Gary Vaynerchuk, known as the “sommelier of social media” and for his direct video, is the host of Wine Library TV and the COO of the Wine Library in Springfield, New Jersey. His new book, “101 Wines Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight and Bring Thunder to His World,” puts all of his energy and passion for wine into print. Gary will also be the keynote speaker at Affiliate Summit 2009 in Las Vegas.
Shawn: What do you think is the most important social networking site?
Gary: I’d say it’s neck and neck between Twitter and Facebook, depending on how you use things. I think Facebook has a lot more power and could really go after Twitter and kick them out by creating something mobile from Facebook that looks a lot like it.
But Twitter or something like Twitter. If Twitter can’t scale, whether it’s FriendFeed or Pownce or something we don’t know about right now, that’s the future, because mobile is the future.
Shawn: What do you think about FriendFeed?
Gary: I haven’t gotten into it enough to reply, but I know a lot of people are enjoying the threaded conversations there. FriendFeed has a very legitimate opportunity to capture the market. I think they will be one of the places.
People realize that Twitter has scalability issues and FriendFeed is likely trying to compete with them as we speak.
Shawn: Why are you using Viddler to embed in Wine Library TV, instead of the Revision3 version?
Gary: Viddler has been good to me. We have been in a relationship for two years. When my company started using it two years ago, instead of YouTube, it was a risky move, because there was so much more to gain, in theory, from YouTube.
But they’ve been great to me, they’ve had a great serve and I believe in the guys over there so I want to root for them.
Shawn: Do you have any good stories you can share from your book tour?
Gary: I signed a guy’s chest the other day. It would have been great if she was a girl, but you take what you can get. Nothing so crazy other than it’s so humbling to see a hundred people attend your book signing in Seattle, Maryland, and Portland.
Shawn: I saw the Wine Library TV episode when you were in Boston. Was it difficult to work with a Patriots bucket?
Gary: That’s why I didn’t spit it out. So I had to drink the wine. That’s what made it difficult. It was a very funny moment.
Shawn: Speaking of the importance of building a personal brand, which player on the New York Sack Exchange (the New York Jets’ defensive line in the early 1980s) do you think created the best personal brand?
Gary: Without exception Mark Gastineau. When you left New York, a lot of people knew Gastineau. Of course, I loved the subtleties of a tough player like Klecko, but the fact is that Gastineau was able to create the greatest personal record.
Shawn: Do you have any advice for people who are trying to build a personal brand through social media?
Gary: Authenticity, honey. Being a RAT. Be real, authentic and transparent. And I know what you’re talking about. That means going as niche as you need to.
So if you think you know a lot about basketball, but find you know more about the Houston Rockets, then go for it. And if you know more about Hakeem Olajuwon than you do about the Houston Rockets, then you can do Hakeem Olajuwon TV or Hakeem Olajuwon’s blog.
I think people need to be champions of their subdomain, and I think people need to go to their lowest common denominator to do that.
Shawn: One last thing… What do you see in your future after the life of the wine ends?
Gary: Then it will be the life of the Jets. I want to buy the Jets. That’s where I want to go. There will probably be a stop in the middle. I just don’t know what that is, yet, but I don’t know if the life of wine can pull off the $2 billion I need to buy the Jets, but that’s where I’m going.
Shawn: In the meantime, are you going to get a box at the stadium?
Gary: Yes maybe. I don’t know. I’m so focused on not wasting any money on the road, so I feel like that two hundred thousand might cost me.
Watch Gary at http://tv.winelibrary.com/ and http://garyvaynerchuk.com/.
