When social media moguls get it wrong
Monday, June 15th, 2009 by Jon Clements
Gary Vaynerchuck is a name well known to those immersing themselves in social media - and is one which carries some weight, as the success of his online Wine Library TV is testament to.
But he’s had to swallow a substantial slice of humble pie in recent days and clean up the mess left by his representative, who decided to pitch countless bloggers to support a “promotional bonanza” around the launch of Vaynerchuck’s first book.
In response, blogger, John Cass, wrote on his PR Communications blog that apart from being a “form pitch letter” (i.e., a mass, unpersonalised pitch, a.k.a. chucking mud at the wall and hoping something sticks), the approach failed at a more fundamental level: the pitch was wrong for the medium and simply reading Cass’s blog would’ve revealed that. It’s a tactic that’s sent journalists’ blood boiling for eons and does precisely the same with bloggers today.
And Cass emphasises that the promise of getting extra online “traffic” by participating in the book launch is meaningless to him: “I’d much rather have people who want to engage in a dialogue with me, where that dialogue results in me learning something I can use as material for my blog, ideas for my work, or building relationships that convert into into customers.”
To his credit, Vaynerchuck is obviously listening and pitched in on the comments section to answer Cass and other commentators and confess he’d ”messed up”. So, in the end, he used the medium in the way it should be used - to engage in dialogue.
It goes to show: in communications - and especially social media - you can never afford to stop learning.
