My favorite blog posts to write are ones where I simply quote Gary Vanyerchuk when he speaks at conferences (SxSW ‘09, SxSW ‘10, FOWA 2010). Today, he spoke at Tahoe Tech Talk, an intimate get-together that you should absolutely attend next year. The following is paraphrased gold from Gary:
How many 14-year-olds do you know? They sent 3000 text messages and made two phone calls last month. I wanna figure out how to get their eyeballs.
Billboards: nobody reads them. The metrics used to create them are false too.
I’m trying to humanize a conference.
The day that businesses have real relationships with their consumers is today. This is the greatest opportunity for every marketing company ever. But here’s where it gets really real: it’s difficult. “Stack it high and let it fly” doesn’t work anymore.
Humans are grossly underestimated. We have pretty good bullsh*t detectors.
Some guy bought 10,000 horses the day before Henry Ford created the assembly line. That guy lost.
Business does not give a f**k about you. Everybody wants to know how to scale. Everyone wants to know the ROI.
The companies that understand small town rules are gonna win.
Pull out your phone with purpose: if you’re at a restaurant and they tell you that you have to wait for 35 extra minutes, threaten to tweet about it or give them a negative Yelp review.
The perception of your brand isn’t going to be written by TechCrunch, NY Times, ESPN, or Wall Street Journal because those gatekeepers are losing their keys to all of you guys.
The customer is now in our face. We can touch them. We can shake their hand, give them two hugs if you want. Reach out!!
Don’t hire someone to tweet for you. You’re a human being.
Put your heart and soul into your audience.
People are filtering their kindness. They see somebody say something (with little followers) and they are ignoring it. Terrible decision.
In 15 years, Zappos is gonna seem mean. And if that happens, I’m gonna be pumped.
