"This world, the one you and I live in, evolves every second, every day. The skill sets it takes to be a successful entrepreneur, a successful marketer, or a relevant celebrity today is a different skill set than you needed ten years ago, even though that was the skill set that mattered for decades.” ~Gary Vaynerchuk, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How To Tell Your Story In A Noisy Social World.
Traditional marketing used to be a one-sided boxing match, where businesses would slam consumers with right hooks to buy their stuff over radio, television, print, outdoor and then later the Internet. Gary’s passionate about the dawn of a new era in marketing, an era where we give, give, give, then ask or jab, jab, jab, right hook. Gary describes it as… "jabs are the lightweight pieces of content that benefit your customers by making them laugh, snicker, ponder, play a game, feel appreciated, or escape; right hooks are calls to action that benefit your businesses.”
Overall I give the book a 4.5 out of 5.
This book is a tool that helps readers prepare to storytell on today’s most important media sites. You learn how to create the storytelling formula across 5 platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr) that will help you connect with your consumers. Included are 80+ visual case studies and at the end of each chapter Gary provides the relevant questions you should ask yourself when creating content on each of these platforms.
I’ve curated some of Gary’s hardest hitting right hooks of information that are sure to rattle your cage…
30 Bold Social Media Statements You Need To Hear
- There’s no such thing as undivided attention anymore.
- In the right social-media-savvy hands, a brand that masters native content becomes human.
- Content that entertains sees engagement.
- Familiarity breeds acceptance.
- One out of every five page views in the United States is on Facebook.
- Tumblr ranks number one in average number of minutes per visit (Facebook ranks third).
- As of March 2013, consumers share branded Vine videos four times as often as branded Internet videos.
- Phone home screens show you everything you need to know about what kind of content people value.
- Brands and small businesses want to look relevant, engaged, and authentic, but when their content is banal and unimaginative, it only makes them look lame.
- Marketers are on social media to sell stuff. Consumers, however, are not. They are there for value.
- Consumers want infotainment, not information.
- Twitter is the most indefatigable consumer-to-brand connector that ever existed.
- There is no central hub anymore. Forcing consumers to enter through the same door every time is going to make them tire of you.
- Success in social media boils down to three things: understanding the nuances of your platform, using a distinct voice, and driving your business goals.
- It’s not the quantity of impressions that counts, it is the quality.
- Use your content to express yourself authentically, not commercially.
- Hashtags are the doorways through which people will discover your brand (especially on Instagram); without them, you’re doomed to invisibility.
- Facebook will be our dining room, where we entertain and get to know one another; LinkedIn will be our library, where we get deals done.
- Content is king, context is God.
- The key to social marketing is micro-content. The shorter your content and storytelling, the better.
- The strict dividing lines between marketing categories can no longer exist—they must all be blanketed with a layer of social.
- Having a Facebook page and a Twitter account is critical for brand visibility and credibility.
- Twitter’s trend-tracking ability is one of social media’s most powerful yet underused tools.
- People want to be social wherever they consume their media.
- If you truly understand how marketing works today, you know there is no individual six-month campaign; there’s only the 365-day campaign, during which you produce new content daily.
- Just because your teenage daughter and her friends are excited about a new platform does not mean that that platform is irrelevant to you or your brand.
- Social media storytelling is as sweet a science as boxing, requiring constant experimentation and hours of observation.
- The social media revolution wrenched the keys to the cultural kingdom away from pundits and gatekeepers, giving ordinary people a voice.
- If we want to talk to people while they consume their entertainment, we have to actually be their entertainment, melding seamlessly into the entertainment experience.
- Ignoring platforms that have gained critical mass is a great way to look slow and out-of-touch. Do not cling to nostalgia. Do not put your principles above the reality of the market. Do not be a snob.
Favorite Quote: "Every year, the world becomes a little smaller, a little more social, a little more connected. Creating content that allows us to share our experiences, thoughts, and ideas in real time is becoming an intrinsic part of life in the twenty-first century, in fact, it’s getting to the point that we’re making a statement when we don’t share or choose not to connect.”
May these nuggets of information and this book provide the formula for you to develop social media marketing strategies that truly work.
Question: What social stories resonate with you in today’s noisy world?
