I admit it. I was wrong. Let me explain. Somehow, I’ve missed out on Gary Vaynerchuk until I read his book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. I’d heard his name before, followed him on Twitter, but wasn’t very familiar with his work. His book was starting to create quite a buzz. I saw he was the featured speaker on a webinar. This gave me the chance to learn more about him and his book.
As usually happens when I tune in to webinars at work, I was multi-tasking, so I wasn’t giving it my full attention. I was working, listening and also trying to Tweet along with the webinar. Not knowing Gary Vee’s style, I was a bit turned off by it. He was loud, obnoxious, but everyone else loved it. I didn’t get it. On this webinar, I was hearing more loudness than substance. He then said something that capped it for me…he said “Email is dying”. That made me think, “OK, loud guy not saying much, but looking for the outrageous headline to make people talk.”
I lost a little interest in his book after that. But, I kept hearing good things from some people I have a lot of respect for in content marketing…people like Joe Pulizzi and Ann Handley. I started to get interested again to see why I was missing the buzz. After reading it, I couldn’t have been more wrong.
“Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook” knocked me out (pun intended). I didn’t read Gary Vee’s first two books, so it was helpful that he put a quick summary of what they covered. This is a continuation of what he’s already covered with adding the “Right Hook” part. The simple idea is that brands need to use their content to give little snippets of helpful information and entertaining blurbs (jabs). These jabs allow you to develop your audience to see what they respond to…in effect softening them up. That way, when you do throw your right hook (strong sales pitch or call to action), they’re more receptive.
What I love about this book is that he’s able to relay the concept in a very easy-to-understand way that’s motivating. He explores all the big social media platforms with tips on how to build your messaging and posts. He gives real examples of posts from brands, both good and bad, and explains what they did right or wrong…or both. I read the posts first and made my opinion and compared them to what Vaynerchuk analyzed.
I highly recommend this book for anyone looking for help with telling their story and toning down the hard sell. I’m glad I looked past my first impression and am on board with Gary Vee! I hope he forgives me for a rash judgment! Also, he softened his email is dying comment…this time offering research that shows open rates are declining.
Have you read the book or heard Gary speak? What are your thoughts? Thanks for reading and please share with your friends. If you like my blog, please sign up for the email notifications.