confusedI know I post a lot about the need for businesses to get involved in social media.  Hell, it’s half (actually more like all) of my business to get companies involved in social media.  That’s why I put Social Media Science together with Tom to create SYNND.  Just because I want businesses to get involved in social media and realize the power behind it however… doesn’t mean that it’s going to work for everyone.  It also doesn’t mean that everyone can do it.

It’s not like Geico.

Granted I’m not talking about the physiology of the human body.  We’re not talking about acid-base as it related to pH balance.  We’re not mixing rocket fuel.  This is easy stuff.  You can get by posting to your Facebook profile without a psych major.  You can probably write a 550 word blog post rant about people who cut across the Walmart parking lot doing 40mph instead of using the lanes (I loathe that…) and manage it without a literature degree.

You obviously don’t need a production team to post a video of a customer who won’t stop bragging about you.

There’s that remote possibility that you’re the type of person who stares at a blank sheet of paper or the blinking cursor and wonders if you may be more productive had you not done…all those things in high school you did.  Maybe you just hate writing, or perhaps there’s a part of you that thinks dancing in front of a camera for YouTube sounds like something you just.. can’t bring yourself to do.

Maybe both.

The fact is, social media is about engagement and content, and because content drives the web you’re pretty much forced to do one or the other.  Granted theirs audio, but you can’t really run an “audio” campaign.  You’ve got to supplement it with more.  From a business standpoint, social media seems like the insurmountable barrier for a lot of business owners who have this mindset.

Personally, I think that sucks.  And I say that coming from a position of total empathy.

The fact is, there are a lot of business owners that are concerned about the amount of time they can put into social media and whether or not they’re even capable of doing it themselves.  Keep in mind my self-employed friends, you do have the opportunity to have someone else handle and maintain your web presence.

So what are you overall options as a business owner?

You - Yeah we pretty much ruled that out.  That one is skunked.  It’s the logical choice but there is obviously something holding you back whether it’s skill, time, fear, stubbornness, etc.  So lets just move right along.

An Employee -  The next logical choice but you have to consider a few things.  The time you need to allot for that employee to manage the web presence.  Do they have the knowledge of social media?  Are they skilled and talented enough to create the content you need?  Can they act in an unbiased manner instead of lashing out irrationally with responses like “I dO nOt hAvE A ComFortaBle LiFe!” on your Facebook wall?  Some companies have employees that make the cut, many simply don’t.

Random Family - As good as their intentions usually are, we all know from many years of broken deals, heartache and horse-trading that getting family involved in business just… well I’ll just say that the drawbacks are not only numerous, but painful to think about.  The end result is usually bad.  Not like “oooooh no I got a flat tire” bad.  More like “four horsemen of the apocalypse” bad.

Professional Agency/Freelance/Outside Contractor - If you’ve got the budget for this, it’s a great option.  There are a lot of companies that will completely monitor your reputation online.  They’ll handle all of your social media accounts, write content and market with that content, etc.  Budget for businesses is usually the issue but the return with social media marketing is often much higher over time than what gets invested.

Ultimately, you have to make a smart decision about what you’re going to do.  It may seem OK to just put a warm body in the seat but as we know from running a business for years, you can’t just hire anyone.

I admit it can be a bit of a catch22.  What do you think?  If you’re stuck between worry and budget, what’s the best choice if there’s legitimate concern on both sides?

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