We live in the disposable age.We eat take out, use disposable dishes, and look for a quick and easy fix for everything.The current bestselling books talk about doing less and enjoying more like “The Four Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferriss (which I am all for by the way).We are bombarded with mlm (multi-level marketing), network marketing, internet marketing and many other disguises for a way to make a quick buck.It seems like most people have forgotten that the most important ingredient in becoming successful is hard work.
Gary Vaynerchuck: The Hard Worker
Being involved in social media, I am very familiar with Gary Vaynerchuk, a wine expert/store owner who has used social media to grow his family business from $4 million per year to a $50 million business.I’m mentioning Gary Vaynerchuk because he is a modern example of a hard worker.He is passionate about what he does and he may be one of the hardest workers out there.
Scalable and not so Scalable Apps
Not long ago, platforms such as the Facebook and iPhone opened up to developers so that anyone can create an application for their platform.Most people saw this as an opportunity to create a scalable app that can continue to make them money while they slept.It was a dream come true for some people.Gary Vaynerchukjumped on the bandwagon and created his own Facebook app but contrary to what everyone else was trying to do, he may have created the absolute least scalable app in Facebook history.His app “Ask Gary” was pretty much just a place for people to ask him questions about wine.Gary answered every single one of the questions himself.
Gary Vaynerchuk’s lack of scalability doesn’t end there.He also answers every single one of thousands of emails he gets every day.To top it off, he personally speaks to almost every customer that comes in to his store.Gary also manages to record Wine Library TV, a regular videocast on wine which happens to be very entertaining.
Gary on Social Media
Gary was recently asked how much time he spends on social media platforms such asFacebook and Twitter to which he responded “about 2.5 hours per day”.Shocked at the answer, Gary explained that it is a CEO’s job to make connections and get business and that he has found Social Media, the best place to make his connections.
Gary’s Research and Development
Looking at Gary and what he has done, you may think that Gary has it made and can start delegating now.He can let other people do his work for him and go relax on a beach, he can definitely afford it now.Gary feels otherwise and for a very good reason.By answering thousands of people’s questions, speaking to customers and doing research online, his mind and gut are a better R&D team than you can ever possibly hire.He can smell new trends and predict what people will want and like.The human mind can accurately crunch more information that any super computer in existence.Gary takes advantage of this and stays years ahead of his competition.
Hard work does pay off… Just “Ask Gary”.
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I just had a conversation with a friend of mine who has five twitter accounts, one is personal and then four of them are each a stream for different topics.I don’t know what all of them are but the ones that I do know are great ideas.One of them is a pipeline of jobs for a specific niche.It’s great and it is something that the niche needs.He is doing a great service for the people looking for those positions as well as the organizations that he is publicizing.
My take on this was that the beauty of twitter is that it is authentic and completely transparent.It is a live human who is doing all the tweeting and there is no editing.The tweeter writes about his life, his ideas, his passions and people follow him because they are interested in what he has to say, they crave social interaction and they like to be part of other people’s lives.Social media opens up conversations between consumers and actual people in companies rather than just the corporate image that traditional media projected.
@comcastcares is a great example of a real person tweeting about real things in his life and also representing a company by offering instant customer service.More people are changing their view of Comcast each day just because this guy exists.He is a human face for the corporation.
I told my friend that he should use one account for all of his pipelines and people will follow him because of his authenticity.I told him to at least announce that it is him behind each of the accounts to be transparent and people will be able to follow the feeds that they want.Instead, he is using the different accounts to collect feeds and spit them out in one location.It’s a good idea but in the web 2.0 world, is this what we really want or need?
I consider myself somewhat entrepreneurial and I have tons of ideas all the time.I have thought about creating different twitter accounts for different ideas but at the end of the day, I decided that whatever I do on twitter, I want to be completely authentic.If I start a business and want to tweet about that, I’ll do it on my account.If the business grows, I’ll let other people in the company have their own accounts where they can tweet about different aspects of the company and let their personalities shine through.
I’d love to hear what you think about this.Am I right?Am I completely off my rocker?Let me know in the comments and then follow me up @flid2.
Mitch Joel from Six Pixels – Twist Image has a weekly podcast which is at the top of my regular listening list as well as a blog which I read regularly.Last week he posted a challenge to write a post about the best social media practice and I am taking him up on his challenge.He mentions that since social media is so new, the rules and best practices have not been established so he is taking this project on himself to compile a list through bloggers interested in social media such as myself.
Mitch’s Best Practice
Mitch wrote that his choice for the best practice was “consistency”.Use the same name and picture on every website, every social network, when commenting on other blogs and so on.Also be consistent in how often you participate in the conversation.If you podcast or blog, do it monthly, weekly or daily but don’t keep changing.Don’t join every social network and then just leave them idle.Instead pick one or more but participate regularly.Being consistent is extremely important because without it, you will lose your network and followers but I believe even more important is to provide as much value to your network as possible.
Provide Value
Providing value is what makes the conversation interesting, worth listening to and participating in.Nobody wants to hear someone talk who just wants to hear his own voice without adding anything to the conversation.If you add zero value, you will lose your network or not even be able to build one in the first place.
Traditional advertising is the company yelling out their message at you but they are only doing it for themselves.Social Media allows companies to provide value to their customers and audience so that they will be attracted to you and want to build a relationship with you.If you speak and add absolutely no value, you are just an interruption, like the other 2999 ads you see each day.
Everyone has something valuable to add to the conversation.Each person is an expert in some area and is well equipped to join conversations and add their value.Joining in, means adding opinion, insight, fact and most of all value.
What’s in it for ME?
We live in a “ME” world.Andy Sernovitz mentioned that “nobody really cares about your product except for you”.You have to give people what they want if you want them to listen to you.Everyone knows that one person who always needs something from you but will never reciprocate the favor.He’s the person that we try and avoid because we know he’s going to ask for something.He’s like a human “pop out” ad.
Value is King
Mitch overflows with value so no matter where he is, no matter how often he podcasts or blogs, I want to hear what he has to say.There are some other podcasts and blogs that I have found which I don’t run to hear or read no matter how consistent they are.In this Social Media world, adding Value is King!
This self improvement blog is full of advice on how to increase your luck and improve your life. You can start off by reading 40 Ways to Increase your Luck.
