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Sign My Book, Please!
Last Wednesday I had the privilege of hosting an exclusive wine tasting and book signing event with the energetic and passionate Gary Vaynerchuk at Vin De Syrah Wine Parlor in Downtown San Diego’s Gaslamp district. Gary was in San Diego as part of his multi-city book tour, including 6 airport signings in just 2 days, for his just released book, “Crush It!”, which in a few short chapters covers his entrepreneurial spirit since childhood, how he grew and built upon his passion for wine, and how anyone that has a passion for something in their life can build a following and make money doing what they love.
Syrah Wine Parlor was the perfect venue for someone like Gary, who is not the norm regarding wine connoisseurs, the same way Syrah is not the norm regarding wine bars. Syrah is a unique venue, styling itself after Alice in Wonderland, with a somewhat secret entrance, wine roots on the ceiling, and captivating decor. It’s become one of Downtown’s hot spots, and later in the night has guest DJs playing great music until 2am.
The event was the 1 year anniversary party of the “tWineUp” (Twitter Wine Meetup) group, and brought together many of Gary’s fans to taste wine in his very unique and enthusiastic manner, to meet him in person, and have him personalize and sign a copy of his book. The venue was filled to capacity, and while pouring wine that fast for everyone to be able to taste along was challenging, Syrah had extra servers on hand and did a wonderful job. After the wine tasting, Gary was busy signing books and talking with people one-on-one.
Everyone left with smiles, from not only the wine being tasted, but from meeting Gary and experiencing in person his passion for wine, people, social media, and life.
Gary Vaynerchuk doing some wine tasting
Gary and I fighting over Melonie
tWineUp One Year Anniversary Party!
Super pumped for the tWineUp One Year Anniversary Party, with special guest @GaryVee, who’s joining me in doing an exclusive wine tasting and book signing at @SyrahWineParlor to go along with the tWineUp Event! While I love @GaryVee, let’s not all forget this is a tWineUp event, an event created in conjunction with my followers a year or so ago! The first tWineUp had 8 people, at my apartment downtown, and we had a great time! Others followed, with the last big tWineUp at @OBrothers, here’s a video highlighting that event!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASKUGK0t06I I love that video! 
Check out the official flyer for the Nov 4th event:
Gary Vaynerchuk Wine Tasting & Book Signing
Here’s a Promo TV spot, this one seen by someone on Twitter at a gas pump in Escondido and TwitPic’ed it (http://twitter.com/JustBecauseiCan/status/4821037963)!
Gas Pump TV Promo for SD!
I’m all about supporting those I believe in, so I’ve bought the book myself on my Kindle app, and read it on my iPhone. Gary’s energy and passion is definitely captured well, along with his core entrepreneurial spirit – something I strongly identify with – and the words in this book motivate you to pursue what you love, and settle for nothing less. Work hard, work your day job if need be, put family first, but work hard to build your own business, and the chapters cover the tools, methods, opportunities, etc that inspire ideas, trigger thoughts, and motivate you to continue striving for what you really want to do in life, and live it to the fullest. A book is included in the Wine Tasting and Book Signing ticket price, but buying a Kindle version or additional copies for family or friends as gifts is something I’m considering doing for my brother, my corporate friends, etc. I was able to get a preview chapter, for those interested in what Gary’s book is all about…
Preview a chapter: Crush It! Chapter 1
I hope you’ll show your support for the tWineUp: RSVP for Nov 4th here! http://bit.ly/xr3X4
Thanks so much! I hope to see you for the tWineUp One Year Anniversary Party, and hope that you enjoy @GaryVee’s presence and his book as much as I personally do.
Gary Vaynerchuk excited for Nov 4th tWineUp in San Diego!
Gary is back in San Diego November 4th and has a few words for San Diego!
Details and to RSVP ->http://www.meetup.com/tWineUp/calendar/11442598/
Are you ready to Crush It with Gary Vaynerchuk(@GaryVee)?!
Gary Vaynerchuk and his new book Crush It!
Join @DowntownRob at the phenomenal Vin De Syrah Spirit & Wine Parlor (@SyrahWineParlor) for the tWineUp Wine Tasting/Crush It! book signing -and- Big One Year Anniversary Party on Wednesday November 4th! This is the wine event not to be missed, and I’d love your support of the efforts in bringing more events like this to San Diego!
** Everyone attending receives a copy of Gary’s just released book, Crush It! -> http://crushitbook.com **
The wine tasting at Syrah will include a flight of wines chosen by Adam Stemmler, Syrah’s in-house wine enthusiast, and presented/discussed by Gary. After the wine tasting, Gary will be visiting with everyone and signing your book!
The afterparty will kick off around 9:30 or 10pm with DJ Smoove, on par with Syrah’s usual amazing Wednesday night lineup of mixed music, and the full bar ready to serve you more wine or whatever elixir you desire.
I am also arranging a bunch of giveaways the night of… including dinner and wine packages, winery tour packages, and more.
I was able to arrange a much lower price than normally charged — tickets are just $39 per person to cover the flight of wine and a personalized/signed copy of Gary’s Crush It! book.
Please help spread the word to your friends, families and other wine enthusiasts you may know via Twitter, Facebook, email, etc!
Details and to RSVP ->http://www.meetup.com/tWineUp/calendar/11442598/
If you’re not too familiar with Gary, here’s some of my favorite clips from his daily wine shows, just watch these:
http://tv.winelibrary.com/2009/09/08/what-wine-pairs-with-cereal-episode-734/
http://tv.winelibrary.com/2006/12/15/how-to-get-your-wine-palate-trained-episode-148/
And here are some awesome TV appearances that are great:
http://tv.winelibrary.com/gary-vaynerchuk-on-late-night-with-conan-obrien/
http://tv.winelibrary.com/gary-vaynerchuk-on-mad-money-with-jim-cramer/
More TV appearances: http://tv.winelibrary.com/tv-appearances/
In short, he’s a brilliant wine and social media enthusiast, and has now written a book on how you too can “Crush It” and cash in on your passion.
Don’t miss the opportunity to meet and talk with Gary during this wine tasting event, get your included book signed, and enjoy a unique night at one of the premiere wine venues, Vin De Syrah.
Details and to RSVP ->http://www.meetup.com/tWineUp/calendar/11442598/
$3,000 Raised from the Tweet Your Heart Out Charity Auction!
Congrats to everyone that came out, bid, and participated in our 1st Charity Auction: we raised $3,000 for a great cause!
Exclusive date & dinner packages, including Yoga and Champagne at The Sofia Hotel, Dinner at Currant, Dinner at Stingaree, Dinner Cruise package from Hornblower Cruises, and more, all included when you bid on San Diego’s most eligible bachelors and bachelorettes!
See the Bachelor and Bachelorette Showcase!
Tweet Your Heart Out Bachelor/ette Charity Auction
In-house vs Outsourcing a Social Media Presence
Social media is becoming quite the revolution, as many of you already know, and many more are learning about on a daily basis. Businesses need to address how they are going to manage their social media presence, and in speaking with numerous businesses that I engage in social media discussions with, I’ll offer my quick thoughts.
There are 2 core ways to begin, in-house or outsourcing, both of which can be broken down into two types themselves. Some businesses consider keeping it in-house, whether that be hiring for a new social media position, or bringing in someone with social media experience to train existing staff. Others consider outsourcing it to a local company that specializes in social media management, while some consider offshore outsourcing, taking their social media efforts out of the country primarily to save on costs.
The decision on which option to go with often depends on engagement within the social media realm. Engagement is good… it’s what social media is all about. Being able to handle the level of engagement is a primary concern, and can drive the decisions on how best to manage a company’s social media.
Hiring someone part-time or full-time to handle the social media is usually beneficial when the needs of the business warrant enough engagement to sustain the position, usually depends on the size of the company, but is done to handle the volume of the engagement they expect to realize. Part-time usually leads to full-time, but either way having a company employee that is responsible for social media creates a focused, concise, professional presence that reaps the rewards of this type of investment. Examples include @JetBlue, as well as companies like @Zappos that allow all employees to engage in social media.
Similar to this, holding in-house training is an option, where someone in the marketing/communications department is trained to become the point person for managing the social media presence. Sometimes the biggest issue with in-house training is that people can take on the additional responsibilities of social media, but that enthusiasm and the engagement fade over time, usually within 30-60 days, and their social media presence declines, which erodes their intent, reputation, and can impact the bottom line. Giving existing people even more to do is challenging if they are already tasked with other responsibilities, especially when social media can consume a large chunk of time in ramping up during an initial launch, finding/building relationships, and getting the word out. In most cases, training eventually leads to creating a full-time position or outsourcing anyway.
Outsourcing social media to large agencies is something that is done quite often, and quite well. Large companies have no problems affording these agencies, and the agencies focus on social media very well most of the time. Smaller businesses or local non-franchise shops, restaurants, bars, etc often can’t afford hiring an agency, and look to smaller service companies that offer social media experience that can assist them in getting up to speed, as well as manage their presence for them, so they can focus on their core business, while realizing the explosive benefits that social media can deliver, all at a cost they can afford.
Some companies are considering outsourcing social media to foreign countries, but the biggest issue is that doing this is not anything like outsourcing technical/customer support, programming, SEO work, or other realms that have been done for years. Those realms have huge pitfalls that must be overcome to be done right, and some companies have experienced bad results when not done right. Social media is all about engaging… and outsourcing the engagement is especially difficult over and above those other realms, because the engagement must be authentic, the expectation, by the very nature of social media, is that customers are reaching someone that understands the company, relates to the customer in a very real sense, has the reach and depth to evoke real relationships to be formed, and in the end has the very essence of the company that customers are craving to interact with that causes them to become the loyal fans of the company. When done poorly, can not only tarnish the reputation of the company, but can explode in compounded negativity spread in real-time via the very social media networks that a company is trying to benefit from. To outsource the social media to a completely different culture can lead to unfulfilled expectations,negative experiences, laughable dialogs, and in the end a backlash against a company, it’s brand, it’s reputation, and it’s bottom line.
Outsourcing is a delicate option, and outsourcing to a agency or small specialists are best options as they establish the close connections between themselves and the company that are needed to manage the social media presence and engage in an authentic way. Outsourcing to foreign countries is done very carefully for support, programming/coding, or other specialized yet generale technical skillsets, and social media is not in any way related to those types of outsourcing experiences – it’s more like trying to outsource your sales and marketing to someone that you hope represents the company and it’s brand properly… something that is rarely if ever done, let alone done right, and the downside can be much more expensive than any cost-savings could be projected.
If social media is managed well, the end result is that there is a presence that will represent the company online, engage with their past, present, and potentially future customers, and maintain that engagement to build relationships that then ideally turn those relationships into loyal fans that not only remain customers, but tell friends, family, coworkers, and their own larger social media networks about the company and why it’s great. This is one of the central differentiators with social media compared to other methods of communicating with the same audience, in that if done right it leads to not only an improved customer experience, but elevates the company in a very positive way, and can enable the compounding of positive word-of-mouth.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, and if you have any questions or concerns, I’d be happy to discuss them with you.
Some other posts on this topic to reference:
http://www.gauravonomics.com/blog/social-media-outsourcing-the-onshore-vs-offshore-decision/
http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/blogs/all/does-outsourcing-social-media-make-sense/?cs=11744
http://www.gauravonomics.com/blog/next-big-thing-social-media-outsourcing-smo/
http://marketing.about.com/od/internetmarketing/a/socialmediaourtsource.htm
http://soshable.com/social-media-hire-outsource/
http://www.gauravonomics.com/blog/why-should-brands-embrace-social-media/
