- On this episode, I talk about
music, important observations, and
will ads become too expensive on social media
for small businesses?
(hip hop music)
- You ask questions,
and I answer them.
This is the #AskGaryVee Show.
(hip hop music)
- What's up everybody? This is Gary Vay-ner-chuk
and this is episode 82 of the #AskGaryVee Show.
All right, back in the saddle, 81 after...
Steve, you can come in.
Jeez, Steve's like, when'd you get all weird?
- Oh, I didn't want to come in--
- You've been on the show before.
- After the intro--
- What? Get in here.
- All right.
- You've been on the show before.
Back in the main saddle.
81 yesterday in my office was fun.
People got to see some different schwag in the background.
Ask about the Rangers fandom.
Hardcore Rangers fan from 92 to 94,
but then they won the cup,
and once my teams win, I'm out.
So, when the Jets win the Superbowl this year,
two things will happen.
I will finally shave my beard,
and two, I will no longer be a Jets fan.
Let's get in to the show.
- [Voiceover] Marc asks, "Will social media marketing
become too expensive for a new start-up
to compete with larger companies for ad spots?"
- Marc, the answer's absolutely.
I mean, that's the whole point.
That's the whole point of everything I talk about
which is jump into new places when
the grass is greener, ahead of the market
to create the arbitrage when it's under priced
compared to the market,
a la, email marketing for Wine Library in 96 and 97,
nobody else was doing it.
I was asking for it.
My conversions were better.
More people came.
The conversion rates went down,
it became more expensive,
and harder to get people into the email funnel,
that became the expense.
Google Adwords, on the word wine for five, ten cents.
A hell of a lot better than owning it for two bucks, right?
Of course it will get more expensive.
We're seeing it on Facebook now.
Facebook ads to get into the feed
are more expensive than they were
12, 18, 24 months ago.
Even when I started this show and told you
to do dark posts, it's gotten more expensive
since then.
So the answer and the question and the debate
and the opportunity all lie in the same place
which is what are you doing about Instagram
and Snapchat and Meerkat and Periscope
and all these new things.
Are you moving there when the audience is not as big,
the returns are not as big in the short term?
My overall plan is to go to those places
hold my breath for three or four or five or six
or seven months, when it's not as valuable,
but be there when it does become
more valuable, and then ride that wave
for 12 to 24 months before those platforms
become an add their ad product.
Instagram's ad product is still not mature yet,
so the organic reach for the people
that jumped on three, four, five years ago.
Is it five years already for Instagram?
Feels like it is.
2009 for Instagram feels right, right?
Or 2010, trying to remember.
Anyway, if you've been, you know,
fuck charity right, and like other people of that nature,
they won, they moved quickly.
They've got the biggest audience.
They can command enormous dollars.
So, I think the answer is yes
depending on your budgets.
It becomes more price prohibitive.
What a small start-up or small business
has is time versus a big brand's money.
Right, so are you willing to work seven pm to
three in the morning to get the disproportion
arbitrage of new platforms to over index
before money becomes the variable.
I hate when small businesses are like,
oh, that's it, we don't have enough money to compete
with the big guys.
What you have is speed and time.
What I mean by that is they have time too,
but people that work in corporate America
don't want to stay up til four o'clock in the morning
that often.
And even if they do, they want to move
within the system of corporate America,
and they cannot do the same things you can do.
It's not that same entrepreneurial nimble system.
By the time they even understand
what Snapchat, Instagram, Periscope, Meerkat are,
it takes two years for it to get approved.
In that time, you're executing,
and so, the answer's yes,
but that's not a bad thing.
It only speaks more to my overall philosophy
of jumping into these new platforms,
extracting the value before the ad product
becomes mature,
and then using the ad product, Facebook dark posts
while everybody else is waiting.
Now, in 2016, 17, 18, when Facebook
darkposts unpublished posts, the ad product
become the mainstream, that's when it
becomes prohibitive for you,
but you're on to the next one.
- [Voiceover] Destin asks, "The business I'm in
brings a lot of rejection from my family and peers.
What are some ways you build confidence when rejected?"
- Destin, which is not Dustin and is not Destiny,
Destin without a Y, or Destiny without a Y.
Well, you know it's funny.
When the question was asked by India,
one thing, first and foremost,
you want to make sure, the way to build confidence
is be confident in yourself.
I want to make sure first and foremost
that you're not selling something skeezy, right?
Like if everybody doesn't have confidence around you,
maybe you're selling something that is not the right thing.
So, first and foremost, are you selling the right thing?
Or are you in ponzi scheme world?
Are you in $300 ebook world?
Are you in full of shit world?
If you're not in full of shit world,
take it from somebody who hasn't been
in full of shit world his whole career,
but has done things that people
didn't believe in.
E-commerce being number one.
Wine Library TV being number two,
and then really a social media agency,
number three believe it or not.
In 09, people still debated that this was a stupid idea.
I think that, you know, this is a tough one
for me to answer because the truth is,
I don't give a crap what anybody else says.
As a matter of fact, I'm wired a little bit backwards.
I prefer that everybody thinks I'm wrong.
I feed off of that negativity,
and I turn it into positivity.
Right, like I literally actually prefer,
it's why I like bad sports teams.
It's interesting.
We got to, actually this worked out perfectly.
The reason I really would not want
to root for the Yankees anymore,
I loved being a Yankees fan in the 80s
cause they stunk.
The Mets were the team of the 80s
when I was a kid.
I loved the climb, then they became the
establishment, and I pushed against it.
It's my overall thing, right?
I'm a very basic character.
Like, I like coming from the slums.
I like being underestimated,
and the second I become the establishment,
aka the wine world, it becomes less interesting.
Advertising's becoming less interesting
because I'm starting to be proven to be right,
and it's just not as fun.
Like, I want the push-back.
So, you and I are wired differently if you're
asking this question.
My question is like, how do I stay underdog
for longer?
You know, and so I feed off of the negativity.
I feed off of like, you're not right,
you're not right, you're not right, you're not right,
I don't agree, I don't agree, I don't agree.
That's not the way it's always been done.
So, I might not be the right person
to answer this because it's always been in me.
In me is the underdog.
In me is the scrapping up.
In me is the I'm going to prove you wrong, sucker.
- [Voiceover] William asks "I'm growing
a millenial owned branding agency
here in New Jersey.
What are key factors we should be looking for
when hiring other millenials as we quickly scale?"
- Well, great picture, it's a good time to stop,
especially for everybody listening.
So, stop your treadmill, pull over on the side of the road.
I need more Instagram picture questions.
Tag AskGaryVee or AskGaryVeeShow on your Instagram.
Just like this question.
So obviously if you're listening,
go and watch the show just so I can show you what I mean,
but obviously if you're watching,
you know exactly what I mean.
I'm going to say it one more time.
You, the audience, you, the VaynerNation,
oh, go I need a wristband, Steve.
You the VaynerNation, are the oxygen that allows
this show to happen.
The more you guys check out or
take it for granted or get into a rut
because I wasn't on for two weeks,
the more likely I will stop at episode 94.
So, like I really, really need your help here
to continue the momentum.
So, if you like this show at all,
and if you're shy or not shy,
either way, I basically need an Instagram photo
with a question.
Here's a link to how you ask the question.
And let's move on.
Will, I think building a millenial agency,
I always talk about that fat dude
that built Backstreet Boys and N Sync, right?
He wasn't a 13 year old girl.
He just knew how to market to 13 year old girls.
I, especially with the gray hairs,
even some in the beard which is weird,
I am not a millenial.
I know how to market to millenials
better than all of my millenials combined.
Okay?
So I would say, first things first,
were you thinking I Poppa?
First things first, I would say is
you don't have to, and this is a huge
mistake that most people make.
You don't necessarily hire millenials
to market to millenials.
Just cause you're 24, doesn't mean you
know how to sell shit to a 24 year old.
So, first and foremost, what you should
be thinking about in hiring people
is do people actually know how to market
to the age group?
The reason I mention that 50 year old
fat white dude is he understood 12 year old girls
and pop music better than anyone.
Just like this 39 year old old dude
understands the behavior of 13 to 23 year olds
better than most people.
So, first what you should be looking for
is can they talk the game to the actual audience,
not necessarily are they the demo of the actual audience.
(bell dings)
- [Voiceover] Sean asks "What's the single most
important observation you've ever made
in your life?"
- Sean, I think the biggest observation
I ever made in my life was
I needed to really trust my intuition
over what I was being sold by anybody.
From my parents to my teachers
to the television.
I just, you know, I always talk about
betting on your strengths.
You know, for me, and you know,
maybe most people are different.
Like, everyone's different,
but for me, you're asking me,
the #AskGaryVee Show, that's why we called it that.
For me, it was just somewhere in my early teens,
it was just obvious to me that I was right.
And I know that's an obnoxious thing to say,
but my happiness and success always
followed me going down the path
that seemed obvious to me,
yet I was confused why everybody else
wasn't, it wasn't,
besides my mom, it wasn't so obvious too.
And so I, that's what I would say.
I would say that's my answer
because observation was I was right,
don't be scared of what that meant,
have the confidence to follow through with that,
don't hedge, don't,
respect other people's points of view.
Have the humility that has been
such an important balance to the gift of
the intuition, but never waver, never waver.
- [Voiceover] Clayton asks
"How do you retain and increase followers
after taking over social media from a company
who bought their initial fans?"
- Clayton this is a great question.
I think this is a good one at this point.
In the maturity of social networking,
people realize buying fans on any platform
has absolutely no value.
You eventually get exposed for being
the scum-bucket that you are.
And so, I would say that the, the...
Listen, there's two different ways to buy fans, right?
Like, buying ads on Facebook and Twitter
and Instagram, to then, if people are interested,
to follow is a smart move.
Just buying, like you know, going on ebay
and buying 5,000 bots makes no sense,
but the funny thing is the answer to your question
is the same way you would if it was zero.
Whether you have zero followers
for a new wristband brand
or you're a coffee company that they bought
a thousand fans on ebay to try to
make it seem like there was somebody,
you're move the next day is the exact same
which is let's start from the beginning
and try to make it work.
So, what you're looking for is engaged fans,
converting fans, people that will buy your book,
your wine, will watch your show,
will pass it on.
Like, what you need to do for them
is you need to provide them value,
and so providing value is the whole game.
Whether that's listening on Twitter and engaging.
Whether that's putting out great content.
Whether that's sweepstakes, entertainment,
information.
Whatever it is, you need to provide value.
You need to put out good content,
you need to listen.
You can talk great, you need to listen great.
And if you're Meerkat cooking show is good, you win.
And if your Meerkat cooking show is shit,
you lose.
It's not really complicated.
This stuff is quite basic.
You need to put out good stuff,
and the question is what is good stuff?
Good stuff is different to everybody.
You know, like Steve.
Name three good music things.
Musicians, bands, name three,
any three music things that are good, go.
- SoundCloud is good.
- [Gary] No, no, no, no, acts. - Acts?
- [Gary] Yeah, things that you listen to.
What are three things that you want to listen to?
You were willing to give your 20 minutes
that is very valuable, and I will sit down
and listen to these six songs.
Name three acts.
- Flux Pavilion.
- [Gary] Good.
- Maddy Young.
- [Gary] Good.
- And Lionize.
- Good.
I have no fucking idea who any of those three people are.
Staphon. Go to him.
I know there's a light but figure it out.
Staphon, your turn.
Name three good music things.
- Kanye, Jay-Z, Kanye.
- [Gary] There we go.
Great.
India?
- Um, oh my God.
- [Gary] I don't care.
Don't blank, you know music, go.
- I do, um, The White Stripes, Colts and probably,
like the Beach Boys.
- Good.
Let's just figure out what just happened.
Three lovely people that are into
very different things.
They would.
Steve, what do you think about Kanye?
- Um, I think he's kind of a jackass,
but I thought "Bound To" was a good song.
- Good.
Staphon, your overall thoughts on the Beach Boys.
- I'll give you some when I listen to the music.
- There you go.
India, what are your thoughts on Lionel Richie,
one of my favorites.
- He's great.
- Good, me and India agree.
So, bottom line is it's quite simple, right?
What is quality is 100% subjective.
There were plenty of people in Hollywood
20 years ago that said this reality TV stuff
will never work.
It's not produced well, it's not good,
it's not interesting.
There's a million people that think the Kardashian's suck.
There's a million people that think they're great.
There's tens of thousands that think I'm great.
There's tens of thousands that
just don't realize I'm great yet.
I mean, the bottom line is it's all very, very simple.
Quality content is subjective.
What is not subjective is what happens next.
AKA, you may sit and say I'm putting out great content,
but after four and half years of 13
people are subscribed and paying attention,
you just might not be that good.
You might not be good at the content.
You might not be good at getting the content out there.
It's a mix of the two.
I'm a by-product of the mix of the two.
I'm good enough to put out content that people like.
But I'm also good enough getting it out there
and using the marketing to bring in awareness,
and both matter.
Both matter,
but that's really it, right?
Like that's really it.
Like, whether you have a billion fake fans
or zero fans, aren't you in the same place?
Zero fans?
Yes, you are, and thus,
it's like me.
If I decided to start doing wine content again, right?
If I decided to do that,
you know, I have to start kind of over.
Like, of course I have my base.
People that used to watch the show,
and things of that nature,
but if it's not good.
If episode 1,001 of Wine Library TV is
just a disaster show, then it's very unlikely
chance that it will be successful.
So, the quality of the content really, really matters.
And then all the other growth hacking
marketing strategies, all the stuff we talk about,
those are just support systems to give
that stuff a better chance to succeed.
Cool. Question of the day.
What are your three favorite music acts of all time?
You keep asking questions, I'll keep answering them.