1-Sentence-Summary: Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook is a message to everyone who’s not on the social media train yet, showing them how to tell their story the right way on social media, so that it’ll actually get heard.
Read in: 4 minutes
Favorite quote from the author:
Audio Summary
Listen to the audio of this summary with a free reading.fm account*:
I love Gary Vaynerchuk. I’m not one of those people who claim to hustle as much as he does, but his talks inspire me to go above and beyond what I was doing before. Given he has a new book out in two weeks, a collection of lessons from his #AskGaryVee Show, I thought it’s time to take a look at this gem.
Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook is not only the book’s name, it’s also Gary’s formula for social media success. When it came out in 2013 it rattled the social media world and became Gary’s third New York Times bestseller.
If you’re not getting the most out of your social media game yet (trust me, you aren’t), then this is for you.
Here are 3 great lessons from the book:
- If you’re not on social media, you’re going to lose.
- You have to constantly deliver great content, that’s custom-tailored to the platform, before asking for something in return.
- Instagram is your best bet for massive engagement among the masses.
Ready for Social Media 101? The class is in session!
Lesson 1: If you’re not on social media, you’re going to lose.
As of April 2014, there are 327 million phones in the US – but only 317 million people.
That’s more phones than people.
No wonder it seems everyone’s iPhone is glued to their hand. What’s more, 70% of Americans are on Facebook, Snapchat reports 100 million DAILY active users, and 400 million people are on Instagram each month, the platform that outgunned Twitter last year.
People are using social media a lot – and wherever the attention is is where marketers should go.
It’s normal for new media to replace the old, but the revolution happens faster and faster, because more people can easily be reached at scale. It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million people, TV 13 and Instagram?
18 months.
If you haven’t started yet, start now. When you’re not on social media, you will lose.
Lesson 2: You have to constantly deliver great content, that’s custom-tailored to the platform, before asking for something in return.
The way you win the social media game is by producing great content.
In the old days this might’ve meant one set of six awesome TV commercials, which run for 6 months, but now this means fresh, fantastic, daily content, year-round.
How do you do that?
Simple: You let your fans do it.
After all, that’s what social media is for.
You provide the framework of a great story, that you craft around your brand, and let the users share, engage and fill in the gaps.
The key is to give your fans and community so much value, that when you ask for a sale, people will actually feel guilty for not supporting you, because you’ve helped them so much.
That’s what jab, jab, jab, right hook stands for – give, give, give, and then ask.
However, not all jabs are created equal, and you should pay attention to these 3 things when crafting your content:
- It can’t be annoying or intrusive. You’re not trying to shove your brand into the users face, so be classy. Subtle, seamlessly integrating content that’s visually appealing works best.
- It can’t be too demanding. Don’t make your users jump through hoops. Make it fun, informative, and entertaining.
- It must be native to the platform it lives on. This is a big one.
No, cross-posting from Instagram to Twitter and Facebook and Tumblr, does not mean you just served great content on all platforms.
Gary says content is king, but context is god.
There’s a reason the top 20 Vine accounts are all comedians, why Twitter only allows 140 characters and that Snapchat deletes all the content once you’ve seen it.
Never disrespect the context of the platform you’re acting on.
Lesson 3: If you want massive engagement across all ages, be on Instagram.
This lesson is not directly from the book, even though it does talk about Instagram quite a bit.
Gary’s been very bullish on Instagram from the get-go, but even more so in the past 2 years. Just last week, he released a video which demonstrates the tremendous power of Instagram in 2016 in just 28 seconds.
With over 400 million users, 75 million using it daily, and the platform forcing you to consume all the content in one feed, Instagram shows much higher engagement rates than Facebook and Twitter combined.
Instagram accounts pop up out of nowhere, and then amass a whopping 500,000 followers in a year, like Nathan Chan did for his entrepreneurship magazine Foundr.
The biggest growing demographic on Instagram right now is 40-50 year old women, showing not only kids use it, but older generations catch on to it as well.
Yours truly just joined the game 3 days ago and already counts 153 followers – what are you waiting for?
Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook Review
You could watch Gary Vee talk for hours and hours – and that’s great. But picking up Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook will give you a lot of his great information on social media in a very structured form with tons of examples.
The summary on Blinkist is way too short in my opinion, you’d probably be better off going straight for the book, it’s not too long of a read either.
I personally have learned 90% of what I know about social media from Gary and I highly recommend you start learning from him.
Oh and follow me on Instagram!
Who would I recommend the Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook summary to?
The 14 year old who could be a social media star 2 years from now, if she learns how to play the game early, the 48 year old who thinks being around on social media won’t matter for him, and anyone who hasn’t got an Instagram account yet.
Last Updated on July 27, 2022
