That was probably more “eeee”s than you could ask for, but I couldn’t help it.
Eric Litman is a young VC from WashingtonVC who sobered the whole group with one simple facts about his industry:
DON’T GO LOOKING FOR MONEY<
Eric brought light to distinguish something I personally found valuable: Social Capital is more valuable than Money Capital. Making friends is more important than making money, but either way
His keypoint: Engagement. It’s all about making connections and developing relationships. Finding people who can be ambassadoors for your personal brand.
“A creator only needs 1000 fans to make a living.”
– Kevin Kelly
To put a fine point on it, he brought the infamously infectious Gary Vaynerchuck from Wine TV and purchaser of Cork’d to explain.
If you’ve never seen Gary, watch his show. Watch him for a bit because that’s all it takes to wonder, what’s this guy on??! Just kidding, he’s actually an inspiring listen. And I’m not saying that because he gave away free wine and the Web 2.0 meetup (well, not totally ;-)
Gary made some really great points as to what we should be considering as we develop who we are as online socialites and promote our personal brands (if that’s your thing, anyway). Among them:
Don’t look for people to buy, but to build relationships and care about your friends.
This is a golden era of “Personal brand;” recession proof yourself.
Talk about what makes you happy. There is opportunity in talking about what you love. You are the media: Pump out so much content that people can’t help but notice.
Content is King, but Marketing is Queen (and you know who runs the house)
Too people many give up. Don’t!
Get real-life social. Do your face-2-faces.
Legacy is better than currency; remember your legacy, focus on it.
(That last one hit me hard as I was just writing about my legacy on Sunday.)
That was the gist of it. Then he took questions from the crowd. Actually, it was kinda funny. Everyone was in shock after his electrifying presentation, the room of about 300 people – for the first time all evening – went dead silent.
Finally someone spoke up and the asked about something I’ve been pondering lately: to niche or not. Gary’s view: Don’t niche. Spend time talking about all things you’re passionate about.
Check out the other reviews from NextWeb’s NYC Web 2.0 March 31st Meetup:
Just how much wine were they handing out?
There were like 6 cases. Not sure what that translates to, but it seemed like a lot.