Book Summary: Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk

Gary Vaynerchuk is often used as a social media success story. Through his video blog show – Wine Library TV – he built his local, family business into a national leader.

As he says in the book, “I write about things after I do them.” I like that. I enjoy learning from people who have tested their ideas in the marketplace.

Here’s some of the most relevant thoughts I took away from reading Crush It! -

Choose your platform carefully

Use something that makes you shine, shows your passion, and connects well with your audience. (The three big platforms: video, audio, and writing)

Use instinct over analytics

Gary recommends avoiding the temptation to keep looking at the numbers when trying to build your community – especially at first.

[I agree with the need to avoid obsessing over follower count. I disagree with abandoning all analytics - in my experience testing website performance is crucial for improving ROI]

Being authentic means you’ll lose some fans

Not everyone will like it – but those people probably aren’t your true audience. You don’t need to please everyone.

Create a community

“Creating content is the easy part. What you do after you tape a show or write or record is the whole game.”

Gary advocates doing this through starting conversations with people interested in your topic. And then you need a way to “capture” them through subscription (email, RSS, Twitter) to provide long-term communication opportunities.

The most effective marketing plan in the world

Care. (That’s it!)

This book is probably more aimed at solo entrepreneurs, but there are lessons here for all of us. If you have the option, I would recommend the audio version of this book. It’s much more entertaining, as Gary regularly goes off script to let his personality come through.