#AskGaryVee Episode 132: Is Snapchat Discover like a billboard?

“The ones that always sound like “they’re whining and pessimistic.” (laughs) – We fire them. (laughs) Because energy is something
I value tremendously and no question, if you
are dragging down the team, that is a heavily– Not having the smarts to do the work is actually viewed as a better option that being Eeyore and woe is me. Look, we are 550 deep now, I’m positive, as people are
watching this from VaynerMedia, saying yeah but, “Ricky is really Eeyore.” You say you’d fire him, why has Ricky been moping for six months? I’m sure there’s a couple
people sneaking through with woe is me but the truth is I heard a story this weekend from my mom, we had an employee that was friends with– My mom’s friends with his mom and she told me a story that the doorman, and the doormen say that they know who the
VaynerMedia employees are versus not just by the pep in their step when they go into the building and they’re happy and always smiling. I think we have a pretty
good atmosphere here and so I’m… I’m very, very, very affected by the atmosphere and the energy of my own company and since I’m the CEO I try to create an
environment that allows me to most do my thing. And I think companies
are disproportionally affected by the top five
to ten people in a company. It’s stunning, if you even look at the
Apples and Nintendos and Budweisers, I mean it’s incredible how a small group of people
really dictate the outcome. And of course everybody’s an impact but for me, if I’m not in a good mood because somebody’s moping, well then I (laughs), that’s a problem. There’s a negative ROI there. You know, the truth is, we try to understand
what makes them unhappy. Now, again, moping is different than being and introvert or quiet. You can be quiet and
focused on your thing. That’s very different
and I wanna make sure, make a big point here that I actually stunningly over-value quiet, focused. I always worry that people at VaynerMedia don’t realize if they’re
an introvert or quiet or focused or headphones on, never really interacting. We have such a culture
of intermingling that, I would even argue that I value them, not more, that’s not fair. I just value them for what they are. I don’t try to change
people for what they are. And you could bring enormous
value to this company by never saying a word or you can yell, like Gabe, 24/7 and bring value. All of it in between
really matters for me. And so, let’s make sure that
as you’re watching this, if your auditing your 5,
10, 15, 500 person company that you’re not digging
through and misjudging moping and just quiet. Or quiet and focused. Or introverted. Those are tremendously valuable things. That’s how they concentrate
and get their job done. Moping is Debbie Downner. I think it’s more Debbie, whaa, you know like Debbie
Downer like this sucks. Try to walk around here for
more than 20 days in a row saying this company sucks. Try. That’s not gonna fly. Being focused, maybe not
being the most social flower and going to every happy hour
and high fiving everybody when you walk through here, that’s more than fine. That should be acceptable. That is acceptable at the highest levels. But saying this sucks. The client sucks. This work sucks. This sucks, this sucks. Just doesn’t work, it’s
too much of a downer. So, how do we deal with it? We try to cut it out. It’s cancer. Straight up cancer.

“There for everyone to see “but people’s attention is elsewhere.” – No, I don’t think,
Glenn, that is the case. I actually think it’s more
like the Facebook newsfeed. I think it’s there and it’s in the front of your eye and base on the data of people clicking clearly the content there is valuable. I think the thing that
you need to understand about Facebook, excuse
me, Snapchat Discover is it is content, it is not ads. A billboard is an ad and you and I and Alex, let’s show Alex ’cause
the shirt he’s wearing, just needs its own attention today. Two days in a row he wore that shirt? Alex, what the– Oh, got it, got it. (laughs) – [India] He’d never
repeat a shirt. (laughs) Snapchat Discover is content. When you click that, you know, ESPN or Cosmo or the Snapchat logo you know you’re about to get content. You’re not gonna get ads. There’ll be some ads mixed in. That’s a very different value proposition than a billboard. And we’ve been all kind of trained to know that billboard doesn’t bring me any value, it’s trying to sell me something. Versus tv and print and radio, the reason we tolerate and still enjoy it is, okay, I’m gonna
get something of value. I’m gonna have to suffer
through being sold to which is why technology’s
shifting away from that is the big rub that I talk a lot about but Discover platform for me is a belief that it’s there as a billboard, sure it’s
in your face, it’s there but what is behind it, is the variable. Now if they program it
correctly, Daily Mail all the people that program there, the partners, Daily Mail, Cosmo, ESPN or Snapchat itself. If they program successfully,
you’ll go there. A la NBC, ESPN, ABC, A&E. When Walking Dead is what you program and people wanna go
there, they’ll go there. When Schmuck-A-Ma-Ma-Ga tv show that nobody wants to watch is there you don’t go there. So the content is the variable. Knowing that there’s content behind that makes it very different than a billboard. Make sense, right? – [India] Yeah.

“What do you think about
the revamp Facebook “gave it’s Notes platform? “A Medium contender, maybe?” – Zoltan. First, I feel like Zoltan and I should try to take on the world. I feel like there’s–(laughs) Let’s team up. Kill the world. Truth is, I haven’t dug deep. Obviously, I’ve been checked
out for the last 48 hours with the fam and Notes kind of hit out. Obviously I got pinged
by a lot of people here especially ’cause I’ve been
pushing the longform thing. We had a little bit of a conversation. Andy mentioned that it’s a link out thing. I haven’t really looked yet. So the answer is, I
can’t fully answer this. Help me here real quick, India, ’cause I know you had a look at it. Andy mentioned that it’s linked out. – When you post it, it shows up as a link. – Kind of like if you did
YouTube or GaryVaynerchuk.com – Yeah, but it actually
stays within Facebook. – Got it. So our point of view and
why we talked about that is, when you guys see the box
image and the headline, you know you’re leaving
the Facebook environment. That creates a friction point that the longform post does not. But I would say we’ll probably even– You know what, let’s test a note today and we’ll follow up on 133, 134, 135. I think Facebook has a very clear plan. Let’s be the layer on top
of the internet itself. So if anything works, YouTube video. Medium blog post. If anything works, let’s have our version of it and that’s keeping everybody
in our walled garden because we’ll make a lot
of money if we do that. And AOL is the only other
company that ever had that kind of ecosystem in
the late 90’s, mid-90’s when people where scared– I was scared to go to the world wide web. There was a button up
there and it was like, the world wide web, forget it. I was in an AOL world, I’m like, that’s spooky. I’m staying in here, it’s safe. Facebook doesn’t have that advantage, people are more educated,
they know the web exists. But in a mobile first world, in a Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp world that’s why they offered
3 billion for Snapchat. If Facebook owned Snapchat right now, they would own the entire– Alex even got excited
and he keeps it chill. I mean he said, “Pshhh.” (laughs) I don’t know if you heard it. They would own the ecosystem. So they’re 3/4 of the way. There is some other players but, YouTube, there’s other players but… I think Facebook’s plan is obvious. And I think in general,
it’s very interesting to watch them navigate. I think it’s proper for maximizing business. It’s why I’m very bullish on the company. It’s why I haven’t sold a
single share of the stock. I bought it private before it went public, not a share. I’m a big believer in it. Video time.

Question for you, is you
talk a lot about the use of Twitter Native Video
and I can personally say I’ve seen a lot of really
great results with engagement. It almost got my reamped about using the Twitter platform again. You foresee this type of
video response funtionality being built in natively
in some of the more common email clients anytime in the near future? Would this be practical
for someone like you who travels a lot and who has
a lot of mass email volume to go through? Would love to hear your
thoughts, thanks for your time. – Travis, way to keep it tight. He like went Bone Thugs on that. (laughs) Real fast. I watched Straight Out
Of Compton last night. – [Staphon] That was good. – Oh my god, I loved it. Loved it. (sighs) What I think is really interesting on that is I made, (laughs) I wish Erik
Kastner was here right now. Let’s show Kastner’s
Twitter profile @kastner. K-A-S-T-N-E-R Erik was the developer
that sat right next to me that helped me build up WineLibrary.com And I made a prediction to him in 2004 or five or six or seven that all email would be video in five to seven years. I’m glad we weren’t doing the
Ask #GaryVeeShow back then ’cause boy that highlight– The lowlights of this show, by the way, I can’t wait for the
lowlights in a couple years of all my wrong things in this ’cause those are fun too. (laughs) Not really. I think the answer’s no. I think that what people don’t realize is most people don’t want to be on camera. And this is a really interesting thing. Now, what’s happening right now with everybody growing
up in selfie culture and all these 15, 14, 13 year
olds just owning this move. I do think that behavior’s changing. And I do think that video’s upside over a 15 to 30 year period, 15 to 30 years from now, 15 through 30 years from now is very high because I think
we’re training youngsters, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, to be more out. (phone dings) To be more in front of the camera, it’s not this kind of thing anymore. I’m bullish on the concept. I do think email is ripe for a change in the next generation. I think, you know, Gmail’s gotten heavy, it started off lighter. I think there’s some real opportunity. I do think when you look at Slack and how people use that in
companies to communicate, I think a version of texting,
Twitter video and email, the Frankenstein of that,
eight, nine years from now has a real shot. And then there’s gonna be a technology we don’t understand, like holograms. Like Princess Leia pops up in Star Wars. I’d like that even better, I’d be like, yo, I could use my hands. It’d be great. So I think a lot of technology will come and I do think there’ll be change. I do think that video and email clients like Gmail and Apple mail is gonna be smaller than you think because people don’t
like to go that route. It actually takes longer and I think time is the biggest asset. I think people can type it
quicker than click, dah-dah-dah And I think we’re writing less. You know, a lot more emoji’s. These guys will probably
laugh right now. (laughs) My emails are tight. (laughs) They’re very much in the
K, LOL, Cool, Go, Yes, No I mean, I am keeping it tight. When I write two to three
sentences, people are like, Whoa. I think time is the biggest variable besides people’s non want
to be in picture form. Think of how many people don’t wanna take pictures of themselves. They don’t wanna see themselves. That’s a very big culture, underrated. Especially for the generation
that’s in the workforce now. The younger generation I think
will change that over time.

“You don’t talk much about Tumblr. “Do you think it’s losing relevance?” – Yes. You keep asking quest– (laughs) Yes, I do think it’s losing relevance. I think Tumblr lost its moment, which is tough for me ’cause I was an early investor in Tumblr. I made a lot of money
when it sold to Yahoo! but it’s part of a bigger company that’s selling media in a traditional way even though it’s Yahoo! And I think that it lost to Instagram in the mobile translation much like many people did. It is still a very high
rated app in the app store, if you look in the top 100, it’s usually around number 90 to 110. But I do think it’s losing relevance. I think there’s a lot
of people that love it, it’s still a very big platform but I don’t say huge growth in it. I don’t see it. I think it’s a niche now, where a lot of creative
people are doing their thing, it’s a great creative outlet. A lot of people are doing
their anonymous work on it. But then Snapchat came along and kinda created a world– India, what’s going on behind me? – [India] Nothing, I was just waving to– (slaps table) – What, no, no, you were laughing before. – [India] No, I wasn’t. – Okay, I’ll have to watch
that part of the show. (laughs) I think, the show. I do think Tumblr’s lost its momentum and would need to have
some real innovation to get going again. Yes, I don’t talk about it a lot because it’s not atop of mind. And it’s a current show, right.