

So I just read Vaynerchuk's book, what a waste of money. - vaksel

I'd say I want my money back, but I got it for free.<p>First of all the book is short. Really short. I read the entire thing in 28 minutes. And it's mostly recycled content. If you watched his videos, you already "read" 90%-95% of the book.<p>Anyways if you know Gary's style, you know that he acts like a ferret on crack in his videos. And you can probably figure out that it doesn't translate well into the written word. For the entire 28 minutes I felt like he was yelling at me from across the room. I'm guessing that was supposed to represent his "passion" or whatever.<p>It's funny, he always makes it a point to say that he started a video blog because he sucked at writing, and then turns around and writes a book.<p>Advice wise, it's the same old idea that he's been preaching, go start a blog, you'll get rich eventually. Which is obviously bullshit. However, if you read Amazon comments, you can see Vaynerchuks fanboys out in force.<p>The thing that caught my eye, was his claim that he'd have even more success now, here is a quote:<p><pre><code>   if I started the blog today, now that more   
   people have iPhones and are watching online   
   videos, it would take me even less time to get 
   on everyone’s radar.
</code></pre>
Apparently he never heard of signal to noise.<p>Basically to me the whole book, just boiled down to "I did it and so can you" commercials you see on CNBC. The only difference is that you already bought the book. Throw in a "comes with a FREE!!! installed blog" and the difference is pretty much gone.<p>Frankly I find the ideas more or less bullshit. Sure the overall, work your ass off message is a good one, but doing it through blogs is retarded.<p>Actually I'd like him to prove his assertions.<p>If blogs are so great and so easy, here is a challenge, get a fake name and repeat your success. I dunno a blog about Jets or something. Only caveat is that you can't use your current status to drive traffic, so no garyvee twits about this awesome jets blog that you happened to find. Think of what an exciting opportunity/publicity stunt that'd be for your brand, coming out a year from now, to reveal that the most successful Jets Blog was actually you running an experiment to show everyone that yes this stuff works.<p>So to summarize. Nothing new. Heard it all before. Short as hell. More hype, no real advice beyond generics. Waste of money. If you really need to read it, just read it in the store, it's so short you can read the entire thing in one sitting.
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wgj
There are a lot of things I like about Vaynerchuk, but I never expected the
book to have much merit. All the points you make were pretty easy to predict.

Meanwhile, I think the real story would be how he grew his brick-and-mortar
wine business, and what impact his online activity had (or didn't have) on
that business. It's funny that the growth of his actual store is the
accomplishment that gives him the right to be a business expert, but very
little ever gets said about it other than the often repeated "$4M to $50M in 3
years" or something close to that.

~~~
vaksel

       I came onboard full-time after graduating in 1998 and grew
       the business from about 4 million to 10 million in a year
       with 0 percent of that in online sales.
    

Here is the passage from the book. My guess is massive advertising spending.
No way to grow it that much in a single year otherwise

~~~
wgj
That's a good guess but I'd love to hear him directly address it.

Also, I want to emphasize, I do like Gary and what he represents. I think
there's a lot to learn from him, and he's a good model for a lot of people.
(and I did meet Gary and his wife in person once. They seem to be wonderful
people. His real life personality is not like his stage persona. He's
intelligent, soft-spoken, and a good listener.)

~~~
vaksel
yeah I have nothing against Gary or most of his message, like I said I watched
all of his videos, it's just that the book is not his best work.

I actually do shop in Wine Library(it's like 7 minutes away), not often, like
once a year(not a big drinker).

~~~
wgj
I would definitely visit Wine Library if I had the opportunity. And I
discovered Gary two years ago through his WLTV videos, which remain my
favorite thing he has done online.

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mey
Seriously, who the hell is Vaynerchuk? I've never heard of him before this
post...

~~~
wgj
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Vaynerchuk>

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Alex3917
For the investment of 28 minutes you get to tell people you've read the new
Vaynerchuk book, and have conversations about it with your clients and
potential clients. If you're not able to go out and book a few grand worth of
sales this way then you're not using your social capital effectively.

~~~
vaksel
seems like the only people making money off social media are the "experts" who
sell the hype to other people.

~~~
thafman
You have no concept of how true this is, these days I have a good gig at a
great company, but there was a time not so long ago when the VC world almost
shut down and I found myself out of a job (was an analyst/due diligence guy)
and started looking through the intrerwebs for my next 9-5.

Long story short I ended up at a "social marketing firm" which turned out to
be one mid thirties bottle blonde woman working out of a home office. The few
months I spent working for her were an instruction in the art of selling
practically nothing; use buzzwords relentlessly, insist that your marketing
efforts "can't be measured" and if all else fails just get a boob job and wear
a really low cut blouse.

Instead of hiring a social media expert/consultant/douche just spend the money
on coke and whores, the marketing effects will be the same and you'll do less
actual damage.

