It started like a small bunch of rustling leaves. A little Facebook here and there – a blog or two. And then the wind picked up. LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube. Growing from a windstorm to a firestorm, social media in now a tornado running wild over the Internet plains.

How social are you?
How serious are you about social media?

REALITY: You can’t ignore it. Hundreds of millions of people are involved so far, and it’s just a few years old.

I tried to ignore it for a while, but it soon became apparent that this was the new, new wave – about two years ago I became a player.

I admit I have an edge.

I have a lot of readers and followers who are interested in what I have to say and want to know what my immediate thinking is. That’s two of the advantages of social media. It is immediate and it is informative.

It’s also fun! That’s why Facebook and YouTube are worth BILLIONS.

The major networks in social media are growing quickly:

• Social networking for the growing and grown set is Facebook – worth billions.v
• To get connected and network with businesspeople, it’s LinkedIn – worth billions.
• If you want to say a few words, 140 characters sent to thousands in a second, it’s Twitter – worth billions.
• For videos, it’s YouTube – worth billions.
• For posting photos, it’s Flickr – worth billions.
• And for that private message, there’s texting – it’s easy for me – I have an iPhone (priceless).

And that is just a partial picture. There’s more…

• For individual expressions, there are blogs – where people you attract can subscribe to and link to your other social media pages.
• For chronologging it’s Wikipedia – worth billions.
• And of course, there are your personal website and business website. Priceless.

All of these media are, or try to be, socially engaging – sticky if you will. All of them are, or try to be, passed on to others – viral if you will. Better stated, if you tweet, are you good enough or bad enough to be retweeted?

HERE’S THE GOOD NEWS: Everything you do in social media is documented on Google. And those documentations affect your ranking in a positive way.

I have made a serious commitment to “socialize” by exposing more of my personal self, and my business self, through social media. I maintain my value-based philosophy, but with business social media, I can personalize it, and humanize it, to a point that others are attracted to it, benefit from it, and want to pass it on to others.

I am business social and viral at the same time.

So, what does this mean to you?
What’s the opportunity to you and for you?
Why should you get involved?

Social media is an opportunity, a new frontier, a space in cyberspace that gives you an individual place to play, builds awareness of you and for you, brands yourself, and from which you can potentially profit.

You have to ask yourself …
Where’s the beef?
Where’s the fun?
What’s the value? Both to others and yourself.
And how – if desired – do you monetize it?

UNFORTUNATE NEWS: Unless you’re one of the few people in an ownership or founding position of these social media, your monetizing opportunities are at the moment limited – in spite of various claims by “experts.”

So here’s what I recommend to get going and get positioned, so that your opportunity – either in social, business, fun, or money – can be realized:

• Sign on.
• Establish an account on each of the major sites.
• Post something.
• Tweet something.
• Connect with someone.
• Do it yourself.
• Do it every day.

And learn by updating as much as you can on your own.

Social media is fluid – it moves and changes daily. It’s text, audio, photo, and video. It’s every media and it’s every second. It’s current and it’s constant.

Ever see a section of a website labeled “latest news,” and when you click it, the last update is from 2004? Not good.

The Internet is instant. Social media is instant. And you have to be ready to participate consistently, and in a meaningful way, if you want to win.

Please don’t wait.