Lazy Marketers and Faux Measurers Make Us All Better

Hear me out. The other day, Jay Baer wrote a blog post that made my blood boil. Absolutely boil. I’m sure my eyes bugged out at my desk, and I think I may have cursed a few times while reading it.

But you know what? It made me think. Hard.  As did the comments, so read the conversation when you can.

While I get frustrated with tools like Klout claiming to be standard measure or metrics, what really frustrates me about these tools is they help lazy marketers be lazy. These tools builders know that busy marketers and other professionals using social media are looking for one-stop solutions, so they attempt to provide one. And once that tool is out there, there’s no stopping anyone from using it as they want, even if it seems ridiculous to most of us.

Another reason Klout in particular gets my blood pressure up has to do with what it offers. There is little that annoys me more than when someone is lazy or pretends to know more about measurement than they do. Being a good measurer or analyst takes practice and training. Sometimes it seems people assume because they use Klout, they’re suddenly a social analytics professional. They’re not.

Klout and the like get me worked up because they only bring out the lazy marketers and faux measurers. They make it easier to cut corners, and that’s frustrating!

But here’s the thing: every time a lazy marketer or faux measurer emerges, it gives us a chance to learn. All of us. We hope that we can teach them how to do things a better way, but we also might learn a thing or two from them. They might help us understand why they cut corners or just help us understand why their way of doing things is wrong.

And to be frank, I was once a faux measurer. Right after I graduated from college, I jumped on Twitter and my blog and started spouting my own theories on measurement. I learned a ton, and I’m still learning every single day because I’m willing to put myself out there.

That’s how we all learn. We put our opinions out there, and sometimes we get torn apart. But then we all grow. We all gain a new perspective.

So I guess what I’m saying is this: be lazy, pretend you know what you’re doing and talk about it. You’ll learn a lot, and you’re likely to teach at least a few people a thing or two as well.

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