Gary Vaynerchuk has achieved much fame and fortune as a wine merchant and blogger — and social media guru. In this speech at the 2001 Inc. 500 seminar, he touches on the concept of the “Thank You Economy;” of using social media to get close and personal to clients by providing an incredibly deep and human relationship and connection.
This is far different from the “push marketing” economy, he says. It is more like the old general stores and merchants in the small communities in the earlier part of the last century, where merchants and business owners really knew their clients. Today, we can achieve the same thing by monitoring and watching Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other media, and learning about our customers.
At the end of the speech, a newspaper publisher asked him about how he could monetize his content in the new environment. Vaynerchuk had a blunt answer. “Content is a commodity,” he said. The issue is context. He said the newspaper publisher should pull all the equity he can out of his brand and then prepare to move into another business — otherwise, he would be like the guy with the collection of horses just before trucks came into use.
This is an hour-long video, but well worth watching.
