9 Secrets of A Successful Online Video Social Media Marketing Strategy
Social Media success stories and case studies are important in that they give us an insight into best practices. Today we look at how Gary Vaynerchuk took his families wine business from $4 Million a year to $45 Million a year in just 3 years using social media marketing primarily through online video.
He promoted his online wine store through his online TV show winelibrary.tv. By educating people about his product, he could gain their trust and therefore their business. He promoted the show and his store through tools like Twitter and Facebook as well. With a lot of hard work and dedication, Gary gained a following around the world and is considered an expert both in his field of wine as well as the use of social media in business.
Curious as to how he achieved his success? Here are some of his key strategies and also his comments to his online success both with his family wine business and consequently also his personal brand.
1. Work Hard
This maybe not what you wanted” to hear.
He says “You have to want it. I say this all the time, there is no easy way to go about it. You have to work hard and hustle… I think people forget that there are more than 8 hours in the day!”
Note: He works 19 hours a day.
2. Listen
Here is what he has to say on on listening
“I think the role of Social Media Director, or as I like to call it, “Chief Listener,” is going to be a popular job description in the coming months. I say “Listener”, because it’s just as important and probably more important to be out there listening to what people are saying about your brand and reacting as it is to pump out good content. When there is an ongoing conversation about your brand or product or service, good or bad, and you aren’t a part of that conversation, that’s a huge blown opportunity”.
3.Be Patient and Persist
“Be patient and stay at it. This doesn’t happen overnight. I was doing Wine Library TV for 6 months every day before anyone cared. This is a sweat equity game. If you keep hustling and doing it right, it will pay off!”
4.Use Tools To Use To Find Online Communities In Your Niche
Two great tools Gary uses.
Tool One: Search.twitter.com (advanced search)
He says “Twitter in many ways is the most important site on the internet today. You can search for any term, whether it’s the name of your product or brand, or just the category like pizza or tattoos or hardware. In the advanced search settings you can even search within a specified geographic area. You’ll find people in your niche pretty quickly.”
Tool Two: Google blog search
Garys comment on this “Search the right buzzwords and you can very quickly identify niche communities and become part of the conversation. But remember when joining the conversation that you are there to talk and forge relationships, so don’t be all “salesy”!
5. Blogger Outreach
Gary sent a personalised email to every blogger he wanted to connect with as Darren Barefoot had done some years ago with the ebook he launched. This has helped him leverage his brand.
For some tips on how to reach out to bloggers here are some basics to get you going from Ogilvy PR to help you promote your product or service
- Identify the right people to reach out to
- Understand why would someone would be interested in your content/product/service and then be inspired to share it with others in their community
- Plan to follow up and maintain a relationship.
And another take on how to reach out to Bloggers is from Krishna’s Blog
- Make sure that you have developed and implemented your blogger outreach policy
- Discover what they are interested in so that you ensure that when you connect it’s relevant to their interests and audience
- Ideally connect with bloggers before pitching them – just as you would get to know journalists and reporters in the traditional media
- Offer something of value to the blogger – writing a blog takes time and if you want to encourage someone to write about your business, product or service, ideally give the blogger something that would be unique to them.
6. Uniqueness
He has been described as “the first wine guru of the YouTube era” and he does it so differently to the normal stuffy wine snob. You often hear him saying things like, “This smells of gasoline…” or, “This tastes like dirt…” Check out and have a look at Wine Library TV and watch at Web 2.0 Expo In New York on YouTube
7. Connects Through Social Media
He says he responds to between 500-1500 people personally and wants to work even harder in connecting with people
8. OnLine Video
He couldn’t write and he was apparentlyso taken when he saw Andy Samberg’s Saturday Night Live video “Lazy Sunday” explode on YouTube, he got himself a video camera and started winelibrarytv.com. We are certainly seeing much more video blogging ocurring and this trend will continue, so it is something that you need to seriously consider as part of your social media marketing mix.
Expect to see more and more people who a couple of years ago might have launched a traditional text blog going the video route or adding it to their content strategy.
9. Passion
You can’t do this unless you are passionate about what you do, otherwise you might as well pack up your bags right now. Gary just wrote a book entitled Crush It! Why NOW is the Time to Cash in on Your Passion. where he writes about his success and why passion is so important.
So are you thinking of using online video as part of your online marketing. What is your story?
45 Responses to “9 Secrets of A Successful Online Video Social Media Marketing Strategy”
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thanks jeff, we’re starting video marketing campaigns shortly and this is a good summary.
Good stuff. I like the fact your content is practical and relevant for those of us in B2B arena. I have added your link as a resource for social media on my blog; http://www.coydavidson.com/?page_id=1266
Coy Davidson
Great insights full of common sense.
Agree! Customers have short attention spans. Here are 5 tricks to keep them engaged. http://bit.ly/7V04wC
Hi Jeff,
I’m reading Gary’s book Crush It! right now. Very inspirational.
I just wrote a book about online video, Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business. You can read more about it over here:
http://stevegarfield.com/getseen
In the book I talk about Gary and how he started his video blog with a regular camera they bought at a local store. They just turned it on and started recording. That’s great.
My book helps business learn more about putting video on line from camera selection all the way to video hosting.
Check it out and the online community where people are thre to share knowledge.
Thanks!
Great article Jeff
I have be toying with the idea of introducing more video to my marketing.
That idea just got moved to the top of my priority list.
I like how Gary out number one as work hard, too often this is overlooked, anything worthwhile takes time and some hard work.
Then he added the three things I consider essential with all social media.
Engage, Interact, Add Value.
A simple but effective recipe for success.
Cheers Adam Bean
Jeff, as usual another very poignant blog from you. The points you make in this piece are actually an algorithm of what to do for my company blog. We are going nearly 100% video on all are marketing strategies. Since my business is real estate photography and quality video is extremely important. Thanks for your insight.
Best
Great article Jeff!
I am pleased to announce that my new book,
My Blogging Story
is out finally and would like you and your audience to take a look at it.
Thanks and I appreciate any feedback.
Great overview Jeff. I’m reading Gary’s book right now and it makes you understand that life is radically changing for people. I’ll be starting to incorporate video into my site.
Kevin
Passion seems to be key. Plus curiosity and fearlessness. This is a great little case study. Thanks!
Without question video is the here and now for social media marketing and online marketing in general and will definitely only become more popular in the future. Lots of people want information but many are so tired of having to read to get it. The more information that is put in video format the better!
I’ve been playing with the idea of video blog, I like live video even more ie..Ustream etc.. working on learning how to properly use live video it at this point.
Thanks for the tips. Not only have I found them useful, but I’m re-tweeting them so that others can benefit from them. That is what I most like about this new era of social media–we don’t keep the secrets, we spread the good news so that all of us can do our work better. It’s an open arena where we can all benefit and we all care. What I especially appreciated, simple as it sounds, was the reference to using the search tools for your niche audience. The blogging outreach is also very good. I launched my video-based tourist information site in Spain almost three years ago, when there was practically nothing in terms of online video here–now we’re a large group and we all know each other
And I love the work. It has brought me in contact with whole new communities of people whom I would never have known otherwise. And opened up new, fun and worthwhile work opportunities, which have ultimately changed the core of my business, for the better. Thanks again for your post, and success in your projects!
Hi Jeff,
once again great content, thanks so much. Video blogging is something I very much want to start doing so will not lift it on my to-do list
I will also send this link to my sister in Cape Town. She and her hubby have a photography business creating 360degree videos for their customers and I mentioned to her about video tutorials etc on youtube. So this will lend weight to encouraging them to start.
have a great day
Cindy @notjustagranny
Jeff, this is one of the best blogs I have seen on this subject for a while. Passion and hard work are the keys to success in any endeavor, including blogging.
One thing bothers me about the video blogging. I have seen so many poor quality blog videos that I tend to ignore them now. The fact that Gary is entertaining may be an important aspect of his success. Some of us, such as yourself, are gifted writers. While others are charismatic personalities. Capitalizing on our strengths is clearly the path of choice and Gary’s strength is personal.
BTW, the subject of wine is very interesting to a lot of people. Creating excitement about airplane parts of cardboard packaging might be more difficult to promote on video. What do you think?
Best wishes,
Roger
Roger