What’s the ROI of Your Mother? Gary Vaynerchuk on the Value of Social Media for Small Businesses.

If you don’t know about Gary Vaynerchuk, you should. Why? Because he’s the man (bio here). Harnessing the power of the internet (specifically video-blogging), he turned his father’s New Jersey liquor store into a global wine retail powerhouse.

He then used his knowledge -- acquired through nothing but years of sweat and elbow grease -- to write a book that became the New York Times’ #1 Bestseller in the internet marketing category. He’s now regarded as one of the biggest success stories in internet marketing out there, as well as a global authority on wine. In fact, Decanter named him one of the top 40 most influential voices in the wine community worldwide. (Yeah, worldwide -- that includes France and all the rest of those “wine countries.”)

In short, when it comes to marketing, Gary Vaynerchuk knows what he’s talking about.

What does this have to do with your home performance business? Everything. The store that Vaynerchuk took over from his dad was a local business, just like your local business. It had a street address. It had a target market and a limited geographic locale. But he still managed to turn it into a very profitable, very influential enterprise, and he made a lot of money doing it.

Now, you don’t need to turn your home performance into a global powerhouse to be a success story. Still, some of Vaynerchuk’s lessons apply to home performance marketing pretty aptly. After all, like wine, home performance is a highly information-driven category. Establishing yourself as an expert in your field, like Vaynerchuk did in his, can reap dividends.

Now, as Gary V points out, it’s not all about reaping dividends. While ROI is important, the larger theory behind utilizing blogging and social media to drive business is that this is where business is headed. Unlike traditional forms of media like television and newspapers, which are one-way communication channels, Web 2.0 is all about community-building.

Anyway, without further ado, check out Vaynerchuk discussing why social media may be a bubble but why it’s still important, how he used it to grow his business exponentially, and what it has in common with your mother:

Check out these other reasons home performance pros should use social media, and be sure to check out our free White Paper on web marketing for home energy efficiency professionals. 

Any luck using social media or blogging to drive your home performance or energy efficiency business? Let us know, we’d love to connect. (@EnergyCircle).