“Crush It” without Being Crushed By Social Media Marketing

Last night I listened in on a discussion with Gary Vaynerchuck, the author of the social media best seller “Crush It” and Eban Pagan. Eban did a masterful job as usual with the interview and Gary did not disappoint with his energy and enthusiasm for what he does, social media marketing 24/7, 365 days a year.

Gary lives the lifestyle. I have to confess I get tiered just thinking about how much Gary is engaged in his social community. The way I understand it, he personally answers all email, Tweets, Facebook comments, blog posts, creates a daily video show…and then he comments and contributes to other blogs and forums. Phew!

It was interesting when I check out Chris Brogans post this morning about social media needing to be a team sport. Our experience working on several products within the GenNext Social Media Labs, as well as our clients businesses large and small, is consistent with the observations Chris makes in his posts.

CEO and other senior level executives at any size organization will have a very tough time doing their job, and personally implementing the social media marketing processes and tactics Gary outlines in his book and in the interview. That does not mean the are wrong or misguided in any way, so please don’t send hate mail.  In fact, as Gary points out in his book, this creates a terrific opportunity for business owners who are passionate about a market to grow and be very successful by putting both large and small organizations on an equal playing field.

We think the key to social media marketing success over the long term is to implement work flow and tools that makes social marketing a group effort, both within your company and in some cases incorporating outside contractors for things like writing, video production, event planning an other specialties.

I am not saying executives can abdicate this responsibility. Senior management directly involved in social media marketing, like blogging, posting comments and even more importantly, listening, will make the business strong and the team better. But to make social media marketing a strategic cornerstone of your marketing plan (and we think you need to), it should be built into the business work flow in a way that it is sustainable and natural for the organization. Many tools and techniques exist to do this effectively.

What’s your opinion?