Me! Me! Me!

I’m sick of attention whores.  They’re noise, and there’s way too much going on of substance to have to spend the time separating their chaff from all the important wheat out there.  Unfortunately, we’ve become a culture that rewards these clowns and this week provided yet another perfect case.

You got it:  Balloon Boy or, more accurately, his parents.  Once they were bitten by the reality star bug they deluded themselves into thinking they had lots to offer America.   This is self-promotion of the worst kind since they’ve damaged their family for the foreseeable future.  Think they’re going to go away?  But they’re not alone.

There are so many people – generally on the web but also in the tabs, on TV, etc. – who are famous for nothing other than just that. There are experts in social media who are “experts” because they decided they are and everyone else is either too distracted or too lazy to call BS.  I’ll give you an example.

There’s a “business expert” who focuses on sports.  A couple of years out of college.  No business experience other than self promotion of his work in jobs that he made up (the jobs, not the work).  Yet he is blogging (mostly about who he knows and what they’ve done), running LinkedIn and other business groups, newsletters, and seminars on how to grow your business via social media.  Lots of Twitter followers.  Many people in his groups.  Hello?  I get that his business is social media but how can he solve, or help you to solve, a client’s problems with a couple of years of self-promotion and no business experience?  It’s a carpenter who is functioning without plans.  He knows how to use the tools but has no clue what he’s building.

There are other guys (and they’re mostly guys) out there who are just as bad.  They’re great at self-promotion and lousy at real business.  They retweet one another’s tweets.  They hype each other’s blog posts.  But there’s nothing there.  They’re the cool kids in the digital high-school that’s the web but they’re all style and very little substance.

The linebacker who sacks the QB and gets up and dances while his team is down 3 touchdowns displays the same trait.  It’s about him, not the team.  It’s about style, not substance.  It’s the little picture, not the big one.  Empty balloons indeed.

So, you’re not that guy.  Right?  Hey – what ever happened to the old Pilgrim punishment of shunning?