It’s interesting. Over the last few days, I’ve been seeing a strange synergy between social media engagement and property investment.

Let me explain. Our tag line for our property business is "Dedicated to all those wishing to seek financial freedom through property investment". Then I realised that I could add … "and social media engagement".

Property investment is a long term way to achieve financial freedom and security. You invest money and you expect a return on your investment i.e. more money. Most people exchange their time for money (i.e. rent their lives out to a job), whereas property investors seek to exchange their money for time i.e. create a life of choice where they can spend their time as they wish.

I believe that social media engagement is the only way to future-proof your business as the younger generation moves from social networking to social business networking and the whole world moves on-line. You invest time, and you expect to see a return on your investment, which could be money, but it could also be more time to enjoy the things that you want to do in life. (I’ll explain that later … ).

BTW, I attend many different meetings and talk to many different people about this relatively new phenomenom termed social media that now accounts for over 15% of all global internet traffic.

One of the most common things people say to us on this subject is: "I don’t have time to engage with social media. I’m too busy!".

Well, in our book, that’s a bit of a self-defeatist answer. You can find time. Would you find time to go and collect winnings from the lottery?! Of course you would! Would you find time in your busy day if a long-lost friend phoned you for a catch up chat? Yes, you would. Time is far more elastic than most people appreciate. You always make time for the things that matter to you and the things that bring results. That is why you can – and must – find time to engage with social media.

But the important thing to recognise is that neither of these wealth creation strategies produce results quickly. It takes time and energy to build them up to the point where they become self-sustaining.

Property investment will, over the long term, if undertaken correctly, help you create serious wealth.

Social media engagement will, over the long term, allow you to build up a "long tail" on google and bank some major "contribution currency" that you can then rely on to feed you and your family for the years ahead. It is your on-line presence that will provide income for you in the years to come.

But with both property and social media engagement you need to START!

You cannot buy your 10th house first just as you cannot write your 3,000th blog before you have written your first one.

I quote one of my favourite marketing experts, Seth Godin, to illustrate my point:

Luckiest Guy

"This is my 3,000th blog post. (In a row).

Within a week of starting this blog, I had a feeling I wouldn’t be giving it up any time soon. It’s a difficult habit to develop, but an even harder one to break.

The impact of having one’s own personal long tail is huge. It’s not about googlefu (at least it shouldn’t be) but your footprint expands nonetheless. Do a google search on seersucker suit and there I am, listed third, with a vaguely relevant post. Do one on advice for authors and there I am again. Drip, drip, drip, it adds up. The hard part, as you can guess, is the first 2,500 posts. After that, momentum really starts to build.

Traffic isn’t the goal, spreading ideas is"

Using an example from my own property blog, type "Ikea Nicosia" into Google, and, invariably on the front or second page, you will find my blog about Ikea opening up in Cyprus. I wrote it two years or so ago, but it is still there in the natural listings, showing people that I have a long history of writing about property. I only wrote it once, but it continues to funnel people towards me – so I benefit from the law of increasing returns. Was that a good investment of my time? Yes, most definitely. That blog will be there in perpetuity. It cost nothing to write other than my time, and it has exposed my message to masses of people. I did not pay for any SEO, Google PPC, Google Ad Words to get it into the listings – just organic content. Can I tell you an exact ROI? No. But if it cost me nothing to write, then I would say that the return is infinite.

On the property front, we now have over 20 properties, but I could not have bought no. 20 unless I had bought that first one back in April 2004.

So, if you are serious about securing your financial future, I just want to give you a little prod and challenge you to start TODAY. In property, you need large sums of money to invest, but for social media, you just need to invest your time, personality, and passion. Over time, you will reap the rewards of your efforts – that is guaranteed.

So, if you haven’t written your first blog, I challenge you to write one today. As Seth says, develop it into a habit, and the rest is easy!

Starting in property and social media is like launching a space shuttle. You need massive energy, single mindedness, committment, and investment of time to get off the ground, but once you reach orbit, you just need to tweak to stay on course.

With both social media and property investment I am now pretty much on auto-pilot because I started years ago.

The secret of success with anything is consistent and sustained action.

The passing of time is generally regarded as negative by most people. But if you have some properties under your belt, or you’ve used that time to build up an on-line presence, it certainly sweetens the pill a little bit, as both these investments benefit from time passing!

So, get started today as NOW is actually the only time that any of us has.

However, you could be forgiven for not buying a property today, as there are (now) huge barriers to entry as you need a 25% deposit. However, one of the joys of these social media web tools is that they are all FREE to use. There are no barriers to entry. You are on a level playing field and can have the same impact as a major corporation! You can find time to get started with this, so ask yourself what is stopping you? What excuse are you going to come up with to not get going NOW?

In case you are in any doubt as to the way the world is going, and you need to move with it, take a few moments to watch this powerful video:

Fast forward to a raining Monday in five years time, when you didn’t get started with social media today , and you suddenly realise that the whole world is now on-line and your business presence isn’t. (You cannot still in any doubt after watching the video?!).

You will really kick yourself that you didn’t take action that rainy Monday morning.

So, I ask you, what are you going to do today to secure your financial and business future?

If you would like to join a supportive and collaborative property community, please join our Property Tribes forum. It’s free to join and their is a wealth of informative on there to help you on your property investment journey.

If you would like to talk to me to discuss how I can support you in achieving financial freedom through property investment or social media, please get in touch.

If you would be interested in accelerating your influence on Twitter, please join our half day training and netwalk in the Surrey Hills on 5th August. Full details here.

socialmediagraffiti – the club