Back to Basics Tuesday: caveat consultant

My colleague asked me if I had ever heard of a certain very prolific email marketing LinkedIn consultant (we’ll call him “X” for simplicity).

No, but I’ll take a look.

I started the simple LinkedIn search for X’s first common name and unusual last name.

Nothing.

I kept looking out of curiosity. My thought process was that a LinkedIn guru worth his weight in golden advice must be splattered all over LinkedIn and other social media.

So I searched the company name. Barebones LinkedIn company profile.

I’m hearing the “DISCONNECT” buzzer, are you?

But I persevered.

I went to X’s website and found his full name, now unusual first and last name so now armed with a better chance of a “hit,” I searched that on LinkedIn. His website shows he is working in California. More “meat” to go on for a search on LinkedIn…

OK a match, but…a really minimal LinkedIn profile, and located in India. And California?

No contact info either (website URL, phone number, email address). This is getting to be more work than he is worth, it seems.

There’s that DISCONNECT buzzer again, telling me something’s not right for a LinkedIn coach to not tell his full career story or to be easily accessible.

Should I keep trying? Just for a “what not to do” blog piece?

Sure! I can’t make this stuff up!

The “contact us” page on his website shows links to his social media. I clicked those leads:

• Link to LinkedIn page is broken. Dead giveaway, as if I need another one. BUZZZZZZZZZZ
• Hasn’t posted on Facebook in >1 year, and client reviews on FB page are not pretty. BUZZZZZZZZZZ
• Twitter shows he lives in Colombia.  And India and California as mentioned above. Is he a moving target? BUZZZZZZZZZZ

Thanks for the exercise and the example I can show my readers, guru X. I have much sharper and more collaborative LinkedIn gurus to follow. Why should anyone work so hard to read about you, X, in more detail, to decide if you are worth considering as a coach? And just where are you located? And just how do we contact you?

No one other than me, IMHO, enjoys the “sport” of blogging this finger-wagging parable.

So, dear reader, how hard is it for others to read about you and get a hold of you in the way you want to be understood and accessed? Think about it from the POV of the reader.