#AskGaryVee Episode 68: Optimizing Hashtags, Recycling Old Content & Bookstore Marketing

– [Voiceover] Abram asks,
“How do you optimize the use of hashtags for campaigns? Hashtag.” – Abram, this is a great question. I think we can get very
detailed for the VaynerNation on this. Hashtag culture is very
very important specifically to Instagram and Twitter. Let’s start there. That is really the two
places it is massive and on some level, Pinterest as well. Less on Facebook. Tumblr, for a while there
it was very very important. Snapchat, not at all. LinkedIn, not really. We’re really talking
Twitter and Instagram, first and foremost. There’s another question that’s
going to be on the episode, in a couple of questions where
the guy used 17, 18 hashtags as his entire post. I think hashtags are an
incredible way to get discovered, I think it’s important to
think about it two ways. I think you’re asking, how do
I get my hashtag going, right? I think. Even if not, by answering
that it’s going to help a lot of people here. I have the #AskGaryVee
hashtag, #AskGaryVee, Gary Vee Show I use on
Instagram and Twitter. I’m really just using that
for fans that are looking to go down the rabbit hole
more than getting it away for awareness. You’re saying for a campaign,
and I think people really need to understand a couple of things. Number one, hashtags are not ownable. Let’s just, I’m going
for, podcast listeners, I’m going for a big dramatic pause here. You should have seen the way I reacted. I’m going to do it again. It’s important that you understand this. It is insane to me that
people in 2015 still think they can own a hashtag. I walk into tons of meetings
where the brand’s like, let’s own the hashtag #GetEm. I’m like, what the hell
are you talking about? First and foremost, any
hashtag you can create, tomorrow I can jump in and make a hashtag. We can remember all the way to
the infamous 2008 or ‘9 time when Skittles put out that
hashtag and then people started putting things that were
very crude against it, because Skittles homepage
was a filter and a stream of everybody using the
hashtag and then, you know, body parts and rude and crude
things started showing up on their corporate page
because there is no ownability around a hashtag. My answer is this, flip it. Instead of trying to own
or establish a hashtag for a campaign, look at the
hashtags that are trending and very popular on the
two main platforms already and try to figure out
how to reverse into them by putting out your piece of
content, storytelling, and then using three or four hashtags
that are riding the wave. I wrote about this a million years ago, riding the wave of a hashtag. One of my first Mediums, I think. That’s the answer. Reverse it, don’t try to establish one, ride the wave of four or
five that are working, that tie in and be creative
into what you’re putting out. – [Voiceover] Leonard asks,
“You’ve talked before

about recycling a tweet. How about other content
such as a blog post? How often do you pull a piece
from the archives, dust it off and republish?” – Leonard, a great question. As a matter of fact, you know
what, India, this is something we should actually
probably consider outright and look back at my old Viddler videos. I saw one that came up the
other day that has clearly not been transcribed to YouTube,
because somebody popped up, I thought it was interesting. My own little spiel there, sorry Leonard. Let me answer your question. I don’t do it often, but
I’ve never had, India, Steve’s not here, we had
a wine event last night. Some people can’t hang. I haven’t done it a lot, though
what my team here is helping me do is make better pieces
of content on current thoughts and, I think a lot of you
have noticed, I use the #AskGaryVee show now as
a platform to have a show, and then India, DRock, Staphon, the
rest of the team are looking for nuggets within it to then
form bigger pieces of content. Right now I’m using this show
as, let’s call it the core and then satellite content,
the written word content, the infographics, the slide
shares, the animated gifs and these really amazing two
three four minute movie types that these guys are banging
out, are a byproduct of it. You just spurred, that’s why
I just yapped with India, the idea that we maybe need
to look back at some of the 2007 ‘8 ‘9 ’10 classic stuff
and maybe put a new, you know. Maybe we go through a
hardcore 2.0 thing, right? Stop doing stuff you hate, 2.0. Though I’ve updated Lost, and
use Breaking Bad or something. What did we use? Yeah, House of Cards, that’s good. I think it’s massively important
that people look back at their old content and more
importantly, I believe in context and timing of it. Unless it’s evergreen, I
don’t know what that was. Time, and so I would say
what might be more important my friend is how do you take
a piece of content that you put out today, and then
produce six or seven versions of that thought across the
platforms, in a very jab jab jab right hook standpoint
where it’s like, show it. DRock, show it, come on, it’s beautiful. In respecting the context,
so infographic for Pinterest, animated gif for Tumblr,
that would be what I’d most focus on. – [Voiceover] From Josh, “Hi Gary.

If you were going to market
a brick and mortar bookshop, where would you start?” – So Josh, first of all,
this is a great question. Second of all, I really appreciate
the love you’ve given me. Obviously you put Thank
You Economy in one of your, your Instagram’s tremendous. Obviously the question
was posted, so if you guys could catch his name or slow
it down, go back and watch it, go check out his Instagram. I think your Instagram is really tight. I’ve always said that
marketing doesn’t fix your shit product. Now after being such a
great guy, you’re like, crap, where’s he going with this? Being a bookstore in the
traditional sense of the word is over, right? There’s something called
Amazon, it’s chipping away, it’s just starting. Let me say that one more
time because I think people are confused.
It’s just starting. The corrosion of people going
to bricks and mortar for books has been on like Donkey
Kong, in an iPad, Kindle, and Amazon world. I think if I was to buy 17
bookstores at a bankruptcy, and I had to do it, what I
would do is I would turn them into a live events space
where bookselling was the secondary aspect of it. I would turn it into a coffee
shop, I would turn it into a coworking space, I would
turn it into an events spot. I would turn the physical,
and the fun part is, guys, and this is a little preview,
I’m getting my hands into Wine Library a little bit,
Wine Library’s second floor that has a lot of square
footage, I’m about to turn into an events space. I’m eating my own dogfood on this one. I would say the content you’re
putting out on the ‘Gram, and I didn’t have time to
look at everything else you’re doing, is really strong. But as you can imagine, is that
going to make somebody want to buy a book from you,
for 30 to 70 percent more? Yeah, hippies like India, show her. She would do that, right? But that is a very, no, loving
books is one thing, India. Going and spending 70 percent
more, I can see you, because I know you a little bit, maybe
doing that once in a while. Actually, do you buy
your books from Amazon? – No, I buy my books from
Alexander book company. Yay! Shameless plug! – You know. (laughs) I think that there are some
hipsters out there, but they’re not going to drive your
bottom line, right? That’s the anomaly, not the standard. I’ve done this show for a little
while now, and I would say that India and Staphon’s
head nodding as I was giving that answer was a really good
indication that we’re barking up the right tree here. I would sell 30 to 50 percent
less books to clear up the square footage, within
the store, no matter how big you are, 100 square
feet, 1000 square feet, 5000 square feet, to really
activate the physical location and find other ways and
means to make dollars, because I think bookselling
within a bricks and mortar needs to be the secondary
income, not the first play. I think that’s something
people need to wrap their head around. By the way, real quick,
don’t finish the editing. That is pretty much my
theory on retail, period. Multi use, events, experiential, McDonalds, a lot of people talking about McDonalds. I think they need to triple
down on the playground thesis, right? I mean, I don’t know. People have got to realize,
retail’s in a very new place. – Just leaving this
message because you wanted

some feedback. Just got out of the gym training for a strongman competition. Shameless self promotion
for my startup company, HaggleChimp.com. Here’s my big question, how do I overcome my people pleasing nature? – That’s an easy answer. You don’t. You’ve been told by
society and your homies that it is your weakness,
and I will tell you that it is your strength. What your weakness is is
that you don’t know how to throw a right hook. I am all people pleasing cultured nature, and I’m building my entire empire on it. As a matter of fact, my
new, I’ve been talking about the bridge or the contradiction
as my autobiography, but now the big book that I want to
write is The Human Empire. How to build an empire of good
feelings with good people, and that kind of thing. I think what you’re in is you’re stuck in the jab jab jab jab jab business. My intuition based on your
question is, it’s not about fixing your people, as a matter
of fact I’d triple down on that. I want 34 more jabs from you,
but where you are missing the boat is going in for the right hook. You need to grow a sack
and ask for the biz. – [Voiceover] Jason asks,
“As a B2B manufacturer

of building products, how
much time and money should we spend on marketing to
consumers versus customers? Or am I better off trying
to brand myself as an expert and a resource, and let people
figure out what we can do to add value?” – Jason, first of all, DRock,
let’s put the picture back right now and let’s circle the cow. I’m scared crapless of that cow. Just wanted to get that out there. Completely scared. I think you’ve got an answer. You know, it’s funny, a lot
of times people say to me that I lead the question in business meetings. I’m asking a question but really
I’m just trying to make you tell me what I want to hear. You just did that. Yes, the answer’s yes. You should become the expert. Put out content with scary
ass cows, and dominate, and put it out there and
let it be a gateway drug and breadcrumb to what you’re doing. That’s it, man, content rules the world. It just does. I just thought of Lauryn Hill,
did it sound like Lauryn Hill when I said content rules the world? I don’t know, it felt a little. Anyway. I think that that is
the way to go about it. I’m a big fan of becoming the
honey and letting the bees come to you, and I think that
that is what great content is today. Watching Tony Robbins retweet yesterday’s One Is Greater Than Zero video,
and then seeing the new CMO of Hyatt reply to it because
she saw it from Tony, and then seeing the President
of Cinnabon respond to her because of her reaction, is
word of mouth content marketing social media execution 2015. Bitches.