Gary Vaynerchuk, the driving force behind the Wine Library, a retail wine business, and Wine Library TV, his video blog about wine, woke up the audience at the early morning meeting of the NJ Meng chapter on Friday, January 8th with his impassioned plea to capitalize on the massive culture shift underway as a result of the internet and social media.
According to Gary, the internet has leveled the playing field and given the small entrepreneur the same capability to market their business as any large multinational corporation. While mass media converts 8-10% of the audience for a product or service into customers, the conversion rate for word-of-mouth is close to 70%. Based on firsthand experience, Gary realized that Twitter and Facebook did more to build his business than any traditional media channel he tried and at a fraction of the cost. It’s metrics like these he concluded that put mass marketing within reach of the average business person.
Gary stressed that because of the internet, we're connected like never before and now the critical small town business rules of listening to your customers and providing excellent service are paramount. He supported his insights with real world examples such as Zappos, Amazon, and Yelp as well as his own experience building the Wine Library.
Gary cautioned, that in today’s connected world, there is no hiding and only authentic, passionate, and committed businesspeople will be truly successful.
Gary’s passions run beyond the business world as he excused himself to catch a flight to Cincinnati to watch his beloved NY Jets play in the NFL playoffs.
David Montfort
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Great summary of Gary's talk, David. I also enjoyed his energy, enthusiasm and frank talk about what we can expect from this "game changing" phenomenon. When I got back to the office I found the latest article by eMarketer in my inbox: "Focus on word-of-mouth and earned media: Going social is no longer an experiment for marketers; it is a reality."
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Sandra Bauman
I find it both interesting and ironic that in our fast paced, on-line world our current discussions as marketers revolve around communities, word of mouth and personalized one-to-one customer interactions...that's what matters, so when in doubt...do the right thing and all else will follow.
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