I’ve worked in marketing and communications since prehistoric times (ie: before the internet) and in that time I’ve worked in just about every medium there is – print, radio, TV, film, even the remarkable Interactive CD-ROM. Having dabbled in them all, I recognize that every one has its own strengths and weaknesses. As a result, I don’t tend to play favourites, but rather look at which media best suits the client’s needs. Hence my personal communications credo: mix your media, not your message.
For the past few years I’ve been wrestling with how to integrate social media into my clients’ marketing plans. I’ve seen numerous presentations and waded through many proposals from so-called social media experts, most of which can be perfectly summed up in this cartoon:
(This is from Tom Fishburne, a marketing consultant who communicates many of his best ideas via some very funny and painfully true toons. You can see more of his work at marketoonist.com. Used without permission but I’m sure he’d be okay with it. Now back to our story.)
In other words, the message didn’t matter; being in the medium was all that mattered – a philosophy that totally conflicts with my own.
Still wrestling with the dilemma, I happened to see Gary Vaynerchuk speak at a conference. I won’t bother recapping his background, biography, etc – he does it inimitably in his presentations – but the big takeaway for me was: here, FINALLY, is a sales & marketing type who truly ‘gets’ social media.
Gary’s approach, in a nutshell, can be summed up in a couple of key points:
First, if you want to sell something to people, you have to go where they are spending time, and right now, they’re spending time on social media, so that is where you have to be.
Second, understand that social media is simply the oldest form of commercial relationship, scaled by technology to unimaginable dimensions. Successful businesses have always cultivated relationships with their customers; social media provides them an avenue to do so at an unprecedented scale. But at its core, the relationship is still the essential component. Gary’s approach is to use the tools of social media to nurture relationships with customers on a scale that he could never achieve using conventional communications tools.
He details this approach very effectively in The Thank You Economy. His latest book – Jab Jab Jab Right Hook – is just hitting the shelves and I have not read it yet, but given his track record I’m sure it will be a worthwhile read, and in Gary’s usual anti-establishmentarian mode, pretty disruptive.
If you ever get the opportunity to see Gary in person, take it. He’s a genuinely dynamic speaker, delightfully profane, disarmingly down to earth and full of great insight. He’s all over the web but his twitter handle is @garyvee.