I watched this YouTube video of Shingy in silent horror.

Shingy is AOL’s “Digital Prophet” – a hack whose prophecies range from mundane descriptions of trends to pure gibberish.

I was surprised by the visceral reaction that I had to the “Shingy 2014” video.

The content isn’t terribly different than his other rambling speeches and TV interviews, but something about this video pissed me off.
After rewatching the video, I realized that what actually bothered me was that a major tech company gave this absurd person a platform and air of respectability.

The digital marketing community is infested with Shingies.

These self-professed “experts” are the people crowding local marketing panels, live-tweeting obscure conferences, and cluttering LinkedIn with “thought pieces” that are devoid of unique thoughts.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the most competent marketers are busy doing actual work for clients.

Shingy, AOL’s digital prophet.

Dismissing Shingies as incompetent hacks is dangerous, because these are the people who can dictate the marketing strategy of major corporations.

Although widely discredited inside the industry, the self-promoting “marketing/digital/social media expert” can easily persuade a boardroom (or worse, client) to pursue a bad strategy that we get stuck implementing.

The only effective way of stopping Shingies is by joining the conversation.

A competent marketer is never going do as much self-promotion as a hack, but there is an opportunity for more of us to create and promote intelligent content.

Creating smart content about our industry is really a matter of professional responsibility, because otherwise crap like this fills the void and defines us.