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Gary Vaynerchuk, the social media guru who gives

Molly Wood Nov 26, 2013
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Gary Vaynerchuk, the social media guru who gives

Molly Wood Nov 26, 2013
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Gary Vaynerchuk is a character — no doubt. If you go his website, you’ll see his offers for everything from magazines to Skype dates to New York dinner parties. He’ll make a personal video for you. He’ll talk to you for ten minutes on the phone. He even sent a guy in Minnesota a cheeseburger once after the guy asked him for one on Twitter. The New Jersey dude who started the successful online store winelibrary.com seems up for almost anything for attention.

But, there is a catch. Vaynerchuck will give to you — and then ask for you to give back. It’s a method he’s used for years. Now, brands like GE, Pepsi, and the New York Jets ask his agency, Vayner Media, to help with their social media mojo. Vaynerchuck ‘s new book, “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World,” is out today.

Vaynerchuck is something of a social media genius. When it comes to describing his online philosophy, he says it all boils down to this: “I care about where the eyeballs and ears of the consumer are,” Vaynerchuck says.

Vaynerchuck says if you want to improve your social media strategy, focus on being generous with your followers. Those would be the jabs he’s talking about in the title of his book. Vaynerchuck says it’s time to give ’em the right hook when you need something back from your followers. 

“It’s the theory of this book, which is give, give, give, and ask. That’s what ‘Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook’ is,” he says. “I want the leverage of giving first. Everybody right now on Facebook and Twitter is posting things like ‘come to my open house,’ ‘buy my wine,’ ‘buy my book ‘ — me, me, me, me, me, me! A funny thing happens when you care about somebody first, they tend to care about you. I mean, last year I didn’t have a book out, I didn’t throw any right hooks — I didn’t need anything from anybody. So I was just putting out good stuff. I was answering people’s questions — give, give, give, give. For the last month, I’ve been really annoying with my right hooks, but I built up the equity — and I’ve been strategic about still putting out jabs.”

To hear more about Vaynerchuck’s social media strategy and how companies who hire him use it, click the audio player above.

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