Comments on: Authority vs Celebrity … Is There a Difference?

By: Utah SEO Pro

Utah SEO Pro — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 11:41:28 +0000

Jeff, I’m glad you drew a line between the dichotomous relationship of being an authority and a celebrity. Often times people mix these up. I can think of conference panelists that IMHO are only there because they are celebrities…NOT authorities.

By: Lee Odden

Lee Odden — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 11:32:51 +0000

Great post Jeff and great series as well. Thank you for involving me.

I think you’ve hit it right – authority is different than celebrity. In fact, the notion of “celebrity” is a bit silly in an industry as little as ours.

Building authority is like building a brand. You make promises about capabilities and you deliver on those promises time and time again.

Trust, credibility and confidence in a person or company all come from a reliable representation based on truths as well as the consistent delivery and superior knowledge of the subject matter/industry.

That’s my opinion anyway. 🙂

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 11:32:12 +0000

@James, have you ever heard of ‘Perez Hilton’ the blogger who used to write about the celebrities and is now ironically a celeb after chasing fame.

@Jeff, Another great piece, my take in all of this is “live and let live” … if some wish to chase a dream of fame, let them … if others wish to shun the spotlight, let them … if others just wish to blog and be part of the community, let them …

There’s space for everyone.

By: MiriamEllis

MiriamEllis — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 07:58:10 +0000

Hi Jeff,
I think this is the first time I’ve commented on one of your posts, though I know I’ve sphunn lots of them.

Frankly – the famous SEO thing took me as a bit of a surprise. It is that people really want fame or wealth that is frequently the byproduct of fame?

While I wouldn’t mind being wealthy, I would personally loathe being famous, and I guess it’s always been my assumption that most people making use of industry-oriented SM are doing it in hopes of networking…not so people will worship them.

The series of posts around this topic (including yours) have been interesting to me because they point to a concept that people are, indeed, hoping to be celebrities. Hard for me to see the sense in that.

Appreciated what you wrote.
Miriam

By: Duane Forrester

Duane Forrester — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 23:39:53 +0000

I LOVE this topic Jeff. Good one. I’ve always held a couple of simple beliefs:

1 – content is king
2 – to get, you must give
3 – any help is precious, so open appreciate it

I’d have to say your definition suits my own “moral compass” on the topic nicely. Very nice to see a couple of “brand names” from the industry in agreement not just with themselves, but aligned in your direciton as well.

I wrote a post parallel to this topic (on my own blog) last year and dragged Vanessa Fox into it (with permission. 😉 ) – the basic thrust was:

We’ve got a lot of names being built in our industry, can any of them cross over to “absolute celebrity”? The thinkign being that exposure + financial success seems to be pretty much all that’s needed to qualify as a “celeb” these days – as vacuous as that it.

In the end it seemed that many online names are destined to never become celebrities for one simple reason – they know better. 😉

…though appearing on Oprah might hasten one’s acsednancy into the hotter night clubs. 😉

By: James Duthie

James Duthie — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 22:41:38 +0000

So what you’re saying Jeff, is that SEO fame seekers are the online equivalent of Paris Hilton…. 🙂