In December, I was fortunate enough to attend the Direct Selling Association’s Internet Marketing & Communications Seminar. On my first night there, I lucked into an awesome dinner with Jon Weisgal of Garden State Nutritionals and John Oates of Vayner Media. In addition to dinner, their gift to me was Gary Vaynerchuk’s Crush It.

I’ve read a fair share of books on social media. Let me just say this is my favorite, hands down.

First, the approach to the book is no-holds-barred and straight to the point. Where some books focus on the attitude of using social media well while others focus strictly on the tactics, Gary’s book finds the effective middle ground. He takes the time to explain why the rules are changing right now at such a rapid pace, and how that opens up doors for  anyone willing to really go after it. Then, he drops to-do lists on you that should be anyone’s playbook for really making the most of the space.

Highlights of Gary Vaynerchuk’s Crush It

Here are just a few quotes I highlighted in the book:

• Search.Twitter.com is the most important site on the Internet.
  
• If your blog is your home, platforms like Twitter and Facebook are your vacation homes.
  
• The best marketing strategy ever: CARE.
  
• The Internet is only 14 years old or so – it’s so young it hasn’t even had sex – yet it has already crushed many of the biggest communication platforms known to humankind, and it’s not done.
  
• Some entrepreneurs are really into creating the next big thing. Not me. I’m about identifying the next big thing and jumping all over it.
• Creating community is about starting conversations.
  
• Your content has nothing to do with the mic, the camera, the lighting or the set.
• I use analytics very rarely and I urge you not to rely too much on them either, especially if you’ve got good business instincts.
  

In summary, this book is simply a must-read for any marketer, any social media nut, and especially any entrepreneur. That’s essentially what this is: a go get ‘em book for entrepreneurs who are straddling the fence, looking for something to push them one way or the other and put them out of their misery. Gary pulls no punches, but tells you his way (which often contradicts other things you might be reading today) and definitely gets you off the fence.

Buy Crush It right now on Amazon.com.