I have previously mentioned Gary Vaynerchuk’s story and how he grew his family wine business from $4 Million to $45 Million using online video and social media. He started as the co-owner of a wine store in New Jersey. He gained fame as the host of Wine Library TV, a video blog on the subject of wine, built his wine store into a multi-million dollar business and established his personal brand with TV appearances and speaking engagements around the world.

We will look more extensively on some of the lessons he has learned on his adventure, that may inspire you and motivate you to take your company and brand to the next level, using social media and online video.

Blog about your passion: Focus on what you love to do. Find your passion and start blogging about it. By doing what you love, you will be more dedicated, more genuine and you will have more enthusiasm. Your readers, your viewers will notice this. Publishing great content will be easier. Sharing your knowledge and experience will be easier. Making the content unique, interesting and useful to your target group will be easier, as long as you do what you love. Then, find a way to monetise it.

Put your face in front of people: Gary V’s way “Answer every single email and every single comment on your blog for the rest of your freaking life” Don’t be a faceless corporation: Show your face, show your personality. Make it easy for your audience to reach you. Have a Twitter account. Listen to what your readers say. Interact with your audience. Show your appreciation by answering comments / e-mails / tweets you get. Spread the word: “Content is king but marketing is queen and the queen runs the household”Many bloggers just publish a post and wait for visitors and subscribers to be handed to them on a silver platter. That is too passive. You can’t sit around waiting for people to find your blog, you need to find them, help them out, show them the value you create and win them one by one. Be different and eccentric: Do not be afraid to be seen as different, or even eccentric. Being different or eccentric in the crowded world of blogs is the strength. Gary Vaynerchuk is very hyperactive and has a very high energy level in his video blogs. He is very direct and doesn’t censor himself, which makes him very authentic and inspirational to follow. Create a dedicated tribe following you: He says “With you and a little bit of me, we’re changing the wine world, whether they like it or not” Be part of the conversation and connect and listen to your audience: You are a part of the dialog and you are making your customers part of a greater community. You build fans one by one. You show that you care, you give your customers someone they can trust and you lead your tribe towards a better place. Go where competitors don’t go: Vaynerchuk leveraged modern technology to reach young wine audience. His video blog caught the attention of a demographic new to wine, at the time when none of competitors cared about Internet, video blogging or social media. To stand out and to differentiate yourself in a blogging world that is saturated with text, you can expand by using video and audio for content and message delivery. Pump out content consistently: “Pump out content – if you don’t produce something every day you’ll be out hustled”Gary Vaynerchuk started his video blog and has remained dedicated and very consistent in producing content and recording multiple video blogs every week for several years now. Creating content regularly builds trust and dependability and gives readers a reason to subscribe and check back often and follow you. He puts out 5 video blogs a week. (John Chow puts out 4-5 blogs a day) Relentlessly promote: He promotes himself and his Wine Library TV Vlog, where he “brings the thunder” to wine reviews, smashing the preconceived notions that wine appreciation has to be snooty. Watch enough episodes and you not only will you get to know wines, you’re liable to become a NY Jets fan. Learn how to use online video: Immerse Yourself in The Online Video Platforms, Wine Library TV is almost a masterclass in vlogging. It’s lo-fi without feeling that way. It’s a direct reflection of Vaynerchuk’s high-energy, passion and sincerity. And Vaynerchuk is a master of social media, using blogs, Twitter, social networks — anything that invites users and keeps them active in the show and his world. Have patience: Building a business, a brand is not a sprint it is a marathon, its not about building a landing page and making millions. Work hard: He works 15 hour days If you really want it, 7 o’clock at night, to 2 in the morning is plenty of time to do damage after you have finished your day job. Marketing is about the 2 C’s, content and community. Don’t forget about that second C – Community – and think of your audience as human beings, not nameless, faceless potential for ROI Social media are just tools to help you engage with your community. They don’t make the difference, you make the difference. Use the tools to interact with your community. Word of mouth is incredible for building your brand, and social media amplifies your WOM reach. Show you care: Big corporations “don’t get it” because they don’t care about their company. But be glad the mainstream “doesn’t get it” because this is your opportunity to get ahead of the game. Build your equity, build your brand, before they get here. Don’t spend time controlling your message: You can’t control your message on the web, get clear and spend your time fixing your message so it makes sense. Stop doing stuff you hate: You can lose just as much money being happy as hell. You have to hustle and want it more than everyone else . You need a business model: So look at all the different ways you can make some cash along the way. The book “Free” by Chris Anderson, lists 50 different business models that may give you inspiration. Keep in mind you are creating a “body of work”: Legacy is greater than currency – but you have to create it and the web as a big copying machine, records and keeps it and spreads it. The Gatekeepers are losing control. Befoore the Internet and Social Media you had to get past the gatekeepers the PA’s, agents and middlemen. Now you can get your video in front of them via “multiple social media channels” like Facebook,YouTube and Twitter Believe in what you’re doing: whether it’s your personal brand, or the product you represent – or you need to get out now. Everyone is going to be consuming content everywhere: So put your content into as many types of platforms and mediums as possible

Personal Brand Has become increasingly important: Create brand equity in yourself. Get out and network: Online and Offline Use As Many Tools as you can: Connect to your user base anyway you can, everywhere you can, as often as you can to multiply your effort. Niches can go crazy: Find a niche you love. The web has made the ability to create micro niches extremely profitable as we now have a global village where you can sell online 24/7 worldwide. Comment on blogs and video Blogs: Leave a solid response that shows you understand the space and put in the first comment then everone who reads the blog will see you first at the end of the blog. Produce a show and own your niche: It’s a gold rush out there Use Viddler instead of YouTube: You can add your own logo to Viddler Uploading to YouTube is a huge mistake (says Gary): You’re promoting their brand, not yours.

These lessons aren’t an easy act to follow, but just applying some of them will get you well on the way. How are you planning to use social media and online video for your brand?



