#AskGaryVee 10 Social Media Tips For Brand Growth!

If you consider yourself an Entrepreneur or Business Onwer in the 21st century than odds are you know who Entrepreneurial Guru Gary Vee is. If you don't your first step may be to Google him. You may not agree with his vulgar delivery or raw approach to business lifestyle coaching, but you'd be unwise to heed his branding advice if you plan on growing your brand--invest your time in marketing your services or products. I'll save the exact financial breakdown details for your own personal search. Let's just say Gary Vee turned a 3 million dollar "liquor store" into a 50 million dollar "Wine Library" then grew his personal brand and media consulting firm from to several million followers in just a few years. He's also published several Self development business books, including his most recent "#AskGaryVee: One Entrepreneurs take on Leadership, Social Media, & Self-Awareness".  The guy knows a thing or 10000000 about branding and #winning at social media! 

Back in 2016 Gary gave a talk highlighting the years coming (2017) "social media trends" and has since updated his strategy to include the following. Keep in mind your target audiences and where your customers go. With Spoonie Essentials Box, I had to be smart about where my largest audience is and isn't and why. 

#AskGaryVee 10 Social Media Tips For Brand Growth...

1. Snapchat. Snapchat. Snapchat. 

The stakes and opportunity is high. Per Gary Vaynerchuk, your hustle on Snapchat now just might pay off for more than usual for those willing to put in the time and effort. Many people are just settling into Facebook or Twitter, not realizing the world has already embraced other opportunities as well. Gary’s bet right now is Snapchat. He predicts in about 2 years, everyone will be on it. Also remember to know your audience, Snapchat is the hottest trend but it's only hot if your audience is there! 

2. Don’t be so concerned with your transactions, conversions and ROI at first

There’s a difference between sales and and branding or marketing. Don’t be short sighted by the immediate sale transaction, we all want to make money but the major key is building your brand instead. Tell a story, build a relationship, establish trust. Gary Vee says "Don’t get stuck in a math game. There is too much social innovation going on right now. Staying in one place and one social media platform that might be working OK for you right now is a bad place to be. You will be able to survive every shift in technology if you build a brand not a transaction. Math is commoditized, brand is not. Build a brand, not a transaction" because the world will evolve into new platforms and new ways of buying but the brand you've built it done the right way is evergreen. 

3. Don't document, create! 

Gary Vee makes the most simple yet obvious observation that people are caught up "documenting" the sunrise and cool things when they should be creating content by documenting their lives, their process, the things that make them and their brand unique. Think how people love behind the scenes footage? How they feel closer to the host? Keep that in mind when creating your social content. Don't take it from me, Google Gary Vee. He content creates content. 

4. Learn the new social media platforms in parallel with the current ones you are using.

You don’t have to spend every minute on new platforms but start learning about them now. Stay ahead of the game. What's the newest platform you ask? Ask any 13-15 year old girl where they spend most of their social media time and that'll be your answer. At minimum ceate an account and check out how other people and businesses are using the platform. 

5. People right now are thinking too short term.

Invest your time in building your future. Building your brand and thinking legacy long term versus right now. 

6. Your desktop traffic is going to be gone soon. 

Your website needs to be designed on mobile first. Who cares what it looks like on desktop. For the first time ever, Google mobile searches surpassed desktop searches. This is a trend and it’s not going away. Everything you do online, make sure it looks amazing on mobile first!! #MajorKeyAlert 

7. The past will tell you the future. 

It’s happening in front of you. Shifts are happening. You have to adapt to current market behaviors. Gary talks a lot about reverse engineering, look at people's behaviors and what they can tell you about the future. I.e Amazon! Don’t stay because you don’t want it to go away. Things in the market are happening fast.

8. Overwhelmed with social media? Just devote more time.

Overwhelmed? How many hours a day are you working? Just work more hours per day. Extra time fixes it all. This seems so simple and the answer no one wants to hear, but someone has to say it. Just put more time into it. Let's face it, you won't grow your social media presence or brand by tweeting 30 minutes a day, but get serious about the time and effort you allocate to social media, the fact is in 2017 and beyond if you don't have a social presence, you don't have a business! 

9. 95-97% of the content on Periscope is disastrous. 

According to Gary Vaynerchuk, before you start using Periscope, ask yourself if you can bring value instead of just checking the box. Try to replicate TV. What does well on TV? Sports and information. Too many people are just wanting to be doing something live because it is fun. You have to be careful with Periscope. We need to teach content and schedule it if you are going to do it. Teach a class every week and bring a ton of value. You will win. Best advice is to give away everything. You’ll make more with an advertiser than selling a small product. Brand over transactions any day of the week and twice on Sunday! #MajorKeyAlert 

10. Lose money everyday building your brand so you can invest in your future.  

How much value can you bring to your audience? Do this over and over again to build your brand for the future. If you build a brand, you can survive any change in the future social platform or technology innovation that is coming.

But 1 more thing... 

You don’t have to do it like everyone else. Instead, do it how it feels GOOD to you. If it feels slimy and salesy, it probably is.

Never give up, never surrender!