Well known social media marketer Gary Vaynerchuk authored a book called “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook.” It’s all about brand building, marketing, and developing business in today’s digital environment.
The central thesis is that in order to stand out and gain your audience’s attention, you need to give, give, give before asking for someone’s business. Giving can take many forms, but in the social media world it most often means producing valuable, relevant content for your audiences.
I believe that Vaynerchuk wrote the book because he believes that too many people are throwing too many right hooks, and not enough jabs. They’re blasting people with offers and asks, and not giving freely of their wisdom in order to build authentic relationships online and off.
But sometimes I think that a right hook can, itself, be a jab. After all, if you believe that the services you provide can genuinely help solve some of the toughest problems that members of your audience face, then you’re doing them a disservice by not introducing your solutions to them. Just as it’s easy to get caught up in a cycle of selling and never providing value, it’s also easy to publish, publish, publish and never share the skills and experience that underlie your content.