Sphinn - Reputation Management and Your So-Called Expert-Self

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Reputation Management and Your So-Called Expert-Self

Went Hot: November 29, 2007 - 5:01 pm
Posted By: cre8pc 584 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://cre8pc.com)
Category: SEM Industry

Sometimes I see someone claiming to be a respected expert in an area that I know is a real stretch. These are the folks who teach on topics that if you ran a keyword search on them, you wouldn’t see their name attached to the industry they’re claiming to be an expert on.

Press releases are modern day fairy tales.

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from DariaGoetsch 583 days ago #

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>>I believe that learning never stops, we're equals and you may know something in a way I hadn't considered or experienced before.

Absolutely agree with you. Experience is a great teacher, including the mistakes we make along the way. There is always something to be learned from someone else whatever degree of experience they may have. Experience doesn't necessarily make you right in situations, you've just had more time to figure things out.

>>I'd be interested in hearing from you. Do you like the term expert or guru? If you are referred to as one, do you accept the label? Do you think it's true of you?

I wouldn't feel comfortable calling myself by either of these terms. I have some long time experience in the industry and that's pretty much how I phrase it to our clients. I have knowledge from what I've done in the past and how I've worked from then to the present. In my experience the more you know, the more you realize you need to learn.

from cre8pc 582 days ago #

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"In my experience the more you know, the more you realize you need to learn."

I may have had it very wrong in my post, when I wrote that reaching the expert level might mean the learning stops or the guru becomes this frozen, unapproachable person.

Name association is a fun game...like when if someone says "cloaking", I say "Fantomaster". When someone says search engine industry, I say "Danny Sullivan". When someone says "social media", I say Neil Patel, Tamar, Chris Winfield. Usability would be Jakob Nielsen or Jared Spool. Persuasive design would be Bryan Eisenberg. Links are Deb Masteler and Eric Ward. Search engine patents is Bill Slawski.

These are people who specialize and are focused on one area so keenly that they're associated with it with no prompting. Each has been referred to as an expert but none of them has stopped learning. In fact, with some of them, they let us in when they learn more stuff.

I think my personal definition for expert is conflicted. However, that still doesn't take away from the other parts of the post, where I described persons or companies who mis-represent their so-called expertness. A simple search can prove otherwise. I think the word "respected" instead of "expert" is a more accurate term for some folks/companies.

Thank you for commenting Daria. It's far too dangerous to let me keep talking to myself :)

from Jill 582 days ago #

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Well, Kim, I do refer to you as an expert when selling your usability reports to our clients. Hope that's okay :)

from cre8pc 582 days ago #

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Jill, I'm honored, since you, more than anyone, has seen what I can do and has supported my work longer than anyone else. In my own mind, I think I have above average expertise in the relationship between usability/seo/accessibility. That's a niche, isn't it? So I wouldn't be a "Usability expert" as much as expert in the balance of it with other areas. I think my name comes up in searches for "usability and seo" as well. I just hope the word "expert" doesn't mean I'm done learning, because as I said, if I stopped researching and learning, I'd be bored out of my mind.

My gripe is about false claims and, as Risa pointed out in my blog comments, those who are in a biz for a year and market themselves as experts.

There were two people who spoke at the NYC SMX SM conference recently who I'd never heard of before but when they gave their talks on how their companies used Social Media for marketing and what they managed to accomplish, I was really impressed and very surprised I'd never heard of them before in relation to the social media space. I'd hire them in a second, after hearing about what they accomplished.

That experience only adds to my questions. I think "experts" are out there and we don't know about them because ....why? How come?

I'm not sure the general public agrees on the definition of "expert" but I'm hopeful people will contribute their thoughts. What does "Expert" mean?

from Jill 582 days ago #

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To me, an expert means that the person has an above average knowledge of a topic/subject, as well as many years of experience putting that knowledge into action.

Of which you, Kim, certainly have. :)

from DariaGoetsch 580 days ago #

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"In my experience the more you know, the more you realize you need to learn."

I'd have to say I'm talking specifically about me through the years I've spent in the industry, or just life in general. Every time I open another door there's something else to look at and learn from.

>>I may have had it very wrong in my post, when I wrote that reaching the expert level might mean the learning stops or the guru becomes this frozen, unapproachable person.

It depends on the person but I think its a natural process for us to keep learning. Maybe you get so good at it you don't even notice the learning process while its happening. :) For me its important to keep looking in new ways at old systems I have in place. Years later there are still times I find some new technique to a method that makes me reevaluate and upgrade how I've been working.

As you mentioned before, I'm sure there are many people in the industry who aren't well know who are a wealth of information. I do agree that a year's time in this industry is not much in order to understand the many levels of SEM. At one year's experience I was just skimming the surface of what was to be learned.

>>To me, an expert means that the person has an above average knowledge of a topic/subject, as well as many years of experience putting that knowledge into action.

That is a very good definition Jill, I like it.

>>I think the word "respected" instead of "expert" is a more accurate term for some folks/companies.

I agree, I like that term better. Your experience and abilities certainly put you in this category Kim. :)