“Meshugana” is a Yiddish noun for a crazy person. Full of crap. That’s how Gary Vaynerchuk described himself as the Digital Mixer lunch keynoter today. The highlight of day two of the MarketingProfs conference, Vaynerchuk told us that word-of-mouth is changing. Spend time in social media space and our friends and fans will build our brands.
“Position yourself to be happy,” he says, “and do it every day.” Sounds easy?
It’s not, he says. “Nothing comes easy. Hard stuff takes time.”
OK, so maybe it reiterates what your parents told you all these years. But in this case, Vaynerchuk makes so much sense.
The son of Russian immigrants living in New Jersey, Vaynerchuk gained his notoriety as director of operations for his family business – Wine Library. Using social media, he grew the business to a $60 million online enterprise with customers worldwide. His WineLibrary TV attracts 80,000 visitors daily. He’s appeared on Conan O’Brien and Ellen, and has been mentioned in Time Magazine and The Wall Street Journal. And what got him here?
Living and breathing social media. He gets about 1000 e-mails a day and answers them all! He Twitters nonstop and particpates in conversations on a multitude of social networking sites, being authentic and transparent. That’s the key, he tells us.
He ridicules traditional advertising, telling us it’s a waste of time. When someone in the audience tells him she had to threaten to quit her job if her boss didn’t let her launch the company blog, he told her to quit. If organizations and individuals aren’t into social media full force, it’s an advantage for those of us who are now building our brands on social networking sites. By the time they “get it,” he tells us, we’ll be far ahead.
And it’s not something that management can assign to interns or junior staff, he advises. To be authentic, the “man” himself has to interact online. (Sorry, “woman” doesn’t have the same cachet as an expression.)
Does Vaynerchuk have down time? Only when he’s 30,000 feet above the earth and can’t access the Internet.
Vaynerchuk is full of energy, excitement, and ambition. His goal in life is no small feat – to own the New York Jets. I don’t doubt he’ll do it.
Is he full of crap – meshuga? I don’t think so. Watch his TV show and you decide.
So, your turn. Are you engaged in building your brand with social media? Are you spending more time in this medium than others? What’s your experience?
Tags: Gary Vaynerchuk, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter
Gary is and has been spot on with his thoughts on how companies should connect with their community.
My personal brand is something I take deep pride in on a daily basis and fully agree that by the time many of these companies ‘get it’, I (along with many others) will be ahead of the game.
Anyone know when/where MarketingProfs will be posting the video of his keynote? Looking forward to sharing it with coworkers.
I use social media, but not as much as I should to get the word out about my blog.
Overall, everything is moving toward a community-based marketing channel rather than blasting everyone with advertising noise.
Gary is an extreme case. He loves doing this stuff. And he does it non-stop.
He answers 1000 emails a day, but how many people would do the same? I’m not disagreeing with Gary. I’m typing this at 5:12 am and I routinely wake up at 4am almost every day of the year. And write between 300-1000 articles a year. How many sane people do that?
They don’t.
And in the hoopla of an extreme person, it’s easy to forget that the reason why the rest of the world just trundles along, is because they’re not extreme, and never will be.
And on another note:
Traditional advertising isn’t a waste of time (and no we don’t do any traditional advertising), but it’s a form of leverage. Throw your half a million dollars in the right direction and it works. As it has always worked. Is it a waste of money? No it’s not, if it’s done well.
Social marketing is a method of getting the word out. Gary uses it effectively. But it’s not the only way to get the word out. There are squillions of ways, and they all work, and they all need to be studied and treated with understanding, and testing.
Sean
http://www.psychotactics.com
@jay – It can be found here:
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/4370/Gary-Vaynerchuk-on-the-Importance-of-Engaging-and-Caring-About-Your-Community.aspx
Gary, Great Post,
We are no Gary Vaynerchuk, but know that pioneers like you Gary inspire and propel many of us to make the change and abandon traditional means and methods.
Over the last three years UrbaneApts.com have ceased traditional marketing efforts in exchange for a myspace site, a facebook site, YouTube and flickr sites. We also use twitter regularly. To further integrate we started a Social Network site the UrbaneLobby.com Too, we provide a regular blog aimed at our residents the UrbaneBlog.com, all designed around our target demographic local brand recognition.
Our Goal; To provide our residents with an experience and value with a high enough return to create enough Customer Evangelists within our core resident base that they self rent our apartments. We are working hard to lead our resident Influencers within our core resident base, and have transitioned most of our marketing budget inward, to further focus on our existing residents. Only good things have happened from this move. Resident retention has significantly improved, and we have created a forum and a field for the Influencers to participate. Along the path we hope to become Social Media experts based on our experience as to what works for multifamily and what doesn’t. We are learning as we go, but are seeing stellar results.
Perhaps the greatest benefit for us by utilizing these tactics and strategies is that when a potential resident does a Google search for Royal Oak Apartments, Urbane Apartments pop up on page one, number four or five consistently, which then typically drives the prospect right to our web site, thus allowing us an opportunity to showcase our offering
Great comments here. Since my first post, I e-mailed Gary and received an auto-reply video message that he can’t keep up with responding to his e-mails, but that he would get back to everyone; it just may not be on the same day. About an hour later, I received his personal reply. Now, that’s commitment to community.
I agree with Sean, that there’s a place for traditional media, but it also depends on the industry and who is in the target market. Gary certainly makes a strong case for building our social marketing equity.
Thanks for all your comments!