The Importance of Social Equity Over Financial Equity

I was surfing through some Gary Vaynerchuk videos and stumbled across this post from March 28, 2008: Legacy Is Greater Than Currency.

The video basically breaks down Gary’s thought on financial decisions compared to legacy and social decisions. I have been debating internally about the concept of personal branding in the social media marketing realm and this video hits it right on the nose.

Your social portfolio

As an entrepreneur (and I think I speak for most) a legacy concept is much more important than the financial return a business may bring you. Let’s face it… the first five years of owning a company is pretty much scraping, unless you are a Mark Z, the creator of Facebook. In the world of social media it is far more important to put emphasis on building your personal brand and personal equity than putting cash in your pocket. This has a lot to do with how you use social media. If you are a business owner and you are using social media as a marketing tool you CANNOT… let me repeat.

YOU CANNOT.

Treat your friends and followers as financial equity. I am saying this more towards the people who use Twitter Auto-Response or just write a blog for financial gain. Become a part of the community. Give back to the community. Join the race and enjoy the race.

Join, participate, engage and interact

In the end, you will find that will bring much more to your life than a new Infiniti or a Mercedes.

I am in business because I love what I do. I love everything about social media marketing and branding. If that means I need to make $20,000 a year for five years to truly build a company that helps people do what they love…

Sign me up.. over and over again.

Because in the end you will see far greater return in the long run both personally and professionally.

Author:

Kyle writes a regular blog at KyleLacy.com and is founder and CEO of Brandswag, a social media strategy and training company. His blog has been featured on Wall Street Journal’s website and Read Write Web’s daily blog journal. Recently, Kyle was voted as one of the top 150 social media blogs in the world (on two websites), and produces regular keynote speeches across the Midwest. He also just finished writing Twitter Marketing for Dummies by Wiley Publishing.