“The Internet itself is the single most underrated thing in our society.”
by Alan Congleton
Gary Vaynerchuk, host of Wine Library and author of the new book, "Crush It!", spoke to Texas State students at the Alkek Library on Wednesday and outlined the strategies that helped to make his business successful. His unconventional character mirrors the unconventional way in which he has promoted his website: Social media.
Vaynerchuk was born in the U.S.S.R. and immigrated to the U.S. in 1978 and is the co-owner and Director of Operations of Wine Library, a wine retail shop in Springfield, New Jersey. He has gained fame as the host of Wine Library TV, a webcast on the subject of Wine.
"I sent a stock boy to Best Buy to buy a camera. He came back with some $400 camera, we sat down, we pressed record, I taped the show [in] one take." Vaynerchuk said. "Basically, that was the show, and we used iMovie to upload it and hosted it on YouTube."
From such simple beginnings, viewership of the daily podcast has soared to up to 90,000 viewers per day.
The aspect of Vaynerchuk's marketing strategy that is truly remarkable is his use of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and blogs to engage his audience and spread awareness of himself and his business.
Vaynerchuk told of how he spent $22,000 to buy a billboard on the New Jersey highway, a radio campaign, and a full-page ad in a newspaper. He then said that he sent out one Tweet on Twitter for free, and generated five times the response of the other three traditional methods combined.
"I think that storytelling is the game. Anyone that can paint me a picture, I'm interested in." Vaynerchuk said, "I think brands that succeed are the ones that most know how to paint a picture."
Vaynerchuk stressed the importance of engaging your audience, responding to them directly, and making yourself known on the Internet - not as someone who is trying to sell something, but as a respectable voice that people trust.
Customer service is top priority according to Vaynerchuk.
"No matter what you do, you're in the customer service business, and if you're a lawyer next, or a journalist next, or you sell corn on the side of the road, whatever you're doing, that's secondary."
Many of the audience members are already engaged in social media to some degree, and only one student out of an auditorium of people did not have Facebook.
"I'm not so much into that," said George Boyle, "It's just a time sucker. I'm more of a face-to-face person. I like to have a real connection with people."
Others were very engaged in social media. Dara Quackenbush, a teacher of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Texas State University, was on the list of the top 100 academic tweeters.
"I incorporate social media into my classes, I talk about it a lot." Quackenbush said.
Students seemed to be enthralled by Vaynerchuk's direct speech, liberal use of expletives, and his insistence that, thanks to the internet, anyone is free to do what they love.
When asked about the most important lesson to bring away from the lecture, Jason Dominguez said, "Find what you love, do it, and make a name for yourself doing it."
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