I have a role model in this social media real estate craziness. Her name is Nicole Nicolay. Now I certainly won’t be dancing on camera and I’m not nearly as attractive but she showed me that there was a market for this information and that is was possible to make it fun and interesting. So here is a video from Nicole, @nik_nik on Twitter, about social media. If you follow me you definetly need to follow her. Add us both to your RSS feed.

To Nicole: Thank you for helping me find my purpose in all this. I’m not sure I can ever thank you enough.

This is exactly what more companies should be doing. The same way you drive traffic to your website you should be driving them to your social media sites. In fact you should probably drive people to your social media sites instead of your website. Why? Because it is where they are. People are on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube and they are NOT on your website. You will never be Google, Yahoo, or CNN and you shouldn’t want to be. Your website is a valuable tool and people will go there when they need you. Your social media sites are for engaging with the community, the people who buy your product or use your service.

Twitpic courtesy: ijustine

Jeff Turner makes a very compelling argument about why you need to do what is right for you not what is right for the speaker. Many people don’t want to use social media because they are confused and don’t know what to do. They have seen so many different strategies and tools and different approaches and they have said I can’t figure this out and threw their hands up in despair. Watch this video and think about why you aren’t using these tools.

If you do venture out and use them and mess up, and you will mess up its all part of the learning process, you may go look for help. When you look for that help please tell those that are trying to help you exactly what you did. Don’t hide the stuff you think was stupid. That little thing you hide may be a major part of the problem that they need to know to help you fix the problem.

Are you willing to fight this year? Are you willing to do whatever is necessary to win? I know this is about football but I think it can be applied to many things in life.

I think that in this tough economy people will need to fight to survive and those that fight the hardest will not only survive but succeed. You will need to give everything you have and when you want to quit and give up, you will need to give a little more. You don’t need to be the best but you need to be better than the next best guy. Since you probably don’t know who that is, the best insurance is to be the best.

I think that if you don’t view this economic downturn as a opportunity to remake yourself and your business your in trouble. Take 30 minutes out of your day and WATCH THIS. If you don’t have time bookmark it and watch it later.

My one take away from this is to stop making excuses that you don’t have time to do it. We all have the same amount of time yet others seems to be able to MAKE TIME to do it. This makes you look at the ways you spend your time and decide if you are allocating that time in the right places.

Chris Johnston

twitter.com/chrisjohnston