Gary Vaynerchuk

Three Excellent Books on Social Media

January 31, 2010 By Des Walsh

A Triple Book Notice Because I Haven’t Yet Reviewed These Books and I Feel Remiss About That

It was actually a resolution of mine well before New Year’s Day, to review all the books that have been piling up alongside my desk, mostly books on or relating to social media.

But New Year’s Day came and went.

So this is a notice as a precursor to the review I still plan to do of each of three of those books.

And while I have read only one right through, I have read enough of the others to be able to recommend all three wholeheartedly.

Without further ado, they are:

Paul Chaney’s the digital handshake – seven proven strategies to grow your business using social media

Gary Vaynerchuk’s Crushit! Why Now is the Time to Cash in on Your Passion

Shel Israel’s Twitterville – How Businesses Can Thrive in the new Global Neighborhoods

Paul Chaney, whose book provides an incomparable overview of the social media phenomenon, is highly respected by his peers and is an all-round nice guy to boot. He is one of my most valued friends – interestingly most of our communication has been virtual, partly because there is this rather large ocean, the Pacific, between our two countries. From explaining the new communications paradigm and why that should matter to anyone in business, Paul guides the reader through a complete strategic framework to employ social media to build any business.

Gary Vaynerchuk is a force of nature, a man of great passion for what he does and a truly impressive record in business, by any standard. I had the privilege of hearing him speak at the BlogWorld & New Media Expo in Las Vegas in 2008. He is the real deal and his book is a great read about branding and about social media. It is also a sometimes confronting challenge for all of us to look seriously at what our true passion is and then to align our business and our life with that.

Shel Israel is a standout observer and commentator on social media, not just because he has long experience as a practitioner in and writer on communications, but because he takes a global view. He also has a wonderfully lucid, highly communicative writing style. Over the past few years he has interviewed many people around the globe on blogging and other aspects of social media, so his take on social media is as highly informed by his knowledge of how things look in Beijing and in Adelaide, Australia, to mention just a couple of places, as it is of how they look in San Francisco or New York City. His examples of how Twitter is being used by various businesses large and small – and in some specific instances not used, foolhardily as he shows, by some other businesses – are priceless.

Three very different books by very different men. One thing these three man have in common is that they are generous with information and insights. I learn from each of them every time I read or hear what they have to say.

By the way, each its own right is a good book to give to friends or associates or family members who say: “I don’t get why you are so enthusiastic about/ interested in/ curious about (Twitter, Facebook, blogging, YouTube, LinkedIn, social media – check the one that applies)” and you then spend half an hour or so trying to explain, until you notice that their eyes are rolling back in their head.

On second thoughts, maybe not family members, if you don’t want to waste your money). But do get your own copies.

Picture credit – my pic.

Disclaimer: the links are to my Amazon Associates account, so if you click through and buy them there I will benefit (about one cup of coffee, tops, I think): but hopefully good bookstores will have them too. I bought my copies of Crushit! and Twitterville respectively: Paul Chaney kindly gifted me a copy of his book.

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: Gary Vaynerchuk, Paul Chaney, Shel Israel, Social Media, the digital handshake, Twitterville

Gary Vaynerchuk Videos as Social Media Consulting Filter

June 5, 2009 By Des Walsh

By way of a chance conversation after a Toastmasters meeting at which I was a guest the other night, I’ve found one way to share some information about social media in business without getting into lengthy and potentially confusing explanation.

Namely to point people to a couple of videos of the amazing Gary Vaynerchuk, @garyvee on Twitter.

During the conversation after the Toastmasters event, and in response to a question from the business owner with whom I was speaking, I started to explain about social media, then noticed a puzzled frown appearing. Rather than ploughing on, as I’ve done in other such situations, I suddenly had a brainwave, to send him a link to the recent Gary Vaynerchuk CNN interview on making money doing what you love.

To whet his appetite, I mentioned briefly the Gary Vaynerchuk success story, that he took a $4 million wine business and used social media to turn it into a $45 million business and that I saw and heard him speak last year. I told him that anyone who wants to know what’s going on should watch the video.

Not surprisingly after that, he said he would like to see the video. Yesterday I sent the link.

My new rule

Then today I had a Skype call from a colleague about introducing me to some IT people who want to get into the local market. I checked out their site – very smart looking but no sign of social media – started to ask some questions, then thought “Gary Vaynerchuk video”!

So I immediately made up a new rule which I communicated to my colleague: “I’ll only talk to people about how social media can help them grow their business after they’ve watched the Gary Vaynerchuk video and are willing and able to talk to me intelligently about that.”

I’d sent him the link, he was watching while we chatted and he said he thought that was fair.

Then I added to the rule another Gary Vaynerchuk video, short and to the point, about social media and demonstrating ROI .

It’s so quick that it’s easy to miss what Gary says, which is:

I’m just not intrigued, or interested, or in any shape or form motivated to convince big companies that they need to do this. The smart ones will and then they’ll win. The dumb ones won’t and then they’ll lose. I really don’t care who wins and loses.

Having this filter is not about being arrogant or not wanting to talk about one of my most favorite topics, social media. I can talk about it till the cows come home, as some long-suffering friends and family would no doubt attest.

It’s about getting an idea of who is likely to be genuinely interested in knowing more and possibly applying it, and thus, to be frank, a potential client or co-venturer, as distinct from someone who is just making polite conversation or picking my brain, without any evident likelihood of that turning into business.

Naturally, depending on the circumstances, I may well continue to have a chat with someone on the subject before they have had a chance to watch the videos. But my thinking just now is that that will be the exception rather than the rule.

One thing I may do is to offer the following short links to the videos, which I can write, say on my new business card : http://snipurl.com/garyveevid1 and http://snipurl.com/gveevid2.

If I feel there are signs of a possible business collaboration I could get their permission to call them in a couple of days to see what they think. Case by case judgement.

But I am seeing this more as a filter than as part of a pitch.

Filed Under: Business, Resources, Social Media Tagged With: consulting, Gary Vaynerchuk, garyvee, socail media roi, Social Media