Thursday, December 24, 2015

eCommerce Summit Q&A with Gary Vaynerchuk | 2012

0:00
says it's a great honor please welcome mr. Gary Vaynerchuk on stage
0:21
well everyone we're so grateful again gary thank you to be back how ru
0:32
Stockholm
0:35
so that's interesting I've been looking at a lot of business plans very similar
0:46
to it I think that are charging for a product is a good idea I'm in the camp
0:55
of saying go fuck yourself break so I think there's an opportunity to monetize
1:01
content in a monthly subscription-based way you look at a very conservative talk
1:07
show host in Aus Glenn Beck left fox needs went online has hundreds of
1:14
thousands of people paying him $8 a month at a good business model I think
1:18
you know from the success I had with my library TV when I retired last year I
1:24
probably got and I have a mossy in case I'm gonna do this probably about four to
1:27
five thousand people who said they paid three bucks an episode just to get me
1:31
back into the game so I think there's always a place for quality content that
1:38
people pay for I think premiums a great business model but charging right from
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the beginning makes a hell of a lot of sense I like that what is it that you're
1:47
focusing on at the moment so since I was your last year the book has just come
1:54
out in that summer I stopped doing while every TV so after five and a half years
2:00
of doing daily one content they stopped him put all my focus to be intermedia
2:03
which is the social media agency my brother AJ and I started in September
2:08
when I kind of took over the realm we're at 24 people we're now at a hundred and
2:15
twenty-five side been in very head down operations mode we've landed some very
2:20
big clients like Oprah Winfrey in the National Football League and the clients
2:25
at PepsiCo and GE and so we're doing quite well
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we have ambition to be the biggest social media to see in the world I know
2:35
that you like to talk about the reality of things so what is the reality of the
2:39
market right now
2:40
well I think the reality the markets different different places you know you
2:45
know I heard I was here yesterday and heard that money was king right that you
2:50
know where as in the us- there's a major bubble right now for startup culture i
2:55
mean every idiot with a half of an idea is getting $100,000 or million dollars
3:00
to try it and so what we have in the current reality in the us- is a lot of
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bad businesses being funded and a lot of people going to lose a lot of money on
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the flip side the Internet has never been more mature there's users you know
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you've never been able to scale as quickly the cost because the Amazon
3:19
Services and other products are so down and hitting the market place so unlike
3:24
the 2000 bubble where he'll blow up and two or three people are gonna be left I
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think this next bubble burst will still have a lot of people that make a lot of
3:32
money there's a lot of good businesses out there and show what kind of a mixed
3:37
the thing that bothers me the most is in the us- everybody celebrating when you
3:41
raise money my dad taught me from Eastern Europe routes that the day you
3:47
borrow money is the worst day of your life so you know everybody's cheering
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all I raised eight million dollars should be fucking scared you know you
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know but they don't think of it that way they don't realize the repercussions you
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got a lot of young entrepreneurs and business people who like 10 reasons
4:01
money and if it doesn't work out the experience was worth it what they don't
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realize is if they lose investors money they're not be able to get it so fast
4:08
the second time around and so I think a lot about legacy and brand equity and I
4:13
think that a lot of people are burning there's with a half good idea because
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they know money is cheap right now when you look at the social media and the
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role it played I got a good question on Twitter here if you really honest with
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yourself in the mirror before Facebook to do you foresee the role social media
4:32
will play for e-commerce e-commerce you know guys I'll be very honest with you I
4:37
don't really try to be in the prediction business I make them cuz it's fun but I
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don't really give a shit about predicting I try to execute on the early
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stages of something happening so I mean I didn't have a computer until I was 20
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years old
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open up 500 liquor stores and then I heard kuch the internet right like this
4:58
is interesting I think people spend too much time worrying about predicting
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instead of executing in the current way might be right now with all our clients
5:08
in a lot of businesses I think people are marketing like a 2006 when its 2012
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I don't want to market like its 2018 cause I'm not gonna sell anything
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2012 and so did I think Facebook would be no not one was a million people on it
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but when I realized they open it up from just college and people are jumping on
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it that i realized Twitter was gonna be such a factor in my career in 06 I mean
5:33
everybody thought it was shipped and I thought it was awesome sight but all my
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time on it I guess at some level I did but not you know I don't think brain has
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the capacity of like truly understanding me we're all gonna be selling with
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holograms and augmented reality and all sorts of things that we can't even think
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about right now we'll all be paying for every product with our phone
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million things were going to do I have no interest in being right I'm interest
5:58
in execution and so when something like Pinterest comes out two years ago I'm
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playing with it to see if there's value for me in the current state of business
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not six years from now when I angel investor all guests for six years from
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now but knowing the crowd that's here from a practical standpoint you know
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it's grossly negligent cannot be marketing on Facebook fan page in 2012
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and you're an idiot if you're not now the ROI doesn't happen as fast as they
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did in other places
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so when people don't get fast results in six months and social media they give up
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and that honestly is the most exciting thing for me because the more people
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make mistakes
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the more room I have to eat the cake
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practical mines in 2012 I do think social commerce is a term that is just a
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fair does it matter to you or how do you relate to that term do you think it's
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gonna be around several people asking that so here's what I think you know i i
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grew up in a retail business and a bricks-and-mortar and then I watched my
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b.com in 1997 if you're in the retail business you know that word of mouth
7:06
matters
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word of mouth is how we get customers to not understand that and and by the way
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let me just say this i really don't care about the word social media for social
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commerce I mean we called social media web 2.0 five minutes ago
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all we're really talking about is the internet the way the internet is acting
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now you want to lump Facebook and Twitter and Tumblr and Pinterest and
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Instagram into a thing called social media knock your fucking socks off but
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it doesn't matter to me what I'm interested in is where our people and
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how to make them do something so that I can sell them something that the reality
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the market place's we right now we're selling more wine because of Pinterest
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and Facebook and Twitter combined so does that matter to me yeah but it also
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means that we figured out how to use Pinterest better it's also early lets
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people are doing it right it's also in my opinion to wishlist of the internet
7:58
which is commerce driven to begin with you know I mean people people are who we
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saw product to if they're talking to each other they potentially could be
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talking about our products and services to disregard it because you haven't
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figured it out or even worse Mr what really pisses me off to disregard social
8:19
because all you wanted to do on social media is spam or follow us until they
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can preview is idiotic you know it's like saying is a piano a good tool for
8:30
me it's not cuz I don't know how to fucking play a piano but Elton John's
8:34
made a lot of money because of it and so the platforms right just most of the
8:38
people here and most people the world
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such a doubt it because they're trying to sell to heart through it you know
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what I mean I have so many social e-commerce expert center or is social
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media experts are saying yes to give value on Twitter Facebook and then two
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minutes later you see I have a coffee it's nice yeah same person I mean how do
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you view that there's so much crap in those kind of personality you are right
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like Kim Kardashian makes fifty million dollars a year in America for putting
9:11
makeup on her face and gatherings value because people find that entertaining I
9:15
really don't give a shit if Robert Scoble having a coffee but maybe some
9:19
people do I surely don't think that my fans really care if I'm very upset about
9:23
a New York Jets game but somehow through putting out a lot of content I created a
9:28
context where they do care about that I think value comes in many different ways
9:32
you know some people are just more entertaining some people just right you
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know nobody wants to see me in a dress but plenty people click a link that has
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a pretty girl in it right so there's a lot of ways to do that some people want
9:45
to hear about the upcoming trends so they follow that person value comes in
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many shapes or sizes finding how to bring value and how to build an audience
9:54
around that does the trick but you're also talking about increasing maturing
10:01
us
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would you say it's it's much faster today that the insurance for Pinterest
10:09
or four new facebook for years to figure it out
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rate Twitter had like three or four square Dennis Crowley up their years
10:19
like did you figured out you know now sites launched two minutes Socialcam and
10:23
viddy right now which are hot on you know how to get to monitor these
10:27
companies are 16 seconds old it's like asking all of us when we were 10 years
10:31
old to be good citizens it takes time
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yeah I think the majority think it's quite interesting actually shoot
10:37
opportunità smart about this
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adding too many of us are putting things in their infant's state it takes time I
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mean look at the great story about this is read it versus dick to credit six
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years the kind of win that current battle until things take time and yeah i
10:53
i think it's kind of ludicrous to ask these platforms to monetize so quickly
10:57
on the flip side as early adopters of his business people you have to go where
11:02
users are and when something like Socialcam can pick up thirty million
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users
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you know and just a heartbeat you have to go and test was blown away by smaller
11:12
companies not going in testing the water we're trying to find rry being nimble
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and being fast is really the game business and I think people poo-poo it
11:22
already wait for it to hit scale when you wait for 10 scale you gonna pay a
11:26
lot more money for it and so i think there's a lot of ways people looking at
11:31
this incorrectly and you said somewhere in the middle man is dying is that
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correct and yeah there's a lot of middle and starting a vineyard in California
11:46
you know i think is very much in trouble I think that you have to pay attention
11:50
anybody was a retailer in here you need to pay attention to what's happening in
11:54
the you s market with things like Warby Parker urban no posts many of you
11:59
probably are starting to realize as well or take a page out of course why be so
12:04
you know take a page out of
12:05
take a page out of what's happening with wal-mart and target these are
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exceptionally much or retailers in the USS ko why are they 50% private label
12:15
will because if you're reselling somebody's product in an Internet age
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where everybody has information at their fingertips all of a sudden you're
12:24
playing for a race to the bottom in price and free shipping and all these
12:28
other variables so i would i would i would passionately tell a lot of the
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retailers in a room here now if you're reselling I highly recommend thinking
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about a very strategic and smart private label or creating your own brand program
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cuz you're gonna need to hedged and create that profit margin because your
12:47
margins in the other sectors are going to go down don't forget how small
12:51
e-commerce really is new asset 11% of Connor's but up from 92 past 15 years to
12:57
get the nine one year to get to 11 when this market really gets big i mean
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looking around the crowd here is a lot of young people here is retiring next
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year
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gonna look like in five and ten years when we got forty percent of the pots
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gonna be but how much information and how sad you the consumer is if you're
13:16
just battling on price where you think your SEO is gonna work you out of your
13:20
fucking mind so how important is this to stretch I mean
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lot of people talk about the spread you so so what you think about that the
13:31
strategy I think everything needs strategy right I you know if you don't
13:35
have a strategy you only have short-term victories you know it's why I talk about
13:40
things for five years early because I try to play as many chances as possible
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now that gets you in trouble let me give you my story in 1998 I decided that
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mobile phones were gonna be the future right and then by the year 2000 in just
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two years every person's gonna walk into my store with their mobile phone take a
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picture
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UPC know every price of that wine in the world and then I would have to lower my
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prices so in 1998 to get ahead of that to have my strategy I lowered all our
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margins and all our prices cause I want to be able to be sustainable by the time
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that happened its 2012 it still hasn't happened so I was wrong it was our
14:18
strategy but the world did become more price driven around the same product and
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it did help us grow the execution was wrong strategy was close I was too early
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and probably gave way more margin than I needed to but I wanted to become more
14:30
nimble kind of athlete to be successful if you don't have strategy you you will
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only one other way to really win which is to be extremely nimble have
14:39
microStrategy's do things that feel right do it but the second you taste
14:42
something I just at some level that's my overall strategy which is understand
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philosophically what I'm trying to accomplish as position the brand whether
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it was myself whether that was my store whether that's been our media but
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recognize that everything changes in a heartbeat I mean mostly conversations
15:01
I've had with Pepsi GE Green Mountain Coffee Del Monte foods this week has
15:05
been around Pinterest on Socialcam that's not a word that was even talked
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about six months ago we're living in very fast times so it's important
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understand on the flipside knowing this audience at this point there are very
15:19
practical business women men and women in this crowd to bet on the next new
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shiny thing prematurely does not have value short-term if you cannot afford it
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then you shouldn't do it if you can then you should that's really important way
15:36
to think about it
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at some level though you have to understand that social commerce is about
15:42
the customer not about you and that's why I think a lot of people struggle
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about your offer you our product twitter.com / search is the single most
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powerful
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I should say here now twitter twitter you guys are assholes you have the best
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product and social media for business and you never talk about it thank you
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twitter.com / search is a marketer and retailers dreaming
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you know the fact that people are putting out content about their interest
16:14
in the potential buying and the things they like and you can jump into that
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engaged in a conversation without being the jerk off and trying to sell to them
16:22
right away and then bring awareness to your brand is incredible and should be
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done at scale but people continue not to do it because the fact of the matter is
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this room and the entire business world is petrified of what we're on the dawn
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up which is one-on-one marketing we're here guys 101 marketing is here we just
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don't want to admit it because its heart it's quite hard and the way you actually
16:45
winning one-on-one marketing is suspended on people in your organization
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to scale the caring and the 101 engagement not on the ad platforms that
16:54
we used for retargeting and all that stuff has been mapped you can do that
16:59
you can retarget SEM SEO fees for gets good but what you're all going to care
17:03
about in the next decade because of social because word of mouth matters is
17:07
retention and percentage and lifetime value and those are two things wrong can
17:13
be battling on and that takes heart and soul not just a good algorithm and UI
17:17
and UX an extension of the one on one and one marketing approaches to say no
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to customers like Cisco says fire you customers
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fire customers in a very b2b mentality which i think has a lot of truth in a
17:34
b2c mentality
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anyway I think you really have to understand
17:43
so saying no to customers is maybe not listen to them at what price you should
17:48
sell a product because you'll read a lot of reviews at Sage be cheaper they
17:52
always say that but you know to meet customers King anything I can do for a
17:57
customer I'm interested in bending over backwards to put that in the context of
18:05
the business matter where we're firing customers are being a media because
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they're too much of a headache for what they pay us the and easy make it
18:22
valuable right let's think about that for a second
18:26
again if you look at the e-commerce companies and a lot of people and brands
18:30
putting out content again they're stuck in a television mentality and they're
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making it about them not about the user show I mean I lift it I started a one
18:40
show and instead of making a QVC and just selling wine I needed a service and
18:45
I talked about wine in general and educated and most insanely in 2006 6
18:52
years ago I and my own product because I wanted to make it valuable and by
18:58
banning and saying this one tastes like the horses asked during a rainstorm it's
19:03
disgusting and people said well I don't drink that right that brought value to
19:07
my end users and built trust I'm blown away by how many people are not putting
19:14
out content that brings value to the user
19:16
you know demonstration videos there's a lot of one off products on the web doing
19:20
quite well right now because they put a QR Code or UPC or URL on the product and
19:26
you go there it shows you how to use the product via video instructional stuff a
19:31
lot of people fashion shows for fashion brand new ways to bring value again
19:35
we're sitting here talking a lot about tactical stuff which I want to talk
19:40
about at length but I it is imperative for me since I slept over here for
19:44
people understand something this is a mint ality and for the last hundred
19:49
years
19:49
retailers and brands have not cared about the cust
19:52
I promise you and everybody was like I don't you loved your data and you're
19:58
looking at it and you love your business people have not truly love the customer
20:02
and very honestly I'm not mother teresa I also would have not loved the customer
20:07
if I did not recognize five years ago because of the majority of the internet
20:12
and sites that we call social media are now being built to connect consumers
20:16
together in a way that a benchley at scale will completely dictate the
20:22
success of your business we will only be marketing to our communities and they'll
20:26
be marking to their friends we will not be renting from ad networks and
20:30
newspapers and television
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by attention we will have attention and market to it and how we treat them will
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show how they will bring attention and bring fans into our final create that
20:45
kind of value last time you were here I believe you spoke about analysis to
20:51
analyze all the data correct yeah I'm a big fan of IQ meet EQ data plus
21:00
emotional intuition where you think the market's going to this important but you
21:05
don't always lead by example how many people here I'm just gonna hurt my
21:09
feelings but many people here have watched an episode of Wine Library TV
21:12
not bad
21:15
thank you actually like so many of you might know that within the first 15
21:21
seconds when I enter the show could come across very obnoxious right I get very
21:26
excited very hyper looking at the data 17 percent of the people that watch the
21:34
show would leave within the first four seconds cuz they couldn't handle my
21:38
energy right winger douchebag jerk off right and I was like shit that's a lot
21:46
and I was like maybe I should change it and I so I looked at the data over the
21:50
weekend the next Monday can change it by losing seventy percent and shoes light
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went on I did it again and I remember when I was done I was like huh
21:59
it just feels right right like you know maybe I'm losing seventeen eighty-three
22:04
percent
22:05
might buy the more valuable and maybe even more and so I wasn't able to change
22:09
myself the authenticity of what it was but Davis massively important and talent
22:15
is important and know how one thing that's always forgotten in my story is
22:19
that I'd been living and breathing the wine business for 15 years before
22:23
episode number one writes a lot of times people started to think green is gonna
22:28
be good
22:29
eco-friendly or oh I see Baucus biking all investment company they're chasing
22:33
trends not what they're good act of course they can create content around
22:37
you know fitness or flowers or water because the other what they read they
22:42
don't really know it and so expertise really matters at the end the day if
22:48
you're not entertaining you don't have expertise
22:50
you've got no shot
22:53
marketing we talk a lot of a branding defined strategy who are you what you
22:58
represent that was social media companies are told that they should show
23:02
the human side and involve employees and that means that the company could mean a
23:07
hundred different strains do you think people shouldn't let go of the brand
23:10
little bit know and I think the brand really really really matters how people
23:15
how you perceive your brand and how you story tell is imperative how people then
23:21
receive it and funnel it in their own way is totally different but you being
23:25
authentic and understanding your brand's positioning yourself really matters
23:29
because you make the decisions you make around your business based on that and
23:33
how you navigate is quite important that tightness in navigation really matters
23:37
how it's perceived within all these niches is a totally different story and
23:42
is very much happening and that's fine but you know if you do not know the
23:47
sense of your brand or your brand story it's very unlikely forever to have a
23:52
shot in terms of organizing for social media marketing do you see a lot of
23:59
companies outsourcing their voice to PR agencies or to somebody else and what is
24:04
your take on that it does we manage content and communities for a lot of
24:09
logos and businesses you know I think it's it's up to you I mean if people
24:12
want to keep it in-house that's fine I can see value in that
24:17
we've spent a year and a half just first year and a half just understanding
24:22
exercise to be able to capture voice of clients otherwise you have no shot in
24:26
what we were doing we think we've gotten really good at it and there's some
24:29
stability with that camera company not one individual and the organization that
24:32
might leave a different company goes both ways to do that I think PR
24:40
companies struggle with it because PR's b2b NOP are you still pitching editors
24:44
and saw behind the scenes this is this is pRb to see is a very different world
24:50
where like if you having a crisis they all go to your fan page and spam you two
24:54
totally different thought process so it takes a different skill set but I think
24:58
it's something that people can outsource that they have the funds for big
25:07
companies with you think their biggest challenges right now within their
25:12
organizations regarding this kind of question you know it's so fun to be in
25:17
an e-commerce lally like e-commerce so much more killings are so much more
25:20
organized and big brands I mean the biggest brands is that people don't make
25:26
business decisions based on the business to make business decisions based on
25:30
their career if you really wanna know the problem they wanna get a raise or
25:34
they want to appease their boss or my favorite let's make up bullshit
25:37
analytics to sell to the up tops but let me just want to make sure there's no
25:43
confusion in Stockholm I have no interest in being an advocate pungent
25:49
enthusiasts of social media I have no interest
25:53
my only interest in the human world when it comes to business is the cell shape
25:57
and because I think these sites do it that's why pay attention to the end I
26:03
don't want to be the let's prove it to them I just want to execute and build
26:09
businesses and show people getting way too romantic about social people in here
26:14
romantic and there's other people they're completely cynical and they're
26:18
both wrong it's in between right it's always in between is it early
26:22
absolutely but so many people here rely on e-commerce for e-commerce summit I
26:28
spoke in 1996
26:30
where it was a Business Summit and everybody in america said that consumers
26:34
were not going to put credit cards into a computer
26:38
how'd that work out right and show and then in 2000 I was like this Google
26:43
thing I'm telling you Google AdWords dad deal with the big argument was your
26:48
competitors are going to click your Google ads and ride up her cost how'd
26:53
that work out rite and killing everything that all of you were doing
26:57
right now just 45 seconds ago somebody was saying it was shit so I highly
27:03
recommend you not saying social ship because first of all sites that have 900
27:08
million users or things of that nature it's tougher to be shipped you gotta
27:13
know how to use it the first year I used Facebook at least sucked at it you know
27:17
why cuz we tried to treat him like Google Apps and then we started
27:20
understanding it was not the visual you know that if you put a yellow border
27:25
around the same ad as a blue border it could perform three four five hundred
27:28
times better so maybe the reason to Facebook at sucking you decide to
27:31
Facebook blows is because it wasn't a yellow border is a pink border so what
27:35
happens is we like to get a soapbox and dismissed things very quickly that steep
27:40
it doesn't work and when we had another rule that were used to that was the rule
27:44
before and it doesn't match that will we struggle with it
27:47
people didn't like direct marketing with Google stuff like that because it wasn't
27:50
like television and print it was different it wasn't massive was narrow
27:54
right now they fell in love with it efficiently converts we all know right
27:58
but then Facebook came along and they don't like it cause it doesn't comfort
28:01
as well that's because social is an intent to buyer search product it's a
28:05
different kind of thing but for branding it really matters and there's a big
28:09
difference between marketers and salespeople and when you're trying to
28:13
make sales decision
28:14
listen the sales people but when you're making branding and marketing decisions
28:17
listen to marketers yeah
28:22
looking ahead a bit what's next thing I have no idea
28:30
thank you and I i mean that at some level
28:33
here's why no I'm not sure Thomas I don't know what's going to come up here
28:38
is what I dunno mobiles gonna continue to really really really really matter
28:42
every product in our lives is gonna be smart so if you sell produce and we live
28:49
in a world with a smart refrigerator where we're all very lazy in my
28:53
refrigerator just orders my product for me and I don't go to the store using
28:58
RFID and you know and technology of that nature then it's going to be really
29:02
important for you to penetrate the refrigerator when a refrigerator starts
29:06
becoming as difficult to penetrate as a retail store's shelves are that's going
29:10
to be a lot of money and play right you know we will continue to get more social
29:16
because we're human beings and we like to interact if we didn't we wouldn't
29:20
have friends and do the things we do so as the Web allows us to do that more
29:24
we're gonna do it even more way more than you even think this is the salt
29:28
social dark ages
29:30
this is just the beginning so that will continue to happen but I don't really
29:34
know I just know that when I start seeing spikes you know I just pay
29:38
attention to them I'm also very passion about restrictions on an angel investor
29:42
in path for that reason only 850 friends and mobile two things I loved that I was
29:48
attracted to me things that now wrote because I think we can all agree there's
29:51
a shitload of choice and anything that can curated and make it cleaner and
29:55
tighter and more valuable has a lot of value to us I also am obsessed with
30:00
gaming dynamics gaming will continue to grow it will affect all parts of our
30:04
lives so I think that that's another trend I think I think retail will go
30:13
through more stages attention to what's going on with Birchbox bob or these box
30:21
of the month clubs in the USA huge phenomenon that's a micro trend that
30:25
will have good businesses for next two or three years there's just a lot of
30:29
things that I see but I'm really proud of is
30:32
trying to teach them early not going into some room with a powerpoint on a
30:37
whiteboard in explaining why we should do it just doing it and doing it hard
30:41
like really doing it and then trying to learn from actually you know it's so
30:46
funny how many people have their opinions on social media and they've
30:49
never used it a lot of fucking experts about Twitter retweeted once I mean
30:54
that's fucking ridiculous so you know to me what's important is to actually get
30:58
my fingernails dirty
31:00
sniffing out stuff early and then playing with it a lot and then the
31:04
signing of its good about it because I've had success in consumer marketing
31:09
tonight but good knack for thinking about what people may or may not like
31:12
but it's not always perfect globalization comes to e-commerce for a
31:19
couple of years ago we talked about in the USA and the UK but the last couple
31:25
of years
31:26
us' retailers selling in Europe and yeah I mean you know I think there's a huge
31:34
disadvantage for being an American businessman long-term because american
31:39
business people tend to stick just in America and we are for pledge
31:44
globalization opportunities you look at you know they're very dismissed and a
31:49
lot of people call them copycats but the brothers and Germany to clone a
31:52
successful us' companies to go and executed 13 14 20 40 different markets
31:58
successfully takes work you can philosophically disagree with the tactic
32:02
doing what they're doing and I very much understand why if you want to be
32:05
romantic about innovation and things of that nature but I like execution and I
32:10
also always cold my american business friends when they always get on their
32:14
high horse and copycat sites or this week you're fucking American you just
32:18
think it's all about american don't realize how big the market place in the
32:20
world is and so I come to countries that might be smaller but healthy like this
32:26
and I was like yeah but you don't worry but we have to worry about how good you
32:30
have it you know
32:32
European sensibility of the world is so much better
32:35
it's not just in a silo and I think that that presents enormous opportunity not
32:41
to mention that there's great innovation being done in all over the world
32:45
can work in the USA if that person wanted to and if it were you know has
32:49
great success opportunities in the you s not to mention that many people know how
32:54
to speak English to begin with all my Palo Alto friends coming to do business
32:57
in India or in other places where you know you know luckily for them
33:01
English is spoken enough but to understand the consumer big disadvantage
33:05
so you know here there's a huge opportunity but I don't want people to
33:10
get crippled by it you don't need to go global once you figure out local first
33:14
you know I think people trying to run before they have anything I'm looking at
33:17
so many startups doing well they're going to China and my castle you still
33:20
stuck in america
33:21
you know show you know you've got to execute first the other way around
33:27
talking about 360 by them going to the USS
33:34
opportunity is amazingly easy place to do business weapon it's tough to
33:40
understand the dus consumers very unique was very quickly so you can look at
33:44
SlideShare presentations and that's what's going on a limb like anything you
33:48
want to be successful you gotta get your hands dirty work for some competitor or
33:54
supplier taste it
33:56
people underestimate tasting at they think they're so fuckin smart you're not
34:00
you have to understand the nuances every opportunity and growth isn't what you
34:06
want a great business idea take any business that you know and do it this
34:10
much better
34:11
huge business did you find a particular company that you think has potential
34:18
time I had done the homework but you know the fact that matters it's it's
34:24
it's just been successful companies from around the world in every parts of the
34:30
world I haven't done the homework so I wouldn't wanna say something then be
34:35
wrong I try to keep my mouth shut and stuff I don't know so I'm very
34:42
risk-averse for being such a ridiculously over the top character and
34:47
how long position in the marketplace where I'm where I was born which is the
34:52
former Soviet Union and growing up with no money and being an immigrant has made
34:56
me dramatically more risk-averse
34:58
the only thing is I believe in myself and I understand one thing if you don't
35:03
innovate you're going to die to be in 2012 and to sit in those green seats out
35:08
there and to be an e-commerce business and to pooh-pooh social or not think
35:12
it's good
35:13
is fucking stupid it just is it just so stupid and that doesn't mean that you
35:19
should be using it because it might not be practical but you should be tasting
35:23
it and you should be respecting it because the innovation on top of it may
35:28
be important to you and if you don't have the sensibility of this wave you
35:32
have no shot of writing the next week
35:36
Twitter Kristen for you if you had $1,000,000 to spend just a marketing
35:41
what would you do it would depend on what I'm selling you know if I had a
35:47
million dollars spent on marketing it completely depends on what I'm selling
35:50
every decision is based on the story or the product you always reverse-engineer
35:55
always you know one thing for sure I would spend on if I had a if I had an
36:03
active business right now and I don't know if I would spend it on stale or
36:09
dead customers of my current business let me say that again I think the
36:14
biggest opportunity for everybody in this room is they have a database of
36:17
customers who are inactive or not converting if you have an email service
36:21
Gmail at how many people here do email marketing for their business just so for
36:28
half of you you're not converting your email at a hundred percent open rate in
36:32
a hundred percent click through what's even more interesting Lee as you
36:35
probably update on customers who bought been inactive for a year or more
36:40
that's me as incredibly interesting place to spend marketing dollars on to
36:44
go back and try to get business from people that have already cracked the
36:48
hardest not wish to become a first time customer I think people way too much in
36:52
acquisition mode and not you know retention mode I think everybody want to
36:57
go hunting I I recommend more farming
37:02
be grateful I love that message
37:07
yea well to talk about that I you know I don't think everybody's born with
37:14
gratitude you know in their DNA I'm super glad I am it's what makes me so
37:21
customer focus and it's been my biggest advantage of my life
37:24
it also really you know I don't know how you could get gravity know there's no
37:29
way to teach I become grateful you know you can't really do that but boy if you
37:34
feel like you are I highly recommend trying to evoke that emotion more often
37:38
it is literally Cingular backbone of me being so happy in my life I'm just
37:43
grateful and very basic I'm grateful that the people I care about are healthy
37:48
and so you know it's really funny when you have a big bad business moment
37:52
something really bad happens in business if you just make pretend that the
37:56
reverse of that happens we lost a six million dollar account if you make
37:59
pretend that you gain the six million dollar account but you got a phone call
38:03
that your parent is sick or dying or child is that it puts you in the right
38:09
mindset very quickly I'm sorry extreme but that's kind of what I do I am a
38:13
pretty much a 99.9% happy dude because something happens when I'm dealing with
38:18
something bad that quickly put my brain into putting things in perspective
38:23
being grateful for the backup I was born in the last dictatorship in Europe right
38:27
now there's one dictatorship left in europe it's called Bella Reeves was born
38:31
there you know and I was traded for week by the United States to Russia during
38:39
the Cold War I got real lucky and then on top of that I was born to like the
38:44
greatest mom of all time
38:46
not lock you know cause my dad he wasn't born to the greatest mom like crazy so
38:52
I'm just very I'm just very very grateful and then I was gifted into
38:57
business DNA which keeps you alive very easily in a capitalist world that the
39:01
us- if I stayed in Bellary cyber feeling I would've been in jail or dead so I'm
39:07
just very very very grateful and completely driven by it and try to give
39:10
as much as two others because I'm good
39:13
I don't need any more money or fame more stuff I'm good I mean I want to buy the
39:18
New York Jets site you need a couple billion dollars but but but not really I
39:22
just want to kind of keep doing what I'm doing
39:25
there's an amazing feeling when you get an email from somebody who says you've
39:29
changed their business or life that feels good to me and I think I continue
39:33
to speak and write that is a helluva lot more interesting than anything you can
39:38
get financially thank you when you shift your mindset to retention and growth
39:52
from your active customers and you start putting your marketing dollars into
39:55
people to take care of them like calling customers I told a group earlier we now
40:00
call every single person that has unsubscribe from our email service and
40:05
were able to keep forty-nine percent of them on by just thanking them for ever
40:09
being on by not making an offer by not trying to convince them like by calling
40:14
them and saying thank you for ever being part of our email service we really
40:17
appreciate half of them we subscribe back and then spent seven x over the
40:24
next six months of what they say the prior six months three minutes four
40:29
minutes
40:30
effort is underrated and so to the note that you can just clap which I
40:33
appreciate when that becomes your philosophy and business it also feels
40:37
really good when you're 55 65 75 and you look back at how you did business with
40:42
your much more proud that you gave to your customers than that you retargeted
40:46
them from a banner ad and got him into the fun not that bad you have to do that
40:50
to the family power and no you're right about your daughters
40:59
do you see her growing up as an entrepreneur of course you can tell I'm
41:04
gonna happen I swear to God I think me she's going to be the president of the
41:10
united states of america fuck yeah because I think I could have been
41:15
present the United States of America and Russia so she has my DNA and I you know
41:21
it's gonna be different I grew up having to hustle for everything right when I
41:25
was 12 and I wanted second Genesis my mom looked at me and said go by so I had
41:30
a I was always that she has very extroverted DNA but she's gonna grow up
41:35
in a very different society she's gonna grow up in private schools in Manhattan
41:40
and her friends are going to be Chris Sacca and Mark Zuckerberg ridiculous
41:46
totally different world than I did and I'm curious myself how much hunger to
41:55
succeed that that opportunity is gonna take from her or is the DNA can be
42:00
powerful enough to still make her want to look at my friend Ben later then
42:04
there is the founder of three list in the USA
42:07
dad was very successful he grew up in manhattan well off and he still hungry
42:11
and hustling and that gives me hope but I know fifty thousand others look the
42:16
other way I don't know she turns three in a couple weeks it's hard for me to
42:21
predict
42:22
i feel like i feel like i feel like i just want to nursery school that's
42:27
incredibly amazing process in New York and they're asking these questions and
42:32
they're analyzing her and i'm looking at them like she's talking to you know so
42:38
you know I'm not sure where I know I believe in parenting more than anything
42:43
more than environment more than anything and I know that Lizzie and I are gonna
42:47
give it our all
42:51
yes we need to break out from slavery from identity what's your take on people
43:11
make that argument ok because we should stop American Express Visa MasterCard
43:16
you know this is not a new business my friends anything that brings us value
43:20
were thrilled to give away that stuff you know honestly I don't feel any
43:24
lighter load in my pocket costs $1 23 on me right
43:29
becomes more of the conversation is conceivable that somebody can start a
43:36
social network that you know shares in the wealth with you people like to think
43:41
that here's the problem the original people in a community to keep DNA and
43:48
the overall experience if tomorrow somebody made a real strong planes that
43:53
were gonna share revenue with you if you're using it will give you money
43:58
the original pioneers the forefathers of that social network are gonna be
44:02
affiliate marketers and they're gonna be lowest-common-denominator marketing
44:06
people and it's going to create a tone in there that is not going to be
44:09
adventurous two more people coming in its gonna more of the ghetto then you
44:14
know the countryside and so it sounds romantic and it's really awesome to come
44:19
up and say were slaves of Facebook and Google but we sleeves of MySpace
44:24
Friendster will go where we want to go you know and we'll go over our friends
44:30
are and so will there be fragmentation sure is there a danger for Facebook that
44:35
we need a recycling every five to seven eight years because all of a sudden we
44:39
look at her facebook friends and are not our friends sure why investment pact I
44:43
believe in that right but I don't think we have this I don't think people here
44:49
are devastated that Facebook is making money or Google is making money on your
44:55
data you're truly your father shall I think it's romantic it's kind of like
45:03
remember on Foursquare came out and they don't check in to places because people
45:07
will rob your house if you check in I think there's a lot of things that are
45:11
said the customers really don't give a shit about including let me give you a
45:15
big one
45:16
privacy that's why there's only so much money in the stuff we really don't care
45:20
about privacy outside of a couple of things and don't forget listen I'm not
45:25
being naive to this my parents when i speak about this and other countries
45:29
besides you ask yes maybe not let me say this again my printer 23 years old when
45:34
we moved to America I lived in the soviet household my parents the day my
45:39
dad found out that his address was on Google he cried for an hour he was
45:43
devastated privacy more than anything the reason we don't care about privacy
45:48
is as long as nobody can steal our money and we can get a pack or hurt us or our
45:53
loved ones we're not going to care and have a dirty secret for you the most
45:58
underrated brand in the world is the human being we are much much much much
46:05
much better than you think we are the problem is the evening news has told us
46:11
how bad we are for the last 50 years when you watch the news it's not about
46:15
all the awesome shit that we do for each other every day it's about the one rogue
46:20
person at the site of the shoot somebody by percentage we are incredibly good
46:25
people weird that kind of race humans and that is why we will not care about
46:30
privacy because horrible things are not happening at skill in fact I would argue
46:36
that the lack of privacy is making us a nicer and better society because the
46:41
kidnapper now knows that everybody has a phone and can catch them on film and so
46:46
I actually think that this lack of privacy is causing us to be better
46:54
when it comes to this personal perspective on human beings it increases
46:57
to personal branding which is a hot topic and you see what is your take on
47:03
that and how do you think corporations should act in short order in order to
47:07
hire people should they come in with Klout score followers and things like
47:12
that should be asked the subordinate themselves and become a company person
47:16
or you could see you know that's second part that last thing he said that sounds
47:22
like communism so I never believed in that I was Latin American companies like
47:25
we're gonna suppressor people like cheese I thought I left russia you know
47:29
so you know I think it's delicate subject you know it all depends on how
47:35
you play I continue to believe that when you see innovation comment you use it to
47:40
go on the offensive instead of trying to fight it off because you lose we can all
47:44
go read stories if you want to learn about how innovation really is a fun
47:49
thing to watch go read the stories about how the people that were in the horse
47:52
business acted when Henry Ford created the car a bit more on horses they you
47:58
know they did everything they could they lost and show trying to suppress people
48:02
and not let them use Facebook and things of that nature are gonna make you lose
48:06
your best people in the gonna go two cultures that allow them to do that so
48:10
that's what could be a winning battle it's about finding the right balance you
48:13
know I'm not a big big fan of cloud because I think the data is still very
48:16
premature but the concept is interesting
48:19
understanding influences fascinating clearly a hypocrite if I didn't believe
48:23
in personal brand I have written it very well for the last five years
48:27
value in it from an organizational standpoint it's a tricky line because if
48:32
you build somebody up you build somebody up and they can leave you don't kind of
48:35
phone that that's scary
48:37
which is believe it or not very weird on this would you like alot of corporations
48:40
to create animated characters I was tell them
48:43
mickey mouse isn't going anywhere so you know what you build brand in is very
48:48
important
48:49
which is why I believe we're living through the humanization logos I think
48:52
logos are starting to act human from the work we're doing the banner people
48:56
willing to interact with Nike or your business the way they are with a person
49:02
and giving that local personalities fun
49:05
because no matter who you you still own that from a business perspective I think
49:10
that's practical advice on Twitter question what are the two basic things
49:21
to leave by one so I thought from from a very tactical standpoint Facebook and
49:31
Twitter or necessity twitter.com / search if you're not going to
49:35
twitter.com / search every day and searching your business your handle or
49:40
the products you sell and then engaging those conversations you leaving
49:44
tremendous amount of business on the table
49:46
facebook fanpage bring value whether its content
49:50
entertainment or product information or discussion opportunities to build a
49:54
community as the second place that I think you really have to do but the
49:58
biggest thing that's going on right now my friends is that 99% of the businesses
50:04
on social media around now are doing it poorly because either treating it like a
50:08
television network where they're treating it like their email newsletter
50:11
it's just way too skewed to push marketing and this is all about pulling
50:16
people in and getting lifetime value on the plus side the other thing I would
50:21
highly recommend is mapping your active community your active customers mapping
50:28
their social profiles in a CRM and marketing to them around their interest
50:34
not around what they buy from you that's probably the most interesting thing
50:39
we're doing right now we're mapping people are and we're looking at things
50:43
are tweeting about selling offers to them
50:46
incorporating the stories of their lives we literally a segment that our clients
50:50
into sports fans and are sending emails that are referencing the game from last
50:55
night and they comfort better so we've never lived through time where were you
51:01
know Facebook and Twitter sonar data I can get all the data I want you know you
51:06
can search it out you have to do the work and show we want our data out there
51:11
putting our date out there makes our lives better I wanna be targeted to I
51:16
wanna see New York Jets and wine and Lionel Richie ads I want them to be
51:20
about the things I like I want to see out around you know perhaps you're
51:24
abroad for flowers I want my interest so I think we might be marketed to I think
51:30
that I would highly recommend mapping your current clientele get the 101 ways
51:37
to induce them to give you the Twitter handle another ways to search it you
51:42
know another advantage of being a small country and start understanding the
51:46
interest graph not just the retail draft and use that to monetize on that subject
51:55
of getting to know your customers on Twitter is more by serendipity discover
52:00
something but have you thought about getting involved in crowdsourcing to
52:04
systematize having people vote on ideas up and down I think I think you know I
52:09
crowdsourcing into gamification I think those things work but I will tell you
52:13
something I'd much rather listen to my customer that listen to my customer when
52:20
explain the difference
52:21
listening to my customer is dominant natural habitat and me watching what
52:25
they're about asking them to collectively come up with something and
52:29
then having to listen to them you know back to henry ford henry ford said if I
52:33
listen to my customer I would have made a faster horse right so I think it's
52:38
very dangerous I think it's important to hear your customer but never necessarily
52:42
listen to so that's kind of how I want natural habitat more so than forcing
52:50
something like what wine do you guys want mindset instead of watching them in
52:55
San Jose this weekend I loved it better real well when it comes to forward Scott
53:04
Monty comes to mind coming not from the car industry being brought in social
53:09
media expert do you think of the car companies and other traditional campus
53:13
should do the same thing or should they train people internally
53:17
both work I think this is a sports analogy there's teams that have great
53:22
minor league systems and the draft well and they go well and other teams that do
53:27
that and then get a free agent
53:28
and that works sometimes it doesn't I can both can work I think what's really
53:33
important is to really know the DNA of your company really understand what
53:36
you're trying to accomplish not just through social media because you have to
53:40
because I sit up here and said it's idiotic not to if you don't feel it in
53:44
my whole life being told I was wrong
53:49
going with my into two major ruling it out right so you know if you think
53:53
everything that we talked about last hours a crock of shit god bless go do
53:56
your thing you know I think that's what's important 04 did that lets us to
54:01
that several of our speakers been talking about the importance of keeping
54:08
the costs down at you know overhead is you know half the equation I think
54:18
keeping costs down is smart but I think that every person in this room is under
54:23
investing in their current customer everyone and so it depends in the white
54:28
cycle that you're in my intuition is could be wrong that the people you know
54:34
who we're giving that advice either in very very big companies are very very
54:40
small companies a lot of people and most people are somewhere in between
54:44
that's actually when you probably need to spend the most against it just
54:47
matters what you're trying to accomplish when I was building my library I wanted
54:51
to build a big company so that's what I kept costs high because I need to people
54:55
boehner media 225 minutes old
54:59
just what that keeping costs down that's investing in the so when you keep costs
55:05
down if you take that the wrong way in the crowd it's going to stunt your
55:10
growth because the people
55:12
payroll is it pair on advertising so it's a witness an execution which oh by
55:17
the way two things you need to build a business I think it's very very
55:20
dangerous advice as his invest invest invest it something in between
55:25
it also comes down to if you're owning your own business how much do you wanna
55:29
make you know 29 years old I was making you know $30,000 a year because I wanted
55:34
the money to go back into my business is my so depends on you know if you're an
55:38
operator and your bonus
55:40
spends on it you're gonna want the margin to be higher but then you're
55:43
slowing the growth that I come from the school you know I'm being polite to the
55:49
people that give that advice I come from the School of investing your face off as
55:52
much as you can afford keeping as little as possible you know for a rainy day and
55:57
to pay your bills but every other dollar back into the business cuz that's how
56:01
you can run again what your teen cody commerce in eastern europe you know I
56:13
haven't
56:13
knowledge to Western Europe and China and other places for e-commerce I know
56:19
that customer service such shit and Eastern Europe so I think that's a big
56:24
opportunity for me like I find it exciting but I don't really really no
56:29
sorry to subscribe to this happiness culture with samples and talking about
56:37
being a little bit we're having fun at work and encourage employees to be a
56:44
little bit and non-professional serious yes the answer is yes having a good work
56:53
atmosphere is all I care about its success but recognizing that different
57:00
people have different needs is important so if you've got and we have ridiculous
57:05
culture has been a media our vacation policies you can take everyday office
57:09
now if you do I'm gonna fire you but you know but we have no vacation policy
57:15
dress code is all over the place
57:18
nothing is being monitored in a traditional way all I want is results
57:22
and more importantly we're monitoring people some people clamoring they like
57:26
it
57:27
standing desks all sorts of things other people more introverted so give them
57:31
areas where they can be quiet the developers you know developers in the
57:34
house you know they want to be alone three screens and about so I think
57:40
what's most important is not doing one size fits all I think it's nice to have
57:46
a mantra and I think Tony's done a great job but what tony's really talking about
57:49
is good atmosphere in the building
57:51
tony is a little weird that's why they're a little weird for me it's
57:55
possible right like if somebody leaves the office at five
57:58
scorned by my face right my things hustle hard which is why people probably
58:04
stay 6789 10 I think companies take the DNA of leadership I really really really
58:09
do but I do believe in Tony's I believe it's very similar to mine which is a
58:15
happy atmosphere at work is the whole thing the whole thing and it's little
58:21
things it's little tactical things we have now we love fun every time we get a
58:24
new client I bring everybody in front of the wheel of fun nice spin it and
58:29
everybody gets a prize $10 gift card iTunes or pizza party open bar you try
58:34
to do things that are fun we're very young companies open bars fun for them
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at the company was older maybe a spa treatment
58:41
you know i i think you gotta know I think it's very individual much like I
58:45
believe that when the dawn of 101 marketing on the consumer level I feel
58:49
like we're in the dawn of one-on-one engagement within your organization of
58:53
everybody's different and as much as you can tailor to them then you have a
58:57
chance to have global attention all good
59:04
wants to make the world a little better how will wane amid media make the world
59:09
better yes the first of all i think thats not true first of all i think i
59:16
think thats a romantic thing that entrepreneurs want to say first
59:19
entrepreneurs wanna make fucking money right that's why they're entrepreneurs
59:23
really you know they wanna make the world better gobi of leftist or go work
59:27
for shelter that's horse shit that's just romantic mumbo-jumbo bush now it's
59:33
a nice by product I should like the things I do that are nice but it's not
59:37
what wires and entrepreneur not required to buy shit and sell shit and then they
59:42
figure out to get bored cuz they get so good at it then they start giving it
59:45
away and doing the right thing as too much work but that's another story I
59:48
heard that too I don't believe that at all and all my friends all the ones you
59:53
read on TechCrunch love to say at the Polish sorry
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so that's not you know I think that I think the best way in business to make
60:03
the world a little better is by creating jobs by treating your customers right as
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you can by making as much money as possible so that you can do the other
60:16
good things you know you're making a lot of money you're probably not gonna a
60:19
charity ball
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probably working so running a healthy business I think you're seeing that a
60:24
lot now we're time she and like pencil the promise and Barbie Parker people are
60:29
building businesses with this kind of hook up doing good along the way I can
60:34
get great I hate when people do it for the sake of doing it as a as a front for
60:39
what they really want which is cash in your pocket on the flip side I think a
60:44
lot of good example I would never ever think about doing a business model that
60:50
would have a child component but now that I've seen it I thought about it
60:55
from a business standpoint and it's a pipe
60:58
family members have passed away or have problems so now it's in my mind and I'm
61:03
excited about that because people will act on that and it's you know I would
61:07
have never gone into the charity World Cup an entrepreneur but now there's my
61:10
way to do that without just giving away my money which always leads to wait for
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me to create more value that the blend of doing good living under a microscope
61:21
earlier I promise you lobbies people would not be doing these things if they
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didn't get the articles and press clippings we're living in a world where
61:28
were all on hand when the microphone and when the cameras on your always the best
61:34
version of yourself when that becomes 24 7 365 to the whole world we're all gonna
61:39
elevate our game and I think that's attractive for the short term I'm sure
61:42
there's some yang to that young but gonna take forty fifty years some not so
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small dusty in any way carry yep do you want to come back to Sweden yes
61:54
thank you guys thank you so much

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