Notes on The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk

Gary's audiobooks are extremely hilarious, filled with so much energy and personality that really rubs off on you. After enjoying Crush It, I decided to give his latest, The Thank You Economy, a shot.

It did not disappoint. It seemed to be somewhat of an extension to Crush It in that it focused on social media marketing. However, it took it one step further and one level deeper by honing in on the concept of customer engagement and WOWing customers, a la Zappos. It made the bold prediction that companies who do not fully embrace a customer-centric culture will be extinct within 5 years.

I did enjoy Crush It as a book more. CI seemed way more specific about actual actions and recommendations, while TTYE was more about trends and philosophy.

Just like with CI, in the audio version of TTYE, Gary went off script many times, which were often my favorite little bits of the entire experience, updating the readers based on what has gone down since the book went to press and adding in various ad libs and funny non sequiturs.

Below are my main notes and takeaways. I do think Gary's right in his predictions, and my personal philosophy has always been to treat others (especially anyone who's a "customer") as critically important. Finding unique ways to wow them like Gary has written is a great way to show this respect.

Preface

• Customer satisfaction is key
  

Part 1: Welcome

Ch. 1: How everything changed except human nature

• When people go out of their way, you feel inclined to reciprocate
  
• Business use of social media
  
• One to one relationships
  
• Word of mouth
  
• Remember the time when caring meant business
  
• Small town business versus quarterly earnings and stock options
  
• Internet could isolate
  
• Dark ages of customer service: phone hold, outsourced customer service
  
• Social media reconnected people
  
• Search changing to incorporate social features
  
• Customer complaints quickly shared and spread
  
• Business can't ignore complaints
  
• Better to be proactive
  
• Only companies who authentically follow old-style manners will succeed (I'm happy I read all those 15th century etiquette books in the Rare Books collection!)
  
• Value every single customer
  
• Social media equals business
  

Ch. 2: Erasing lines in the sand

• People always skeptical of new tech 
  

Ch. 3: Why smart people ignore social media and why they shouldn't

• (I was one of these people for a while until I decided to dig deeper and found the immensely interesting connections with psychology.)
• Intent matters
  
• Some doing it wrong
  
• Need to be fully committed
  
• Can't rely on ROI
  
• Excuse 1: there is no ROI
  
• What is the ROI of customer care?
  
• Nielsen proved trust drives sales
  
• Book: Satisfied tell 3, unsatisfied tell 3000
  
• Excuse 2: metrics aren't reliable
  
• Nielsen measures online like TV
  
• But only measures ads, not engagement
  
• Excuse 3: social media still too young
  
• Entering earlier makes big difference
  
• Excuse 4: social media is just a passing trend
  
• Already has changed the game
  
• Excuse 5: we need to control the message
  
• No one can control the message
  
• Here you have the chance to reply
  
• Excuse 6: no time to track random users
  
• Random users are who matter now
  
• Excuse 7: fine without it
  
• Was fine without fax, cell phone, etc.
  
• Excuse 8: tried it but didn't work
  
• Didn't commit and do it right
  
• Excuse 9: legal issues too thorny
  
• Change must come from top, not from legal
  
• Excuse 10: long-term benefits hard to measure
  
• Traditional media too expensive
  
• Ads are one time
  
• Social media continuous
  
• Excuse 11: only works for tech or fashion
  
• Works for all
  
• Even if you're not in a sexy industry, people are talking about it online
  

Part 2: How to win

Ch. 4: From the top, instill the right culture

• Amazon bought Zappos for its culture
  
• Culture is the next playing field
  
• No "vacation policy"
  
• Let employees run themselves as adults until found they can't be trusted
  
• Chief Culture Officer
  
• Begin with the top
  
• Commit whole hog
  
• Culture of super-sized caring
  
• Set tone
  
• Invest in employees
  
• Trust your people
  
• Be authentic
  
• Empower people
  
• Social media department
  
• Give a damn department
  

Ch. 5: The perfect date: traditional and new media

• Social media allows conversation to continue like a good date after a traditional ad
  

Ch. 6: I'm on a horse, Old Spice commercials

• Ping ping between traditional and social media
  
• Old Spice was huge win across both media
  
• But failed to keep engaging new followers
  
• No such thing as social media campaign; marriage, not one night stand
  

Ch. 7: Intent, quality versus quantity

• Not about numbers of fans and likes
  
• Depth of follow up and engagements
  
• Let your reps be themselves and not go on script
  
• Don't hire a PR company to do social media; do internally
  

Ch. 8: Shock and awe

• Give gifts randomly to engagers
  

Part 4: Thank You Economy in action

Ch. 9: Knowing where people want to go

• Tech company
• Tech support monitors social media and interacts
  
• Won $250k contract for telecom supplies by responding to a tweet
  
• Power of just showing up
  

Ch. 10: Interacting with the community

• Milwaukee burger joint
  
• Let customers determine the brand and operation of business
  
• Tweet Up events
  
• Foursquare specials
  
• Engage online and offline events
  
• Swarm event
  
• Spend money on customers, not ad networks
  

Ch. 11: Caring about the big and small

• Hotel chain
  
• Art of customization
  
• One on one shock and awe
  
• Dreammaker award for employees who wow customers
  
• Random acts of kindness
  
• Word of mouse (clicks)
  
• Regular investments and attention to social media training
  
• Twitter Tuesdays
  
• Facebook Fridays
  
• Message comes from top
  
• Few tweets pushing deals and most pulling in through engagement
  

Ch. 13: Pushing social media

• Dentist differentiates through social media
  
• Offered Groupon
  
• Able to re-earn trust when make mistakes
  
• Got articles in TechCrunch and journals
  
• Early social media adopters get huge earned media
  

Ch. 14: Attorneys who tweet

• Lawyers usually risk averse
  
• Requires trusting law firms
  
• Good intent
  
• Give startups advising services and work like they do
  

Conclusion

• Marketing getting harder
  
• Attention getting smaller
  
• Information generation harder
  
• All the data created by humans for all time until 2003 is now created every 48 hours
  
• Landscape won't stabilize
  
• Can't wait for it
  
• Have to run marathon with new tools, not sprint/campaign
  

Part 4: Sawdust

• How to start conversations
  
• Fear impending innovation
  
• Hidden agendas by traditional media
  
• Nielsen ratings cover a tiny sample; paper diaries sent through the mail inaccurate (most filled out wrong)
  
• People surfing the web and using multimedia devices while watching TV
  
• No one watching billboards because of mobile phones
  
• Surveys subconsciously filter people's replies
  
• Social media often less filtered
  
• Ad Age: most brands still irrelevant on twitter
  
• Problem is it's used wrong (press releases instead of conversations)
  
• Hsieh/Zappos acquisition email to employees full of personality and intention
  

Part 5: How to win in the Thank You Economy: Care

• Hire and create culture with the right DNA
  
• Tactics in this book will self destruct in 3 years; marketers will beat new platforms to death
  
• Must act now