Diabolic Advocacy

It’s happened a bunch of times.

Alicia and I are participating on a panel or giving a talk or narrating a PowerPoint presentation.  Afterwards, there’s always at least one person that wants to talk to us afterwards to ask if “this social media stuff” - which they know is important - is something that Solid Cactus can do for them.

And the answer, in case you’re wondering, is yes.

But I don’t say, “Yes.”  At least, not right away.  I ask, “Do you have the time to do it yourself?”

In a perfect world, we’d all have the time to blog daily and always have our iPhones ready for our next Tweet, but we all know the world is far from perfect.  Something’s got to give.  That’s why Britney Spears and Fifty Cent can’t be bothered to manager their own Twitter streams.  Both of those examples prove that a 3rd party curating your social media presence can work.  Still, doing it yourself showcases the most important thing about your small business - you.  In fact, the smaller the business, the more you are your brand.  And human contact, like any Dell or Comcast social media case study can attest and affirm, is what turns moderate success into something that makes headlines.

I’m thinking about this because of something I read in today’s New York Times on the subject of celeb Twitter accounts and, of course, talk to the holy grail of famous Tweeple, Shaquille O’Neal.

Shaq, who routinely does things like give away a pair of basketball tickets to the next follower that walks up and touches him, was quoted thusly in the article:

It’s 140 characters. it’s so few characters.  If you need a ghostwriter for that, I feel sorry for you.

If you need a social media presence, we can give advice and help set it up.  We can even manage it for you, but is it possible that you can do a better job on your own?