So, honestly, shouldn’t we just not give a damn?
Well, in absolute terms, yes. But it inevitably raises the question of how much legitimacy to give these rankings and, by extension, the tools that produce them, or the media that publish them.
Because if the tool misses major profiles (how can you leave out Olivier Lendrevie when it comes to finance or property on LinkedIn), doesn’t detect inactive profiles and can’t be trusted on fakes, then what’s the point? At a stretch, you could say it’s just bad publicity for those who can read between the lines.
The problem is when these new-fangled trinkets are used to legitimise a product or service in the eyes of people who aren’t in a position to see the complete lack of methodology.
It’s no accident that managers buy prizes, show them off and send them to their clients. They do it for the same reason that sellers of half-witted courses post their rented Lambos on Instagram: so-called social proof helps win over the customer. And it’s not hard to see how it’s all built on a lie, between conflicts of interest, everyone-gets-a-trophy culture, manipulation and plain old buying.
There’s no real solution.
Except education, as always.
But, as always, nobody really has any interest in providing it.
My name is Benjamin Charles, and I do branding, positioning and content creation consulting for companies in finance, property and web3.
👉 Contact me, or reply to this post: benj@mincharl.es
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