There’s never been an easier time to be an expert. Just about any piece of information you could ever want is available through an Internet connection, a browser and just a few clicks. You can quickly set up a blog, a small website, and a LinkedIn profile and you too can look like an expert. I’m surprised there isn’t an expert kit yet that includes these elements in nicely designed box. You can even take it to the next level and respond in all sorts of LinkedIn Answers. Maybe this makes you really look like an expert.

So what’s to keep everyone from running around as self-proclaimed experts? I had a conversation with a few colleagues last week and we all agreed it is the transparency the web provides. While it’s become easier than ever to become an expert, it’s also become easier than ever to realize when the Emperor’s New Clothes aren’t quite right. When the “Social Media Expert” has a blog hat hasn’t been touched in a year, isn’t on Twitter and can’t point you to clear success stories; When the agency that “specializes in online advertising” goes blank when you ask about ad servers; or when the web design shop that “specializes in user experience” has a 2 minute flash intro on the front of their website. These are just a few examples most of us have seen before.

In the discussion, one of my colleagues mentioned how he explained to his family why he posts certain things on Twitter – despite being longtime business owners they didn’t understand why he would share those aspects of his business successes and challenges. His answer was simple: if I’m transparent I never have to remember which version of a story I told some people and which version I told others. In his case, he is a true expert and that expertise combined with the transparency that validates it has led him to business success.

First, let me make something clear: I am not anti-ad agency. There are some very good ones out there, some of which Right Source Marketing does business with.

I am, however, anti-ad agency when it comes to agencies that fall into the following categories:

• Agencies that have simply not adapted to new media, and fail to acknowledge the growth and power of interactive vehicles at every turn. Thankfully, there’s not a whole lot of these left, but some are still out there and I have no idea how they’re surviving.
• Agencies that claim that they have a new interactive department, interactive expertise, and interactive services, all led by…the same guy/gal that was fighting the idea that interactive was important a year ago.
• The “gotta plant our flag somewhere, we’ll call ourselves an interactive agency” agencies. It would be unfair to provide a blanket profile of these types, but some typical characteristics include below-market pricing for below-market services, all with a complete lack of strategic guidance.

So what will the agency of the future look like? Sean Carton , in his recent ClickZ column , does a fantastic job of articulating what should, will, and already is happening to agencies – at least those that pay attention to what will provide clients with real value with regards to strategy and services. Here are a couple of excerpts – enjoy:

The full-service monolithic agency model worked fine in a world where there were four major broadcast networks, large-scale radio networks, and a couple daily newspapers per town. It doesn’t work when you have to deal with dozens of media channels that change on a nearly daily basis. New technologies pop up (social networking, Twitter, online video, etc.) and new skills and new thinking are needed to deal with them. Large organizations with large payrolls, hierarchical structures, and well-defined (and well-defended) areas of expertise can’t possibly hope to make any money when they have to staff themselves with a constantly expanding cast of experts to deal with new media challenges. Add to that a compensation model based on a world that’s long gone (retainers and media commissions) and the agency model we’ve all grown up with starts to look like a relic of the past. Turmoil in the industry provides proof.

So what to do? Simple: explode the idea of the monolithic agency. Get rid of the concept that only an agency that does everything can possibly create and manage large campaigns. Look for more flexible and fluid models that expand and contract as needed, bringing in new expertise when needed and ditching it when it’s not. Think distributed, not centralized. Think “collective,” not “company.”

So what’s the agency of the future going to look like? Probably a lot smaller and focused on strategy, account/project management, creative leadership (but not execution), and media strategy (but not planning and buying). Most agencies will revolve around these hubs if they’re honest with themselves. Agencies will exist to provide high-level strategic guidance that clients need in a media-chaotic environment. Agencies will expand or contract as needed or will explore radical solutions such as crowdsourcing to get work done for less money.

These are infamous words, generally spoken by infamous people.  Or at least people that are about to become infamous.

There are literally hundreds of ways organizations arrive at the decision that they need to build a new website.  Sometimes the decision is simply dictated from the CEO.  Sometimes the decision is driven by a change in ownership or control.  Sometimes the decision is driven by the poor performance and usability of the current website.  For the point I am trying to make here, the driving factor of the decision doesn’t matter.

What does matter is the mistake that at least 20% of small and medium businesses make: I call it the “All I need is a web designer” mistake.

Really? No, I mean really?

Listen.  Perhaps you just want a brochure site.  Static.  You don’t care about driving “new” traffic.  You don’t care about using the site as a lead generator or customer acquisition tool.  You don’t care about using the site to become a thought leader in your industry.  That’s cool – go find a designer – there are thousands of great ones out there, some of whom we work with on a regular basis.

But if you’re interested in making your website a complete, living, breathing, fluid marketing vehicle, then please don’t say things like the following:

“We don’t need any help with our messaging.  We’ve got that down pat. “

Really? No, I mean really? Strangely enough, the companies that usually say that are the ones that DO have their messaging down pat.  Down pat in the CEO’s head.  And only his head.  And the messaging is in his/her head equates to 10 pages of messaging if you could extract it.

“Don’t worry about the copy.  We have all kinds of brochures, and if the information isn’t there we can always use all the copy on the current site.”

Really? No, I mean really? Brochures aren’t websites.  And if you don’t have any formal messaging plan, then that copy that resides on your site probably doesn’t make any sense.

“Not sure that SEO matters to us.  All of our customers come through referrals, and that seems to work out pretty well.”

Really? No, I mean really? That’s probably one of the reasons why your business isn’t growing.  You’re maintaining a business, not growing it.  If you’re good with that, then forget the SEO.  It will probably drive all kinds of new leads into the business, and you’ll have to figure out how to deal with these new leads instead of always handling “warm” leads.  Who would want to deal with that problem, after all?

This brings us back to my favorite:

“All I need is a web designer.”

Yup.  And when I build my next house, I’ll just get someone to paint the outside real nice.  Plumbing doesn’t matter.  Working appliances don’t matter.  Electricity? Who needs it.  Just make it look nice on the outside and we’re good to go.