I was a big boxing fan in my early teens. I was a big fan of Sugar Ray Leonard, Julio Cesar Chavez and Mike Tyson.
Mike Tyson? He’s a real brawl; he’s always about lightning fast hook, hook and hook, giving the opponents no chance to fight back. Julio Cesar Chavez? He’s a legend, period. Sugar Ray Leonard? Well, he’s the real deal: He’s fun to watch and very creative. He likes to do jabs, move, jabs, move… and suddenly throw a fancy hook he’s well-known about.
I personally love to watch Sugar Ray Leonard’s fights. His moves are fun to watch, in such a way that his opponents often caught off guard. His jabs keep opponents at bay, and when they lose focus or tired, the right hook – the knockout punch – finishes things up… or at least, brings wins for Leonard.
It seems that boxing is what inspires Gary Vaynerchuk – best-selling author, wine expert, an avid investor, successful entrepreneur and social media go-to guy – as the well-suited analogy for social media marketing.
In the introduction of his most recent book, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook – also known as JJJRH, Mr. Vaynerchuk – also known as Gary Vee – says that “right hook” in social media marketing is the “killer move” that convert traffic into sales. Yes, you can miss, but it’s the art of boxing and social media marketing; that’s what making them interesting; you need a perfectly timed “punch” to success. Otherwise, it’s just, well, a failed effort.
How to produce THE knockout punch? Throw plenty of punches during practices and fights, and continuously learn how and when to deliver the perfect right hook and increase the percentage of the punches you land vs. those you miss. It’s the same thing with social media marketing – and everything in life, actually.
Gary Vee’s book will guide you in your search for social media marketing prowess. Read on.
What is Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook (JJJRH) all about?
First of all, I would like to say a big thank you for Gary Vee and his JJJRH team for sending me over a wonderful copy of JJJRH in a barter. Yes, a barter. Go here for more information :)
In Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, Gary Vaynerchuk gives lots of compelling information about social media marketing and advertising, and attempts to point you in the direction that ends with loyal followers who turn into lifetime customers.
It’s important to point out that Vaynerchuk isn’t offering you a comprehensive “How-To” on social media marketing and advertising. Even though you’ll see lots of reviews telling you that that’s exactly what the book’s about.
The book assumes that you already have some solid knowledge on how the various platforms he discusses (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumbler, and others) work, and that you possess a better-than-cursory understanding of social media marketing.
Relationship Building
Basically, he doesn’t walk you through a step-by-step process for entering into the world of social platforms and advertising. This book is based on effective relationship building and how to make the content you post to prospective, current, and past customers engaging while gently coaxing them into making a future purchase. The keyword here is “gently” and it’s rather refreshing to hear a world-class marketer show us that this approach is okay and that it even works better than pushy methods.
So it’s a great resource for actually improving/optimizing the content you post for actual human eyes, based on sound and proven psychological principles.
So how can this benefit you, the eager marketer desperate to up your game and start making real cash via your advertising efforts?
It talks about way to actually add value and not smack your prospect about the head with “sales”, “great deals”, and “buy now” – crap that’ll more than likely scare them away!
The Title and Chapter Layout – Metaphors
The title is an effective metaphor for the journey you’re about to be taken on.
The chapters of the book are set up and labeled as a sort of round-by-round boxing match. Telling you how most campaigns fail to set up the prospective customer up for the sale (i.e., like you would do when “jabbing” an opponent in a boxing match), before asking for a sale (i.e., delivering the metaphorical “right hook”.)
The right hook is where we’re all trying to aspire to – the knockout punch, the sale, the moment of realization in the customer’s head that you have the product or service they need!
The premise is, of course, that by not using a jab, or two, or several – you’ll scare the opponent (customer) off before you get to your end-game. The customer is still fresh, wary, carefully watching what you’re doing, and that right hook has much less of a chance to land at this point.
How Jab, Jab, Right Hook Changes Perceptions About What Content SHOULD Be
Without stealing too many excerpts, I’d like to point out one of the most interesting wisdom-bombs he outlines:
The six rules of outstanding content:
1. It’s native.
2. It doesn’t interrupt.
3. It doesn’t make demands – often.
4. It leverages pop culture.
5. It’s micro.
6. It’s consistent and self-aware.
These are all important rules that we should be following when using social platforms to market. However, used in the wrong context it’s just a list of “should dos” that really can’t help those who don’t understand how to implement them. This is why you definitely need to understand basic marketing, specifically online marketing, before you read this book.
He lays out the steps needed to make each rule work in your favor, essentially explaining what most people do (things Vaynerchuk has observed, tried, heard about), and how to switch gears so you can become part of the successful and wealthy minority, instead of the hopeless and defeated majority who scare everyone away before making any money.
Conclusion
I think this review might come off as more of a promotional piece than a useful synopsis, and forgive me if that’s your take. You really have to read it yourself to understand. Ringing in at less than $20, you can’t go wrong if you’re interested in expanding your social media presence and the effectiveness of your posts as they relate to nourishing customer relationships, and thus expanding your business.
This summary list will help you understand the main points offered and how they’ll impact you as a reader and social marketing student.
- Social Media Platforms: Including the most popular and some less visited ones, and the intricacies of posting content on each – e.g., basic rules, how those who patronize them think and respond to content, onsite search algos and targeting tools, demographics, best/worst time of day info, how you shouldn’t use what other companies are doing as an example of how you’re going to approach people.
- Trends: To write a book about social media and not mention trends would certainly indicate the author is a joker. Not so with JJJRH. I’ll spare you an entire page summarizing all the virtuous info he gives us and give you just one cool little teaser on this topic: “TrendJacking.” This section is worth the $20 for the book. He talks about using onsite (and a few external) monitoring tools you can use to keep abreast of trends related to your business, “Jack” them from your competitors, and then spin the info you receive to your own advantage. Trends can end up being the “Right Hook” that lands for you, as Vaynerchuk explains in rather humorous (at times) detail!
- The X Factors: This is a catch-all term I made up myself. There are many X Factors that Gary gives us: how what seems like a perfect plan or content strategy is prone to failure, how ridiculous plans often go viral and make millions, and much more. The Twitter knowledge he shares for X Factor-type things is again, worth the $20 in and of itself.
Can you tell I’m a big fan of the Twitter-based information shared by Gary in this book? It’s true, I’m intrigued, and my interest in this platform has been revitalized. So often mistaken for a celebrity gathering, where fans gather to see what ice cream K.K. ate at Kilwins (including what time she ate it and if she liked it or not) are just what’s on the surface.
Apparently marketers have been doing it all wrong and he’s gonna change your whole perspective in 224 pages or fewer!
Grab a copy – or copies- from Gary Vee’s official site: http://garyvaynerchuk.com/jjjrh/