Last Friday I had the chance to exchange a few words with Gary Vaynerchuck as part of his #1ADayQ&A. For those who may not be familiar with him, Gary is a “a 36 year old New York Times and Wall Street Journal Best-Selling author who is also a self-trained wine and social media expert.” As the author of “Crush It,” his story and social media mantra have really influenced both my personal brand and my career (I can’t recommend that book enough!). Below is a synopsis of our conversation, followed by the audio file. Enjoy!
Kate: I tend to find that conversations are easily created and carried out via social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. How do you suggest transferring those conversations to a blog? Is that even important/relevant?
Gary: I actually don’t think it is that important or relevant. I’d have to understand the agenda, but conversations don’t necessarily need to be converted to media (a blog post). What do you need by having a blog post?Blogs are made to push out content and put things out there. I would suggest having a conversation via Twitter or Facebook and then take a screenshot to post to your blog and talk about what happened there and why it was important.
Kate: Do you use any type of editorial calendar for your blog?
Gary: I don’t, but I should. Or at least I should use an app so I don’t forget ideas. I definitely have great ideas for blog posts that I eventually don’t ever use because I forget. But honestly, it could be as simple as emailing yourself when you have an idea. I think that is just an organizational skill that I lack a lot of the time.
Kate: Something that stuck out to me when I read “Crush It” is that you suggest the traditional resume will be irrelevant in the future, and I completely agree with that. What do you think employers will be looking for, as far as personal brand attributes, when hiring someone?
Gary: It is very different for every employer. I look for certain personality traits – someone who is aggressive, hungry, and ambitious and other people look for other things. I don’t think it is any one thing that will stand out. I think that the authentic aspect of a candidate is what will be the common theme to the nuances of the personality. The content and creative information that people put out about themselves on the social web is definitely going to be used as a data point in the decision making process. I am going to look for people who are creative, who are using new technologies to stand out, who are using those properly, and the ones who have a mix of humility and ego — that is MY filter, but everyone will have their own.
Kate: How are things at #SXSW?
Gary: So far, it is quite quiet. I just got here last night and right now I’m working with my ghostwriter on my new book, “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook.” It is supposed to rain all weekend, so it will be an interesting vibe. It reminds me and the people of what this conference is all about, which is the people that come to it. In some weird way it is almost serendipitous that the weather will be poor, because it will predicate more people to spend more time with each other. And I think this is kind of cool.
Kate: You mentioned your new book. Can you share anything about it?
Gary: Sure – it is coming out in October or November. It is going to really dissect the social networks that I think are most important. The subtitle is “The formula to tell your story in a noisy world.” So it will talk about the kind of content that I think you need to put out on the social web to get across your story, and the pattern and the rhythm to actually execute that. How much do you put out that is fun and quirky? How much do you put out that is timely? How much do you put out that says, “Hey buy this!” I think it will be great, and really help a lot of people.
communiqueso.com 