There is something going on in the social media world that is really bothering me.
The “experts” are taking advantage of people who feel like they’re going to be left behind if they don’t figure out Google+. Now.
And, because we all are limited in our time, people are shelling out money to have someone teach them how to use the tool.
Stop it.
Right now.
I alluded to this in Gin and Topics this past Friday when I linked to Allen Stern’s very funny, tongue-in-cheek $2,500 course that also allows you into one of his circles.
But this is ridiculous. As of this writing, it has been 24 days since Google+ launched. That is not enough time to figure out a) if it has business applications, b) how it truly works for networking, and c) what it’s value is going to be. For heaven’s sakes. If it goes the way of Buzz and Wave, you’ll have wasted your money.
Not to mention, it’s still in beta and doesn’t open up to the world until the end of this month. It will be at least a year of use before we figure out it’s idiosyncrasies.
But there are still people out there claiming to have all the secrets because they claim to have introduced Twitter to the business world so surely they understand how Google+ is going to affect your daily life. Add to that, they’ve spent 250 hours inside the tool, learning and using.
If that’s the case, I want their jobs because that means they’ve spent 11 hours, every day, for the past three weeks using Google+.
Sure, it’s my job to stay ahead of the trends and to understand them so that you can short cut your education. But it’s been 24 days.
Twenty four days.
I don’t have 11 hours every day to spend trying to learn it for you, as much as I would love to spend all my time with the shiny, new penny.
Pay attention to Google+. Get in there and try out some things (I’ll send you an invite, if you don’t have one). But it’s waaaaaay too early to say what it’s going to do. And it’s certainly too early to be paying experts to tell you how to use it.
Save your money. The time will come (or not) when you need to learn how to use it for business. If you spend a little time in it now, say an hour or two a week, you won’t have to pay anyone to teach you how to use it.
It’s a tool. Just like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, blogging, and 8Tracks. Wait until it’s been around long enough to understand how it fits a business strategy.
I agree. Even now, a while after google plus has been launched, it's too early to see how it will develop yet alone how it will affect the business world. For all we know, ut can end up in failure because not many people are finidng it user friendly or registering. I'd give it time before I start paying to integrate google plus as part of my business campaign.
I guess some people have more "expertise" simply by being in something longer, but I wouldn't want to pay for a course on something that is still in beta mode and growing everyday. I mean, if you think about it, you could even pay for a course on Facebook now and the next day, if Facebook decides to change their entire bloody platform, you'd be out your change for that course.
@Kristi Hines I agree with Kristi on this one. With all these sites changing on daily basis, it is hard to call anyone an expert. Even if you get the "general strategy" right, they change one little thing that can completely change to way of getting the strategy to work.
@Brankica Just another reason I think print books for social media tutorials is a little silly. The second it gets published, the entire framework of the network might change, so your "new book" becomes obsolete even if it was published the day before. I'm notorious for flipping through a book, looking at the screenshots, and if those are out of date, I move on. Probably why I haven't bought a physical social media book in ages. :)
Wow! and great article!!! Sounds Rip-offish to me! RT @jfouts RT @ginidietrich Beware the Google+ Experts | Spin Sucks http://t.co/ag70DRd
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Chris is the same guy who posted that he makes $22,000 a day and the next day asked for a free intern to work for him.
He's a businessman who wants to make money, plain and simple. He builds a farm of sheep and sells to them.
Are we going to change him? No. Let's just do what we think is right and let karma get him.
@timjahn Some people would look at that as the reason he makes so much - by being stingy in other areas to save money. As a freelance writer, I know sites that pay a lot for their writers, but they still approach new writers and ask if they want to "contribute" to their site in exchange for promoting the writer's website. They probably more often than not get a lot of free content that way.
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@timjahn This turned into a Chris Brogan or Gini Dietrich bashing, which was not my intent. My intent was to educate our readers, clients and prospects about the need to wait and see what happens with Google+. I don't think there is anything wrong with him making money on his knowledge. He certainly has opened the door for a lot of us who do. My only point is that it's too early to make money on G+
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@AmyMccTobin @timjahn Is there any way we could steer this thread into a Camero bashing. I think it is just a poor man's Corvette. Ha! Take that Camero lovers...Now, let's see what you have to say about the Vette? Oh, and the Mustang is better too,
When we are done insulting one another's cars. I would like to have a lengthy cats vs. dog debate. (Go cats!)
@Brankica@ExtremelyAvg@AmyMccTobin@timjahn Is it sad if I made that much a day I'd still just want to drive a Toyota Tacoma. Of course, it would have a sound system that would envy concert stages. :)
@ExtremelyAvg@AmyMccTobin@timjahn I recently moved to USA and before that had no clue what a Camaro is, but it is definitely not something I would drive if I was making 22K a day. I think I would be riding a Ducati if I was making that much LOL
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@ExtremelyAvg @timjahn I loved Cameros in the 70s. There's something that says "we give up on new design" about all of these retro-we-look-almost-like-our-30-year-old-selves-cars.
@ExtremelyAvg @AmyMccTobin @timjahn Thank you sir - I could tell by your avatar you were a smart fellow. :)
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@Danny Brown @AmyMccTobin @timjahn Mr. Brown is correct, the frog has not been discussed much at all. It is appalling that in the age of free information, people should so casually dismiss and ignore the frog. What would Miss Piggy think?
I would like to state, for the record, I am PRO frog.
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@ExtremelyAvg @AmyMccTobin @timjahn What about frogs? No-one ever gives them any credit. Well, except that one time when a princess kissed one, but even that was only so it could turn into the Old Spice Guy. Meh - frog haters.
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I didn't wade through all 448 comments. I read the post and the last 50 and only one things came to mind. I wish I had written it. Of course, knowing what we do now, I would have gone for even more commenter fury, but calling somebody a 'monkey faced boy'...not saying who, because I still may play the 'monkey face' card on my own blog.
*Evil Laugh*
From an SEO standpoint, it is good to know that SM Gurus too have an element of their fan base, which excels at zealotry. Now, if I could just come up with a post pitting Democrats, Republicans, Apple Users, PC Users, and SM GURUs together, in a no holds barred caged match...I would be set.
In fact, I think I may write that post now.
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@ExtremelyAvg Before you write it, call me so I can tell you the lessons I learned this week b
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@ginidietrich To be honest, I probably won't write it. I'm sure that I could pile a few sentences together, either saying that (Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Obama, Nancy Palosi, Bill O'Riely, PC, Apple) either suck are are great, and it would get all of the zealots to rush to their defense or to jump on the 'hate' bandwagon, but I just don't care.
Is there value in building a traffic base of 'hate mongering' nutters? No. I'm not even sure if I want them reading my novels. I'm sorry that your reasonable and well thought out post, garnered such a crazy response. Do you know who I blame? I blame the ___________ (please insert your favorite political party), because they are the bad guys.
I actually thought your post was rather tame. I'm surprised it got any comments at all, because it seemed to be reasonable to the point of almost being left unsaid.
@NobueIto What's funny is that there have been more people defending that seminar than making fun of it.
@aaroncorasdad Doesn't surprise me. So many people just mindlessly follow everything Brogan and Scoble say. It's depressing.
@NobueIto You would think something like that would be absurd on it's face. But I guess not.
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I've completely avoided commenting on this until I found out late this afternoon that somebody told Gini she should apologize to Brogan for this. If it's gotten that far, and out of control, then I might as well drop some of my twisted knowledge while defending my homegirl. I find the chicanery of social media and paying to learn about it's tools at the expense of natural curiosity and real retention from a DIY mentality to be 100% ridiculous(This coming from an adjunct professor who is paid to lecture). I don't care if you claim to not have the time. Find it. Tinkering and learning has a much higher ROI. The only excuse you can possibly have is that you lack the skills to interact with people, because that's all these tools allow you to do. How hard is that? How hard is it to be human?
But I digress. First off we've got Brogan, who is friends with my friends, but somebody I have never met. He's come under attack lately, but he's out there. He's got to have the skin for it. Triple the protection when you agree to have yourself roasted...poorly I may add. These actions draw ire from people, fair or not, and he defends it with a cop out defense of "haters gonna hate". That's a crockpot of shit right there. What would win me over Chris, if you're reading this, is to grow the grapes to say GFY (Go Fuck Yourself for those who are confused by acronyms). Why worry about your personal brand? If you believe in you then defend you with all your might. Don't pussyfoot in order to be a "professional". You get more loyal customers by being true to yourself. If Gini paid $47 for my GFY Seminar she wouldn't have a problem telling the "apology requestor" that they need to fix themselves a fresh hot cup of shut the fuck up. Thankfully Gini is a better person than me.
However, all of this leads me to one significant conclusion. It finally hit me tonight and there are going to be a lot of folks pissed off at me for what I'm about to say, but who am I to care? If the interactive industry were to be compared to the adult entertainment industry then social media consultants would be the Fluffers. Don't believe me? I hate pornos, but at least I know the mechanics behind their production and well I'm going to assume that you know what a Fluffer is. If not Wikipedia can help. In this analogy the Fluffer has to keep the male actor aroused in between takes. The male actor is played by the client. You have to keep the client aroused so they can do what they do best, which is to satisfy the star AKA the customer. But technology advances, the clients get smarter and they discover Viagra can do a better job than the Fluffer so all of a sudden you have a person, with a limited skill set, out of work. My point? Don't be rendered obsolete by a little blue pill.
@MarcGirolimetti Great point, I can't believe anyone would say she should apologize. I really can't stand people with no skin to put up with stuff. I respect what Chris did in previous few years, but recently he posted a post and someone told him there are too many ads and he reposted the same post with no ads. That was so "I don't have the balls" to me...
@MarcGirolimetti Marc, if one believes in his or her own brand, and for that matter believes in himself, (or herself) then there's no reason to get into a pissing match with those that don't.. It's like the folks who can't stand Obama, no matter what he does. (Or couldn't stand Bush for what he did.) I'm actually more angry about the fact that Gini (a friend of mine) didn't choose to after the real pond scum that exists in the internet space; the "make money online" bunch, who promise to help folks":make money blogging," or get massive backlinks", with their $97 software, or whatever. Chris is good people. Period. He's helped an awful lot of people keep their jobs. How? Figure it out, man.
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@FranchiseKing I think the match begins and ends with GFY. Brogan doesn't need to say another thing after that. He's successful, but he's also fairly thin skinned like many of his counterparts. Say something that folks fired up one day. Back down the next. Write "whoa is me" tweet or blog post one minute. Delete it the next. Heck Chris apologized for getting drunk at his own roast. To me that leaves a weak link in the brand. All I'm suggesting is he toughen up a bit, but your reaction seems like I was attacking him, which I was not. I could care less about Chris. We're not in the same space, We don't compete for the same dollars. I have no vested interest in him, but I have to admit, being able to sneak fluffers into a comment is A-OK in my book. ;-)
@FranchiseKing @MarcGirolimetti You know, there is such a thing as having different opinions from each other. You love Chris; others don't. At the end of the day, who cares. He'll have his audience while the rest of us do our stuff differently.
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@MarcGirolimetti I have to agree with @Danny Brown that this the great analogy. @ginidietrich has nothing to apologize for to anyone from this post. She's been a great diplomat through this firestorm, particularly from those who I think missed the point of her post - her clients, my clients, most of our clients don't need to go here yet. G+ itself will tell you it isn't ready for business.
Hate me now if you want, I don't find Brogan useful. That's just me. Your mileage may vary - and good for you. The bottom line I took away from Gini's post is that her clients don't have to worry about it yet. As I've said before, I agree.
As for a public apology, I would, again, agree with Danny - GFY. Frankly, those of you who have attacked her here just because she disagreed with your hero, owe her the apologies. If a POV can't take a bit of disagreement without polite discussion I have to question the POV and the supporters. Open your minds people! If you're only listening to one voice and shouting down other opinions you're really missing the point of social media. And, oh, by the way, I believe you have every right to disagree with Gini - and my right to agree with her and disagree with Brogan. Be nice, I'll listen - so will others. Tell me that one person's way is dogma and all the rest of us are wrong - yeah, have a nice day.
Please it has been OK conversation, but time to move on. Thanks Marc for the great points. Not sure I could make them quite that way, but loved it.
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@MarcGirolimetti Oh my virgin eyes! Yes, I was asked to publicly apologize to Chris. I think this whole thing came off the rails. It certainly was not my intent. Chris is an expert. He's built an amazing following. I just don't agree with some of the tactics he's uses when he advises small business owners. We also consult with small business owners and Chris's approach is a complete 180 from what we do at Arment Dietrich. It's my job to educate our clients and readers on what's out there. I stand by the fact that I think this is very opportunistic. Hopefully none of us are rendered obsolete by the little blue pill.
@ginidietrich@MarcGirolimetti I hope you are not going to apologize, that would be plain crazy :)
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@ginidietrich I somehow missed this post when it came out. Chris has helped me (small business owner) a lot, and I am a loyal follower. I did take the course. It was helpful, and I knew I was trying to 'get out front' on G+ when I could have just learned it on my own.
I don't have buyer's remorse, but you were/are completely on track: G+ isn't ready for business, and the seminar was meant to teach you how to use it FOR business. Instead, I just learned more about using it.
Chris has given so much for free over the years that I don't mind paying for this - he has good will equity. With that being said, you shouldn't have to apologize to ANYONE for putting your opinion on Social Media tactics out there. It's an opinion about tactics, not a personal attack. And, you were right.
@Danny Brown @ginidietrich I missed the entire dust up until AFTER I attended the Webinar and read @bobledrew post. Would Love to see his comments; controversy often brings out the REAL in people.
@AmyMccTobin @ginidietrich Chris did have a few choice things to say over on Google+. It wasn't just "ardent fans" ;-)
@ginidietrich Well, isn't this just a love fest:)
As far as I can tell, Chris had nothing to say... right? Just a some ardent fans freaking out. Perhaps we ALL need to step away from the computer for a minute.
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@AmyMccTobin Thanks Amy! I'm a big fan of yours and saw your comment on Bob LeDrew's post last night and nodded my head. I also saw that Google started removing business accounts last night. They're prepping for something big, but we don't know what it is yet. It's pretty exciting and I'm a G+ fan. It's just a wait and see approach because none of us know how it'll fit a business strategy. I appreciate your fair comment. Thank you.
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@MarcGirolimetti Best. Analogy. Ever. Especially since a few of the "supporting actors" are showing themselves to be either pussies or dicks, so fits even better. :)
And that public apology suggestion? Yeah, right - GFY.
@Danny Brown @RickRice I was hoping to turn the analogy into an infographic. Thoughts?
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@Danny Brown@FollowtheLawyer@MarcGirolimetti I don't care who is grinding what I'm not apologizing. Danny, you and I might owe Marc some bucks for not doing an infographic on this.
@FollowtheLawyer@MarcGirolimetti@RickRice Only if the BlogWorld CEO has a personal axe to grind...
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@MarcGirolimetti@Danny Brown@RickRice Infographics? That's Solis and Armano territory. Do they deserve apologies, too?
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@Danny Brown @MarcGirolimetti I'll double Danny's $47 to NOT go there. @ginidietrich needs some rest from this!
TY 4 the RTs & mentions! Appreciate it! @suzisquared @nickibeckinsale @richardpietro @DonnaBaierStein @hurriednotes @Jackandpele
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