Chuck up or shut up
“I care about people more than I care about myself…my gift is my curse…yeah, clap that up because it’s the real shit…”
Gary Veynerchuk has over 800,000 followers on Twitter. And he’s giving a keynote at a Web 2.o Social Media Conference. And it’s about ‘monetising your personal branding’. And I think he’s American.
The audience are loving it. Every. Single. Word.
Until five minutes ago, I’d never heard of this social media phenomenon. Where have I been?
He’s just secured a seven figure book deal for Harper. “I’m repped by the biggest talent agency in the world. They rep Oprah and Tom Cruise and Becks, and me. What a joke…” he says. Although he’s not laughing. Because, really, he knows it’s not a joke. It’s only right, he thinks, that this self-made wine-video social-media god-guru is feted and followed more than Steven Fry, at least in Twitter circles.
“If you don’t believe that what you’re posting on your blogs can be monetised, then you need to get out now. We only get to play this game one time. One life…” he preaches, as he prowls around the stage like a Siegfried and Roy tiger. He’s on every two-cent beta social media platform ‘and you’re lying if you say you don’t wanna be on there too, because that’s where your audience is’.
It’s social media as grooming. Friend counts as potential revenue streams. Followers as suckers.
The blogs I visit most aren’t written to be ‘monetised’. They’re written because their owners have something to say. Or they want to offer a service, or advice, or, maybe, they just want to write. And isn’t that where all the best sites originated anyway? Money might follow. It might not. Really, Gary, don’t sweat it.
So I’m not sure I’ll be queuing up to meet him when he pays a visit to the UK next month to promote his book ‘Crush it! Why now is the time to cash in on your passion’. Even though I hear It’s set to ‘rock the print world’ as much as his video rocked the wine world. And to revolutionize business, too. It’ll certainly revolutionize HarperCollins: it’s going to fly off those virtual bookshelves if the breathless, advance order reviews by his disciples are anything to go by.
If Gary’s brash keynote’s a taster, I doubt the ‘Social Media Sommelier’ has found the Big Idea. It’s same old bar room philosophy – do it for love, not money (but do it for money really).
The entry-level motivational mantra (‘if you want it bad enough, you’ll get it’) that Rhonda Byrne used to make herself and the publishers of ‘The Secret’, very rich indeed, runs through all self-help manuals. They’re designed to give a quick air-punching dopamine hit to the brain. To make us feel, however briefly, masters of our destiny.
Cleverly, instead of cosmic mysticism, Gary uses a shiny new online 2.0 sub-plot. Hey, to the assembled congregation, that’s a religion anyway.
According to this idea, we alone are responsible for each and every thing that happens to us, and the more energy we put into stuff, the more our dream becomes reality. It certainly worked for him, of that there is no doubt. But, er, he did have a successful business to start with.
Gary’s website (which, I imagine, he wrote himself) says, in the third person:
Gary Vaynerchuk has captured attention with his pioneering, multi-faceted approach to personal branding and business. After primarily utilizing traditional advertising techniques to build his family’s local wine business into a national industry leader, Gary rapidly leveraged social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook.
It really does say that. I didn’t just flick open my Wankster’s Dictionary and spill out random buzzwords to see how they fell. Honest.
It all boils down, he says, to networking. And that’s when I get it. I always rallied against real life networking. I figured I’d never master the art of how to hold a Prosecco flute and slip a laminated business card into a Hugo Boss breast pocket, whilst remembering not to spray my negri sushi canapes over Amanda Harrington. But at least that sort of networking is honest. It’s Paddy’s Market, just with dodgy Pitches instead of dodgy Prada.
The cynical seeding of social media? I’m not so sure i’ll be hash-tagging Gary any time soon.
I think I’ll get my wine advice from Scatchards. Wine tastes better in real life, anyway.
I’ve just seen a tweet from Media Bistro. Apparently, when Gary Veynerchuk hires people, he looks at what he finds on Google more than their resumes.
Maybe I’ll stand a chance, when he discovers all those health clubs I own…
