My really good friend Gary Vaynerchuk made big announcement today: his book has gone for sale on Amazon. It is now available for pre-order and has hit the top 300 books on Amazon. The goal? To hit the Top 100. If anybody can get their book to the top 100, Gary Vaynerchuk can and it makes a great case study for the impact of social media. The best part is that the book only costs $13.57.

If you want to get an early copy go grab it on Amazon. The most amazing part is just through his announcement on his show today, the book has reached the top 300 on Amazon. I have no idea how good the book is but given Gary’s enthusiasm about wine I can guarantee you that a lot of passion went into the writing of it.

Gary is a great find of mine so I had to help him out and “link it up”. If you don’t know much about Gary then you need to check out his show Winelibrary TV as well as his personal blog Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary is one of the most passionate people I know and is a true symbol of social media self-promotion. Check out his video below if you don’t know much about him.

Yesterday, Gary Vaynerchuk posted one of his daily thoughts on life. The primary argument that Gary makes is that good will defeat evil through social media and the internet. I couldn’t agree more. While you can create a false image of yourself online, eventually you will be exposed for who you are. Then again, I believe that people will always be exposed eventually because in my world, the truth always wins.

You may be asking, “what about those that don’t use social media?” Every member of the next generation is using social media and the world will soon be completely connected. Am I scared? Well I’m concerned if the government tries to take over any of these organizations but given that the internet provides true democracy, I don’t see that happening in this country anytime soon (at least I hope not).

Being connected all the time and making your life public forces you to be a good person. You can’t run and hide. Instead, embrace the fact that you are good and you will be rewarded. If you aren’t good at heart you are going to be eventually exposed. It is going to become increasingly difficult to outsmart the system because it is becoming engrained within us. Watch Gary’s video to learn more. Do you agree?

An article in the New York Times highlighted the challenge of making a business out of blogging. They suggested that you blog regularly but don’t expect a significant pay day. Ultimately, the blogging can lead to other things. The New York Times is completely accurate aside from a few blogs that are generating relatively significant revenue.

There’s not as much money in building a blog for most people because you need to generate a substantial amount of traffic before it makes a lot of money. This morning while getting ready for the day I realized that the real value is in the community. Gary Vaynerchuk is the person I always use as an example of someone that has successfully built a community. He also knows that building the community will reward you greatly. Check out his video:

So often I simply write content but I’ve realized that the real value is in building the community and providing them with a platform for discussion. I’ll be working on that for Social Times. If you own the platform for the community, there are many other things you can do to add value and generate revenue. The secret is not in the media but instead in leveraging the media to build a community.