I tend to have a hard time reading books by bloggers about blogging, because they tend to be a lot of rehashing the same principles and are targeted at an entry-level audience. Having said that, I have always been inspired by the raw passion and energy that Gary Vaynerchuck has and his desire to help others take advantage of the internet and social media tools to monetize on doing something they love!

My first introduction to Gary was in this YouTube video of a talk he gave back in 2008 at the Web 2.0 Expo:

You can clearly see that he’s a passionate guy, and can breed a massive following online by building a brand around authenticity (and controversy). I think this is a great book for somebody considering or just starting to break into the world of social media or capitalizing on their passion. His key points are pretty much nails on, and not reflected in a lot of entry-level social media books:

• Passion is Everything
• Build Your Personal Brand (Carve your niche)
• Create Great Content
• Be Authentic
• Build Your Community, and
• HUSTLE!

If you don’t feel jazzed to “make things happen” after seeing this video and reading this book, you probably can’t be saved! (Actually I still think you can! Let me know what your thinking in the comments of by email!)

Quick Thought on Building Community

Something I think about a lot is the community that we build around our content as bloggers. If that isn’t there, we’re just talking to ourselves! (Granted, my archived content still gets hits that surprise me — so always produce great content!) But building a community around your blog requires you to add that personal touch that Gary talks about: meeting your readers in person, on the phone, connecting 1-on-1 on Twitter, and everything you can do to surpass their expectations. This is the most important thing in the world is creating and maintaining authentic relationships.

Where I disagree with Gary is that this requires you to slave away in front of your computer screen all day. I’m a big advocate of dividing your time between:

• Personal Development (Physically, Mentally, Intellectually, Socially)
• Maintaining relationships with friends, fans, and colleagues
• Developing your business ideas and working on revenue generation, and
• Creating content for your blog, e-mail lists, etc.

All of these elements come into play when it comes to creating a kick-ass personal brand! Yes, you have to work hard! Yes, you have to hustle! But don’t forget that you can’t create awesome content and maintain a strong audience if you are not active in learning, growing, and doing interesting stuff!