Gary Vaynerchuk: Using Social Media to Knock Your Business Out of the Ring

is a family guy, a wine guy, a NY Jets fan, an author and a businessman (not necessarily in that order) all rolled into one self-made social media success story. With nearly one million followers, a fast-growing creative agency, and a fourth book eagerly anticipated for November, we were excited to hear about Jab, Jab, Jab Right Hook, his latest publication, and his ideas for ‘using social media to knock your business out of the ring‘ at the UBS building in Manhattan today.

Trying to condense almost two hours of fast-punching, hard-hitting Vaynerchuk into a few bullet points is a tough ask, but here’s an attempt at our top 5 takeaways for anyone looking to build their own personal social brand:

1. Be you. Simple, but important. As Gary proves you can be lots of guys; you can be an authority on wine, while building a media agency, and simultaneously engage with your following around sports and culture. Leverage your following around one facet of your brand to build an audience for another, and don’t dilute your customer base by building multiple brands for your various interests and endeavours.

2. Tell your story, fast. To build an audience for your brand you need a story, and you need your story to work in the context of the mobile world that we inhabit. When you develop content for your audience, you should consider how best to tell your story in a split second while people are scrolling through their phone, or browsing their second-screen during the latest episode of Breaking Bad.

3. You need to jab, and to right hook. If jabbing is the regular posting of relevant content to engage and delight your audience, then the right hook is asking them to return the favour. If you are building a brand around yourself and your experience, don’t be afraid to ask your community to buy your book on Amazon, or to come to the next event you are selling tickets for. Lots of people are great at jabbing; but few people can master the right hook.

4. Do stuff for free. When your brand is in its embryonic stages, don’t be afraid to give your services for free, to guest blog for other platforms, or to speak at public events and participate in panel discussions. All of this builds your brand awareness, generates case studies and gives you experience and assets with which to win your next client.

5. Content and context. Having good content is great, but it’s useless if you don’t understand the context or the platform that you are posting it to. Repackage all your content appropriate to the platform you are posting it to for best results.

So there it is: our top 5 takeaways from Gary Vaynerchuk’s seminar at UBS earlier today. Now go forth and build that brand you’ve always dreamed of building. Who knows, it could be as big as Stuff on my Rabbit.