Chapter Six

One of the most revealing examples in this book comes from Chapter Six. Vaynerchuk describes how in December of 2008, he arranged “free shipping” for orders from Winelibrary.com. Clearly, this would boost sales if customers knew about the special promotion.

He bought advertising on billboards, radio, and direct mail. By tracking the orders, billboards produced 170 orders, radio 240, and direct mail 300+. But, here’s the punch line, simple Twitter messages produced 1,700 orders in just forty-eight hours. And Twitter is free. That’s the power of social media.

Now that power may not work equally well in every industry. Many of us do not sell products that can be discounted or promoted via a brief Twitter message. But the example is solid because it shows the relative strength of a select, targeted, and compelling message. That same strength can be used for a multitude of purposes.

I’m not going to detail the various media discussed here. Vaynerchuk does a good job describing wordpress, tumbler, Facebook, twitter, flickr, youtube, viddler, ustream.tv, and others. The point isn’t so much to understand all these vehicles so much as to appreciate their variety and power. We’ve entered an age where traditional advertising – newspaper, radio, television – are just colors on a much broader palette. “Choose Your Platform” is the title of this chapter, and that’s the point he’s trying to make.

His discussion of these vehicles is rich and helpful. Even those of us familiar with social media will learn from his descriptions. His personal success flows from personality, and that makes video a strong tool for him. However, others of us have different talents and a different mix might fit our needs better. Match media to needs to maximize potential.

That’s a lesson I learned in Marketing 101 many years ago. But it’s not always easy because traditional advertising isn’t a good fit for all of us. Our markets or too narrow or our budgets are too low. For us, these new vehicles present a marketing opportunity beyond what I learned back in 1976. Definitely worth some study!

Questions for blog discussion:

1. How might my business utilize Twitter as a powerful message?

2. What are limitations to using Twitter? How might the message differ from a full-page magazine ad?

3. Have you ever viewed a Youtube video that made you laugh? How might Youtube help sell a product or service? Is anyone in your company tech-savvy enough to produce and post a video?

4. Do you have a Facebook page? What’s your favorite use for the medium? What annoys you?

5. If you needed to share important information to your customers in the next 48 hours, how would you do that? How many customers could you reach?