“Can you build a strong
social media following “solely by engaging with your audience “or is content an absolute must?” – Content is an absolute
must, interesting. (laughter) Listen, I mean, I think you
could build up something really, really interesting by
being a full-pledge listener. You know, it depends on
how you define content, which is why I kind of wavered off. If you’re listening, you’re gonna respond. Your responses are your content. So, if you’re asking me,
“Can you just search, “engage with conversations
and put out those answers?” I would argue that that’s what I did do in 2006, seven, and eight. Outside of me just putting a link to the Wine Library TV show, which is a pretty big piece of content, so I can’t really go there, so. Look, I would you I’ve
disproportionately gotten value from my engagement, but
I think historically, I’ve underminded, or even
slightly disrespected my content. I’ve changed over the
last three to four years on that point of view. I realized the content did matter. I think it’s a really
interesting question. But I think your answers are your content. I mean, very honestly, I
think that’s why my brand in the business world
and entrepreneur land and startup land has gotten stronger, because I think I’ve positioned myself to actually use my
responses as my content. We are literally, this is
literally a very meta-answer. We are in the context of a show that is predicated on me giving answers and engaging versus me
self-starting around the content. But then, that in itself is
the depth of the content. So I think it depends
on how far you take it, in the, you know, semantically,
I would say, yes you can. Because I think you can put a lot of depth and a lot of oomph and a lot of weight, you know, this is heavy,
and a lot of weight. Um, you know what Mike makes me do? This crap. It’s the worst. Um, uh, yes, because I think
you can put a lot of oomph behind the content in response. I call it counter-punching. I would argue that Floyd Mayweather is gonna go down as this
generation’s best boxer completely predicated on your answer, so take that for what it is.

“How would you market
an HR staffing agency?” – Um, Kamil I would market
an HR staffing agency by creating enormous amounts of content. I would probably reach out to the biggest HR software companies in the world to see if they had a
blog, and then email them and say that you would
love to write guest blogs around HR dynamics in organizations. I think that would be
incredible way to do it. I think guest blogging
is a stunning arbitrage that most people don’t take advantage of. If you are starting any
business right now of any, a landscaping business, a
chocolate making business, a candle selling business,
you go map the 15 sites that most of the people that
are likely to buy your product are spending their time reading, and reach out to the editors and ask them to guest blog, whether an audio form, video form, or written form,
depending on your skills sets. They may be a written blog,
you can’t write like me, and they won’t take video or audio, then you’re going to miss
out on the opportunity. But maybe you find two or three, being able to siphon that
attention to awareness around you, as long as you
don’t make your article about you selling stuff. You have to level up
and be a media company. So for you, what’s the name again, Kamil? – [India] Kamil. – Kamil, what you need to do is talk about six behaviors you look for in an employee that’s
been in your organization for three years, and
then you write about it, instead of saying, why using a staffing
agency is a good idea. Can’t be in your best interests, it has to be in the
audience’s best interests. Hence this show. This show is to bring
as much value as it can to build up equity, to bring up value, to bring up leverage. To guilt everybody who watches
and listens to this show to buying many, many books
of the #AskGaryVee show. Or tell people to watch it. That leads to speaking engagements or clients of VaynerMedia. Or, what I really care about,
’cause those last three things are nice-to-haves, turn
everybody in the world into a New York Jets fan when I own them. So, you know, I think that um. By the way, you know what’s
gonna be funny about that? I’m literally gonna clip that in 30 years, and I’m gonna play it in the stadium. Just want you to know. Um, so, I would do that. I would start putting out infographic or visuals in Instagram,
and use the right hashtags for discovery around HR. That may sound very weird. It’s probably very, very, very niche, but there are tons of
HR people on Instagram. I mean, we have a HR department,
they’re all on Instagram. So there’s a lot of hacks,
but it’s all about content. Level yourself up and
act like a media company instead of an agency. Put out content. That’s what we do for VaynerMedia. I, at the forefront, am great
at it, and that’s just truth. I mean, I’m sorry, but it’s true. I’m great at producing content. My team’s great at helping. You know, that has been
a huge gateway drug to new business and building
the brand of VaynerMedia. Then you have to deliver. Because what comes along with it, especially when your a personal brand that is charismatic, as
good looking as I am, is there’s a level of cynicism
that comes along with that. So a lot of our early clients were like, “Eh, is this Gary Vee with a
buncha bullshit behind him?” So then you gotta deliver too. So there’s a lot of things you have to do to be good at business. You have to bring ’em to the table, and then you gotta serve ’em great food. And then, they come
back to your restaurant. Get it? You like that? – Yeah, you can’t just get
’em to the restaurant, India.

– [Voiceover] Sarah asks, “How can a consumer
soft goods company “capitalize on the exposure of
being in a department store “this holiday season?” – Sarah, great question. You know, a couple things. I think Twitter search is incredible, so anybody mentioning a Macy’s or a Sax or a Bloomingdales or any of the store that you could be mentioning, anybody that mentions it, anybody that mentions it on Twitter, for you to jump in as you as a human, or as the logo of the company, and engage with them. Not for the right hook,
you know, but find a sweet or clever or interesting way to mention that you’re there, you know, you could literally reply,
like, somebody says, ‘Going to Macy’s to shop,’ you could literally reply of like, ‘Oh, have a great time, we
love them, we now are there.’ You know, like, just like, or, like, our new home for the holiday season. If you stumble upon us, let us know, or you make it cheeky and fun and you say, hey, take a selfie with
one of our products and we could do something cool, and then you do a random contest. Depends on how much you wanna go from right hook to a jab, but I would
mix in the acknowledgement. Even if it’s as simple as, like, we’re happy to be there,
too, have a good time there. We’re so thankful for them. You know, something a
little more self-depricating and appreciative to the organization that gave you distribution, but I think Twitter search
is probably number one. If you have some ad
dollars, I would run it against fans of that organization, a lot of people follow
these department stores for their coupons and deals
on Facebook or Instagram, you can run some ads against them because you know you’re there. If you have a small test around zip codes, if you’re in 13 locations, you can run ads amongst people that are most likely to buy that product depending on interests within a one mile radius of that store, because you know they’re
probably going to that store. So there’s some tactics you can do there that would be an, I would use it for content, like, if you or any of your salespeople or anybody in your organization, or just you, I would buy inexpensive plane tickets and go to different stores and take pictures with the products, showing that you’re hustling in Texas and New York and San Francisco, so that could be a cool thing for content. You could make some Periscopes, live from, like, you know,
it’s a very proud moment. I’m planning on doing
some really cool shit with my book’s distribution this year. I think I’m gonna go to a
lot of Barnes and Nobles and bookstores and just sign them and leave Easter eggs and, like, I’m gonna pick a page in the new book, whatever’s a white page,
and I’m gonna come up with codes that if you email me and take a selfie that you
actually bought that book, that you then win,
like, DRock for a year. DRock, you’re gonna
work for somebody else. You know, like, stuff like that, like cool stuff like that. So, I think there’s a lot
of clever things you can do. Those are just a couple that
came off the top of my head.

– Good, what’s cooking? – I’ve seen this Extra
commercial trending everywhere. – The Extra commercial,
the gum commercial, yes. – How do you foresee cinematic commercials within a social space? – I think the reason the
Extra commercial’s doing well is ’cause it’s a good piece of content. It’s a beautiful love story played out. The brand is integrated
smartly, and not forced, and I think Facebook is the environment to produce video for, and that’s why we’re seeing it do well. There’s been great love
stories executed on television, but if that ran on TV, I don’t know, do you know how long it is? Two minutes? – I don’t know. – It’s longer than 30 seconds, right? – The song is just catchy.
– [Gary] If they did it during the Super Bowl,
or during the MTV Awards, and blocked off the time, and ran it, it would be like, “Aw, that was nice.” It wouldn’t be like this,
’cause people are sharing it, passing it on. This is the kind of work I
wanna be doing at Vayner. This is the kind of work that I think people are gonna be forced into. In a world where people
don’t wanna watch prerolls or commercials, brands are
gonna have to find ways to actually make great stories, and actually integrate their
brand where it’s not forced. It’s not like this is our show, and this was a bottle company we had, and we’re like, “Oh, I’m
just answering your–” It’s actually part of it. I think it’s an absolute preview
to where things are going. We’ve seen things like this on YouTube. I think the power of
Facebook is the targetting and the shareability that is extreme. So I’m excited about it. – Yeah, me too.
– [Gary] Good, great question. – Thank you.
– [Gary] Awesome. – Ben, over there.

– Joe.
– [India] “In a tactic-obsessed world, “how do you hammer home the
truth that WineLibraryTV “succeeded because of you,
not the daily videos?” – Interesting. So Joe’s saying that
the daily consistency, which seems like a proxy to success, isn’t the reason it was successful. It was more of me and my talents. Joe, I think the answer
is they’re both correct. I mean, I would totally disagree with you that, I mean, I lived it. If I had quit after the nine-month mark, it was me, I did it. A lot of things would be different today. That just wouldn’t have
been a foundational piece of my narrative. I wouldn’t have broken out into Web 2.0 culture, which would then not have allowed me to be a top-25-follows
person during that era. Would have not allowed me to network in South by Southwest and meet all the founders of the future
most important companies. There’d surely be no opportunity in 2008 to have dinner with Zucks at South by, wouldn’t have been asked. So, you know, I think that yes, and I’ve said it a bunch of times, no marketing and no tactics will help you if your product is shit. If I wasn’t good enough, I could still be doing the episodes. There’s plenty of people that do. I mean, you can go watch
on YouTube right now someone who’s been putting out videos everyday for the last seven years and still has 8,000
subscribers and isn’t getting any traction cause they’re
just not good enough. And being good enough is
the variable, number one. But to downplay the
consistency of the work ethic. And look, I’m feeling it now
with the #AskGaryVee Show. You know, in London, seven selfies. Right? Seven people, I’m
literally walking the streets, “Gary, Gary,” I’m feeling
much more brand equity because of the content
that I’m putting out. And, honestly, I’m feeling it a lot more over the last 60 and 90 days than I did over the first year of this show. Like, momentum is a real thing. Even the Jets game. We were up 27 to 7 and then it started getting a little hairy cause for the last 18, 20 minutes Miami basically had the momentum. We held on. Momentum is real. In sports and in life and in business. And the only way you gain momentum is by putting down the foundation of work that gives you the chance for momentum. So momentum just doesn’t
come out of thin air. It’s a play, it’s a
moment, it’s consistency. It’s putting in the work and so Joe, I don’t pound that home because I think both matter quite a bit. But yes, you know, no marketing solves a bad product. – [India] From Samantha.
– [Gary] Samantha.

The first one would be, do you
believe that unique content is not the way to go anymore? – Meaning? – Everyone’s trying to
product unique content. – Yes.
– Because it is the way that it’s set up. – Okay. – Do you believe that the process
of creating unique content is what’s going to create engagement? – Meaning? – So basically, instead of you producing a nice piece of content for me, – Yes? – that I go to someone
and I create a, a process where millions of people
create that unique content and then– – A platform? – Yeah, more or less, because, basically, instead of engaging with
people just towards the end of the product you are producing, you engage with them
throughout the process of making this product
that you’re presenting. – Are you recording the, that, or – Yes, it’s all part of the process. – Yeah, I mean, I think that’s engagement, an interaction with other people, I think there’s potential
in something like that, for sure.
– [Phil] Okay. Alright, and one more
question, what do you think

– Hi everyone, I’m Nancy
El Gaudi, at Nancy ElJudge on Twitter, (laughs) a
little plug (laughs). So, as someone who is just working out building their personal
brand, would you say, quality of concept is more important, or quantity of content. – Both! – Okay. (laughs) Should I be putting out stuff every day? – Yes! – What if I’m not passionate about it, what if I’m just going–
– No! – No, only stuff I’m passionate about. – Yes!
– Okay, cool. – And now, the question
becomes, do you have enough? – Right.
– And that’s why I just did that funny little exercise with you. Guys, we’re not all entitled
to have personal brands and make millions of dollars. – Yeah. – It’s predicated on
if you have the skill. Like, I really knew a shitload about wine. I really know a shitload
about business and marketing. You clearly are doing your thing with him. Like, you have to decide if
you’re actually good at it and you have enough, but
you’re gonna need both. – Yeah. – And, if you’re great,
and you got the content, you can do both, but that’s where the rubber hits the road, right? Like, you know, building a
personal brand is just like becoming a rock star,
musician, or a famous athlete, or a politician. We don’t all get to do it,
but you know what’s cool? Unlike the way our parents grew up and our great-grandparents grew up, we all get a chance. We all have a camera and a
phone, and we all get a chance. But, the cream is going to
rise to the top, my friends, not everybody’s entitled
to be a personal brand. – Okay. – making millions of dollars doing what they want to do at all times. It’s just not that easy. What’s special is that you get to find out if you’re good enough, because
there was millions of people that were good enough, but
didn’t live in Hollywood, that didn’t have parents that
could send them to Hollywood. And, that’s what’s special, not if you, that we’re all going to be famous, it’s that we all have a
chance to create something. – [Nancy] Thank you so much.
– [Gary] You’re welcome. – I really appreciate that.
– Thank you. Get in here, let’s go. Let’s go, big man.

“You don’t talk much about ad-blocking. “With more people doing
it, how will small and medium “publishers and blogs survive?” – They’ll survive by adjusting to the reality of the marketplace. There used to not be ads and they would make native content and soap operas integrated their products into the shows. The Ed Sullivan Show put a big fat car, a Lincoln town car that paid
for that entire show in it. And Alpo, or whatever that,
that’s Alpo’s dog food, right? Alpo used to bring out it’s, right? Used to bring out the
dog on the Today Show and eat the God damn Alpo
right in front of America. And so ads my friends are
just one way to monetize. I didn’t run ads on Wine Library TV all those years when everybody told me. I decided to get paid millions
of dollars to write a book, and to speak, and to
actually build an audience and monetize them differently instead of making nickels
and dimes on them. Nickels and dimes are cool. But you know what’s way better? Hundred dollars bills. I feel like that’s from the movie, right? I mean that’s what it is though. And so I’m laughing at everybody’s panic because I think lowest common denominator, average players are going to
get forced into being better. I actually think this is
going to motivate people to step up their game
and not just mail it in. And so I’m excited to just
watch smaller and large. You know, it’s way more, you know, it’s a funny question and I’m sure it’s coming from an entrepreneurial place. Big companies have a lot
more to lose than you. Like ad-blocking, listen. It’s all relative right? Like your 400 bucks,
their 40 million, fine. But like everybody’s equal in this. Everybody’s going to be disrupted. Not just small businesses
and small publishers. Big publishers that make
all their God damn money on banner ads and things of that nature have a real issue at hand and
I think it’s God damn great. Because what I think is actually happening is that it’s better for the end consumer. I mean it is not fun for me. Especially now that we’re
on full, I need it back. Sorry periscope. How are you guys doing. I’m just showing you DRock. Actually I’ll show you myself because you don’t want to look at DRock. Well they’d rather look at me. It’s the #AskGaryVee show DRock. You know, I forgot my thought
because I got mad at DRock. You know, because, got it. Because I don’t want to go to like ESPN.com and check a score and a big fat banner ad pops up and I got to X it and then I miss it and then I’m going to
something I don’t want and that costs me six seconds
and time is the asset. And so I really really think it’s great. I’m not talking about it because I’ve been talking about intrusive
advertising my whole life. This is just a continuation. It will get, Tivo, ad-blocking,
whatever comes next. Feedblocker. Like whatever it is,
it’s all going to happen. It’s all happening India. – It’s all happening, feel good?

You know, let’s do a
podcast exclusive today. – [India] You should bring that up. – Is this the guy who
ac– did I see this right? Is this the guy who, like, switched? (mumbling) Two and a half hour drive or whatever? Or is that somebody? – [India] Yeah, that was him. – Do I do a good job paying
attention to Mike, India? – Great job, excellent work. – Thank you, India. But I don’t know, the answer is, that happens with me all the time. Like, I stop and start
things all the time. I love when people are
like, oh you said you were always gonna, yeah okay, and what? Like, Jesus Christ. When you’re innovating at scale, some things hit the ground
and so it lost momentum. That’s the answer to your question. And good news, I’m gonna
do one after this episode ’cause I feel guilty, okay? Great, you feel good about yourself? Yeah, I feel guilty, we’ll
do an exclusive podcast question today. Big ups to everybody on
their treadmills and driving in their trucks.

“how do I build a community on it? “Jab, jab, jab, and
hopefully someone notices? “Cheers bro.” – Uh, cheers bro. I think the great thing
about Medium and one of the reasons I invested in it,
one of the reasons we write for it is you actually just
have to put out good content because they’re doing two
things that are intriguing. One, there’s a viral loop. People sharing, recommending
it at the bottom. I was one of the early people
to growth hack a little bit and ask for the hit the
recommend which created virality. But they also use human editors
who just see a good piece of content and populate it to the email, to the top of the page. This is an incredible
opportunity, my friends. Medium, in a lot of ways,
has Reddit and Digg dynamics that we haven’t seen in a
long team where you could be anybody, you don’t have to
just ooze the juice of your social networks to get people
there, but you could be anybody who writes a good,
solid piece of content and then the machine, not
the community, humans, can decide to populate it and
then give you an opportunity to then siphon. The really Holy Grail for a lot of you, and the reason I’m pushing
so many of you in the Vayner Nation to write on it is you
can write a nice piece of content, get lucky, but
probably not lucky ’cause it was a good piece of content, but a
little serendipity along with that good piece of content
and now you’re populated. You get, you know, a couple
hundred, a couple thousand, people follow you off of the
base of that being featured and away you go, you start building. And so, that’s for
people with no audience. For all of you that are lucky
enough to have some Facebook, some Twitter, some Instagram
followers and users, you should put out content
there and use that as an opportunity to be discovered. And so, you know, I’ve used
Facebook very successfully to drive people towards Medium. Email services to drive
people towards Medium. Which then gets people
reading and recommending which creates more virality, which
gets more people to recognize me and it just becomes this viral loop. So it’s not about jab,
jab, jab, right hooking, where that’s a world of put
out content and then ask for something. This is more about just putting
out good content and letting the chips fall where they may. I think the other thing you
can do is go out to other people that have audiences or
other publications that may, then, want to re-publish your publication, but has a link that says,
“This was originally written “in Medium,” and that links. And so, you’re trying to
create a viral loop because the recommend at the bottom
of Medium creates virality within Medium, there’s a big
audience there and that’s where your opportunity lies. Very tactical off the
gate on a Monday morning.