I firmly believe that people have had their fill of these tactics, and by people I mean me. To be honest, this is nothing more than a visceral rant that started as a G+ post but I then decided to put here instead. And, at the behest of a friend, I am trying to let go of my always thinking, never publishing mentality and actually ship some thoughts.
1. Envoking X is dead. Just stop it already. No seriously. You are damaging the credibility of our entire industry and you sound like a [redacted] to real professionals when you use that phrase. We know that the only reason you are doing it is to grab attention, create controversy (leading to more attention), create false distinction (even though you actually still do X), and try to convince people that whatever you JUST switched too is what they should be doing.
2. Calling stuff “the new.” This is almost identical to point 1. If there was a “new SEO” it would now be the new, new, new, new, new, new, x100,000 to the 4th power. Okay I’m not a math guy, but you get the point. Yes, SEO and social is evolving. When wasn’t it? And as a bonus let me clarify that social media isn’t actually new either. Popularized and pervasive, yes. New? No.
3. Misleading people with new nomenclature, and then professing X is dead and this is the new X. People like this are tantamount to snake oil sales people. You will do whatever it takes to make a buck. Look I have no problem with unique marketing and branding, but you don’t inbound title tags. You don’t earned media an H1 to correct that and other deficiencies in on page SEO. Plumbing isn’t dead despite the existence of hacks within the industry and we didn’t rename them water conveyance engineers to create false distinction from the twits who aren’t real professionals.
4. Professing X is better than Y, when both are valuable. Yeah, you do PPC so organic SEO is crap. I get it. Or, you do social media consulting so traditional advertising is stupid and a waste of money. Yet, if you are only doing PPC, then you are leaving all that organic opportunity (80% ish) on the table, and if you aren’t doing PPC you are forgoing that opportunity. The numbers may be argued, but the fact that BOTH hold value is not in question.
5. Confusing your success with others opportunity. Yay, your great at (insert whatever platform or technique here) and want the World to know about how it worked for you. Awesome. Now consider the real time and effort you put into making that happen. Most businesses will not.
6. Saying that social media is free. No, it’s not. Social media is free to use, not free to do. And the free part doesn’t mean optimal positioning or visibility for you or your company. You might actually have to treat it like other marketing and put thought, resources, and budget into it to get results out of it. And actually if that statement requires further explanation … never mind.
7. Saying that Google+ is a desert, wasteland or equally ignorant statement based on the fact that you opened it a few times and decided it wasn’t for you. If you actually spent any time over there — read actually participated — you would start making valuable connections and find some value. Should you? That is a different discussion, but your lack of due diligence or giving Plus a chance invites me to point to a bucket of shhhhhh.
8. Bashing QR Codes. You know why this annoys me? Because QR Codes are nothing more than a maligned bit of technology that’s been so badly misused & ridiculed by the marketing industry as to ensure lax adoption. The overwhelming lack of strategy, and stupid usage, of QR Codes is what killed them, not the lack of a universal app.
9. Creating Lists, and actually, I don’t mean this one at all. Oddly enough they still work and really, I think people actually like lists. I do. They fit my attention span. Marketers who want to make fun of other marketers do not.
10. And finally, stop listening to people like me tell you what to do. If it is working for you, isn’t unethical or mean, then I suppose in reality it’s fair game. You just have to accept that a fair amount of new and veteran professionals are laughing at you.
I could go on, but I probably should stop short of offending everyone. Disagree? Add your ad hominem and hyperbole free comment below.