CEO" unless you have a company that has at least, say, ten employees minimum...

And stop claiming that you are an "SEO expert" if you are not. It's easy to find out if it is all BS or not. You make the rest of us poseurs look bad....

You can become these "expert" things but just saying that you are or reading one book doesn't make you one. It will take a few years of effort and study.

The fastest and simplest way? Start a blog and start writing. Do that everyday, religiously. Use Twitter and Facebook to drive traffic to your posts. Write everyday religiously. Before, bowing to the east every morning, blog... Blog before that and after that... 


And blog before and after that!  


Study why some articles get many reads and why others don't. Practice and rearrange...

It will take you between one to two years to get a basic understanding of how it works and how to jolt your writing and titles to get high SEO results.

It's a close guarded secret by those who do know how to do it..

This stuff isn't written in a book. You only learn through sincere and dedicated effort. 


A jawbone is never a replacement for a backbone. Get started.