When I was a kid, I dreamed of playing baseball professionally. We all ran through that moment in the World Series where it was the bottom of the ninth and the game was on your shoulders. At the mound, the Rocket, Roger Clemens. Sure enough, you hit it out of the park to win the game.
Then we returned to reality. And this is an important lesson for social media. Actually, two lessons.
Lesson 1: You might be a Twitter expert, but you cannot repair the transmission in a 1998 BMW 7 series.
It is true that on Twitter anyone can say anything. But if you pretend to know more than you actually do, or try to beat up on someone just because you can type, you are going to strike out. Yes, the Internet “democracy” is such that the “crowd” can determine your fate.
But if you step up to the plate against Roger Clemens, chances are that the 7-time Cy Young award winner will strike you out. Unless you are Jimmy Rollins.
Lesson Learned: Regardless of the context, you are who you are, no more, no less.
Lesson 2: Stake out your social media real estate.
And if you dawdle, you might find that RogerClemens.com is a spam site and @RogerClemens (Twitter) is owned by a Roger Clemens hater. Oops.