012 Business of Security Podcast – Marketing by Innuendo

This podcast is a bit of a rant. I really try to provide useful and critical information to help you do your job better but this is something I needed to share with the EP community.

Finding your way through the minutia of social media information overload, literally, you happen upon some photos of a guy/woman who you respect in the EP industry and who you think by looking at the photos, that he/she is making it. But is he/she really or is it just Marketing by Innuendo.

I’m talking about Posers. By definition, a poser is:

1. One who pretends to be someone whose not.
2. Who tries to fit in but with exaggeration.

EP/Bodyguard guys and gals who by way of images/content and stretching the truth imply that he/she is:

• At the the political/celeb event
• Providing EP services
• Interacting with celebrities
• Successful in the EP industry

The idea is to imply to the uneducated, uninitiated in the market that he/she is making it. Fake it, until you Make It will only take you so far in the bodyguard industry and in my opinion, despite the ever growing numbers in the bodyguard industry it is still a community where word of mouth will get you hired and fired. So faking it with photoshopped images will only take you so far.

Now not all posers are faking it. Posers could be legitimate EP guys and gals that think posing is the best way to market your services.

In my opinion, posers are doing more damage to the bodyguard industry by perpetuating the myth that bodyguarding is all glory, rubbing shoulders with celebs and politicians; that’s it’s an easy profession and you’ll be making millions.

How do you know if an image has been photoshopped? Every image taken by a camera has metadata or EXIF data. This data may also provide the last software to be used – ie Photoshop. Fortunately, there are free tools to read this data. This isn’t to say that the photo is fake, just that it’s been edited. How do you tell if it is fake? Look at the shadows and lighting.

What are your thoughts on what I call Posers? Post in the comments below.

The post 012 Business of Security Podcast – Marketing by Innuendo appeared first on Strategic Marketing Solutions.