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Faux experts abound

Today combines two of my pet peeves: local councils and social media influencers.

I've often highlighted the lunacy that is my own local council but recently even they were gazzumped in the "I can't believe that's true" ranking.

It was the Auckland Council that took top ranking with a recent decision to pay a few social media influencers eye-watering amounts of money to help promote some of their events and facilities.

Yes, we're talking a six-figure sum here.

As someone who likely falls into the category of "social media influencer" you might find it strange that I'm critical of this spend by Auckland Council - but read on because I don't think anyone in their right mind can condone what has been done here.

If you want all the gory details then this Stuff story has them.

Cutting to the chase however, it seems that the most worrying part of the spend was the $5,700 paid to one "influencer" to create a couple of short videos on TikTok.

It's not uncommon for brands to pay for influencers to create videos that promote the sale or even awareness of their products. Some of the really big influencers can charge astronomical sums for mentioning a company in one of these posts and I guess those companies are getting some kind of benefit or they wouldn't waste their money.

However, those big-name influencers usually get millions of views on each and every thing they post so the cost per view to the sponsor is pretty minimal and likely in line with what they'd be paying for TV, radio or newspaper advertising.

Pitty the poor Auckland Council therefore when they ended up getting an astonishing 462 views for their almost $6,000 spend, especially when a few of those views would have simply been Council Staff themselves checking out what was going on.

In advertising terms, that was a CPM (Cost Per Mille, ie: per thousand views) of over $12,000 when the going rate for advertising is anywhere from $2 to $10 per thousand views.

Seriously... who authorised this ridiculous spend and where are they working now? (hint: I doubt anyone was shown the door for this recklessness, that's not the way most councils work).

I think this is what happens when you get decision-makers who do not do proper research and don't take sage advice when spending other people's money, something that happens far too often in local government circles.

Perhaps this also shows that there are far too many "experts" out there who know next to nothing about things like this but know just enough to make it sound like they know everything when dealing with the truly naive.

This is one of the reasons that I have never taken any form of sponsorship or accepted payment to make a video on any subject. My "customers" are the people who watch my videos and it is to them that my loyalties lie. The irony is that this makes me a far more powerful "influencer" than any of those who will gladly prositute themselves on the altar of greed for a few bucks. My viewers know that I never compromise my principles by creating paid-for content and therefore they value my opinions to a greater extent than those of someone who's forever taking money to plug a product or company.

Of course in the greater scheme of things I'm still small fry. I don't have *millions* of followers but I do have around half a million if you tote up all my subscribers on YouTube. My videos don't always get a seven-figure view-total but I can still rack up some pretty impressive numbers from time to time (as with this video from not so long ago.

If I was to sell my soul to the devil and start accepting all the offers I get for sponsorship and paid placements, I'd likely be earning many times the amount I do now but sadly, I'm a principled kind of guy and I enjoy it that my point of distinction is the fact that I am true to those principles. When I use my influencer powers, it's for good, not for evil.

While we're on the subject of faux-experts and their promises, I continue to regularly receive emails and sometimes spam in the comments on my videos, inviting me to use the services of the search-engine optimisation expert (SEO) who's touting for business. It strikes me that anyone who responds to an SEO spam is an idiot because surely the best way to find an SEO expert is by searching for one. The truly good ones will be right there, at the top of the search results -- while the faux-experts will have to resort to spamming to attract your attention.

The other faux experts out there are those who will tell you how to make a fortune on the internet through passive income. If these people have the secret to making so much money through passive income, why are they *actively* soliciting you to buy their secrets? Why aren't they simply laying back on a beach somewhere enjoying the millions that roll into their bank accounts every day?

Likewise those who claim to have the secrets to forex trading, stock market investments, etc, etc. If they really had those secrets they wouldn't be begging for coins on the information superhighway would they?

And don't get me started on all those "how to make a viral video" videos on YouTub which have attracted just a handful of views. Yeah... they're obviously made by people who know what they're talking about... right?

What a world!

Carpe Diem folks!

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