Daily Archives: February 27, 2025

Yes I’m Okay, But I Am Very Angry. You Should Be Too! (Part 1)

Apparently my influencer rants last week caused some concern among my fellow educators with regards to my health, or at least my mental health, so I’d like to assure you all that yes I am okay, but yes I am very (VERY) angry … and you should be too!

As I pointed out in some of my responses to the three LinkedIn posts that advertised my influencer week content, namely:

It’s bad enough we have to deal with:

  • a constant stream of sound-bite driven, education free marketing
  • analysts pushing these unproven claims (and then telling the buyers it’s their fault when the technology fails for buying into the technology their analyst firm relentlessly promoted)
  • vendors shoving (Gen-)AI into every nook and cranny, which not only fails to add value, but often decreases it (see: Mythbusting 2025 2015 Procurement Predictions and Trends! Part 12, for example)
  • consultants spreading the FOMO-FUD at constant Red-Alert levels

 

but now we have to deal with wannabe influencers with very little knowledge and experience in Procurement inundating social media/LinkedIn with obvious statements at best, useless content most of the time, and aggravated FOMO once they get hired by a vendor(‘s social media marketing company).

And that doesn’t help you. Not one bit. In fact, it hurts you. As the doctor wrote in Why the doctor is NOT an Influencer! Part I, as a Procurement professional, you’re unappreciated, overworked, denied the tools that would make your job easier, and blamed for everything that goes wrong. You laugh when you see the Monday.com commercial that shows people underwater by 10 am because you’re underwater 24/7/365 days a year (366 in leap years). You struggle to find a few minutes a day to read something that isn’t one of the three hundred new messages that hit your inbox overnight. If you’re dedicating a few minutes a day to read something, there better be a reward in it for you. It better at least spark a usable idea if it doesn’t give you one. You don’t need to spend 20 minutes reading five posts that tell you less than you already know. You need insight.

And, if you’re at the top of your game, like the doctor, you’d happily spend 8 to 12 minutes to read a deep 4 page article that actually makes you think or gives you real insight on a vendor’s platform than read 4 short LinkedIn posts that give you nothing more than recycled marketing sound bites. Because you need information. You need insight. You need education. Not bullshit laden clickbait designed to get the influencer likes. After all, as THE REVELATOR says …