My Review of Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk
How to rock social media
Gary Vaynerchuk has released his third book and it is entitled Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World. As with his other two books, Crush It! and The Thank You Economy, Gary gives us his insight into how to best use social media to sell our products. Gary has a very clear idea of how social media should be used by businesses and I happen to agree with his approach wholeheartedly. In addition, followers of Gary will tell you that he practices what he preaches.
Gary starts out the book comparing social media marketing to boxing. He explains that just as a boxer sets up his opponent with several jabs before going for the knockout with the right hook, social media marketing needs to be handled in the exact same way. There need to be posts that set up the sales pitch. Going directly for the sales pitch simply gets you ignored. The jab posts help you to gain credibility and attention from your followers so that they are paying attention when you deliver the right hook posts.
Gary goes on to explain how native content is so important in social media. Understanding where and when people will be reading your content on a given platform helps determine the look of your content. Taking the time to think through the strengths and weaknesses of each platform and leveraging those to your advantage pays off in the long run. By jabbing on a regular basis using native content your posts get more attention. Your marketing costs decreases as people share, like, retweet, and reblog your content.
Gary covers each of the major social media outlets. There is a chapter on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr. He gives an honest assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of each platform. He attends to a frank discussion of why each platform exists and how to get the most out of it. What I found exciting is that he further expands upon the native content idea by doing many, many case studies of actual Facebook posts, Tweets, Pins, Instagram posts and Tumblr posts. Gary spends the time to fully explain what he liked and disliked about each example. He even took the time to show the reader what a bad post could look like if it incorporated his suggestions for improvement.
Gary is the reason I even use Tumblr at all. In this book he managed to help me understand it more than I have in the 2 years I have been using it. In addition, his explanation of Pinterest and the great ways to get conversations started really has me rethinking whether or not I need Pinterest for my business model. After reading this book, Pinterest is definitely more on my radar.
As Gary goes through the case studies he also takes the time to explain how to analyze the effectiveness of any social media campaign. To me, the native content concept and how to analyze the campaign were the two missing ingredients. They were like a huge lightbulb going off in my head as I read about them. Gary explains both in such a clear and succinct way.
The book is written in a very conversational style. It is as though you have attended a lecture where Gary is speaking. You can hear his voice clearly throughout. The book captured my attention. I devoured it in one sitting and just had to share my thoughts with you in this review.
If you do social media marketing for a living this book is a must read. If you are a CEO for a company that does social media marketing this book is a must read. If you want to spread the word about your new invention using social media marketing this book is a must read. If you have any interest in social media marketing at all this book is a must read.
This book should change the way companies do social media marketing. I strongly suggest that every single business in the world head over to Amazon and pick up a copy of Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. Make it required reading for your marketing people. You will see a huge change in how social media helps your business. That alone is more than worth the price of this incredible book.
