As far back as January of this year, David Armano and I have been a having a discussion on twitter about the need for a Social Media Sheriff.  I nominated him for the job, but he declined.  I was bummed because I think he’d do a great job of it.  David has the experience, chops, clout and respect to be the person who can call bullshit on snake oil salesmen, posers and charlatans.

Recently, he and I revisited the topic after a “blogger” decided to plagiarize a bunch of his work and tried to pass it off as their own.  Peter Kim wrote a nice summary of the situation, without naming names.  Although, I think he should have named names.  These “criminals” need to be called out.  And let’s make no mistake, they are criminals.  They steal time, they steal effort and they misrepresent themselves as “experts” to unsuspecting people and companies.

In an indirect way, Peter, whom I respect a lot, basically challenged me on my some claims I was making about thinking around “Social Business.”  I made the claim that this was a topic I had been covering for some time.  He matter of factly challenged me to produce the deck…which I did, in a limited format due to client confidentiality.  Was I irritated that he challenged me and my statement?  Sure, I was.  But, did I understand it?  You bet.

We’re operating in a wild wild west atmosphere right now.  Any NO ONE wants to step up and where the badge.  No one wants to call out someone else.  No one wants to point out the charlatan.  You know why?  Because, as I wrote here:

Our industry is filled with chances to be honest, authentic, and genuine. But, too often we pass on those chances. I’ve been overly critical of so-called professional analysts like soon to be former Forrester Social Media analyst Jeremiah Owyang. An analyst is supposed to dig in to a situation and honestly assess it. These analysts, with rare exception never provide the brutal honest truth. They avoid controversy and critique like it was the plague. In short, they don’t do the job they’re being paid to do.

I tend to believe the reason they don’t provide an honest assessment of company, person, or situation is that it’s not to their personal benefit. They need to maintain these friendships and connections for future gain. They need to keep things more friendship focused than business focused. You need only look at the number of people leaving analyst firms to join a company they’ve previously “analyzed” to see what I mean.

It’s not in their interest to wear the badge.  Well, it’s not in their interest until it starts hurting their bottom line.  When someone starts plagiarizing David’s work and taking potential business away from him, it becomes an issue that’s worth paying attention to and focusing on.  Funny, how that works

I really like approach Justin Kownacki is taking lately.  One of things I’ve always respected about Justin is his BRUTAL honesty.  If you want to see that in action, check out his post titled “What Do We Do About Plagiarism?“  He’s facing this issue head on and I like it.  Last year I wrote a post covering the Top 10 Favorite Blogs and one covering the Top 10 People To Follow On Twitter.  This year, and very soon, I’ll be focusing on the top 10 people to avoid on twitter, the top 10 snake oils salesman in social media, and of course the top 10 bullshitters.  I’m sure it’ll ruffle some feathers, but frankly I don’t care.

It’s time for someone to take on the responsibility of being the sheriff and since the “thought leaders” in the industry don’t have the balls to do it, I guess I’ll be the one who wears the badge.  You’re on notice and I believe in a zero tolerance approach.