On my family trip to Sweden I was looking for an ebook to read in the next few days because I love reading at the beach and had just finished Making Time from Bob Claglett. I decided that I will read a business book instead of a woodworking book since woodworking books often contain nice pictures and are therefore better as normal books.

As I was browsing through the online store this book caught my attention. I knew the author Gary Vaynerchuk from a few motivational speeches and thought this will most likely be pretty motivational, too. Of course, Gary Vee is very well known as an online marketing expert, investor, and entrepreneur, who has built several businesses including his parents’ wine store and a media company.

I had almost no expectations of the book and thought it would be an easy read and inspire me. 

I was quite wrong. 

Content

Gary separated the book into two main parts. 

Part 1 is called Get Pumped and part 2 Create your pillar.

The first is pretty much what I expected to be in the book,his own story as well as a lot of stories from entrepreneurs that succeeded and built or expanded their business because of social media. He also explains why he thinks that social media is and will even more become the place to be for brand building. In his opinion he only need a few online profiles, patience and considerably amount of hard work in order to build a brand and a successful business. 

His attitude towards hard work is pretty intense and he states that if you want to become successful in your niche working 16-18 hours a day may be required. One story that stayed with me is the one of a former sales representative of a pharmaceutical company, who tried to be an entrepreneur several times and finally achieve it by starting a youtube channel with his son about cutting things in half.

The second part is about doing it. He describes why starting a facebook business page is always the first step in order to become an influencer/online brand and what is takes to get discovered online by other people. Small hint here: It’s hashtags and joining the conversation.

This is followed by a chapter about each major social media plattform/channel. Namely, Musical.ly, Snapchat, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Podcasts and Voice-First.

He explains why each network is worth the effort to be on as well as his best tips and tricks on how to approach it in order to gain followers.

Layout 

279 pages. All text, no pictures or graphics. There are a few links to pieces of online content, that are included into the story.

Target Audience

Since the book is focused on building your brand online and gathering a following, it’s for everybody, who wants to make more out of his/her career. It encourages you to follow your own path and that everybody can use social media in order to become successful, no matter in which field they are in.

Conclusion

Although I don’t agree with everything he wrote in the book, especially not the amount of work you should put in and the lifestyle he has, it was an eye-opener for me.

As a professional online marketer, I was more focused on Google Ads, Facebook Ads, SEO and On-Page Optimization rather than social media. After reading, I understood way better why social media is important in the mix. It’s for the long run. It’s not about getting a quick buck out of it. It’s about becoming a known person/company in your field and someone the people trust in.

Sometimes it feels a bit like this book is an ad for his first book Crush iI!. He mentions it all the time and all the stories are from people who have read Crush It!. To an extent, I found that there are too many examples of other people. But that may just be a personal thing.

Nevertheless, if you want to start your own business or take your brand/business/career to the next level, this book is a very good inspiration and simple instruction on how to build and grow it on social media. 

It is much more than just a little motivation to get off the couch and start planting your success. It has definitely changed the way I approach my social media game. I really liked the actionable steps in each chapter about the platforms and put them to use.