If you don’t know Gary Vaynerchuk (of Wine Library TV fame) you soon will, he’s not easy to ignore. In this video he makes a strong piont that social media marketing is significantly superior to advertising in traditional media.

This video appeared on Gary’s Business and Branding Blog

At a very young age, Gary took over the family business, a liquor store in New Jersey. Over a period of 6 years Gary and his father Sasha rebranded the business as Wine Library and transformed it from a local store doing roughly $4 million in sales annually to a $50 million national industry leader. The development of the Wine Library juggernaut reached its zenith on August 25, 2006 when Gary was featured with a caricature in the top left corner of the Wall Street Journal, a lifelong goal of Gary’s that he achieved before the age of 30! Source: http://garyvaynerchuk.com/about/

What does all this have to do with Extension and Natural Resource Management? In Extension we work hard for people’s attention, we have messages to deliver about improving Agriculture and improving Environment. We need to recognise that these messages are competing with 1000’s of other messages that our target audience is processing at the same time we deliver our message. What Gary says about eye balls leaving traditional media for the Social Media space is true for our traditional Extension audience as it is for Gucci or Massey’s or Wine Sellers like Gary. I understand some of our Extension are not fond of the Internet, have dial up, are too bust, etc, but that is also changing. As I have said before Social Media is attracting your Extension audience now and the trend is growing. Maybe it’s time to consider adding some eExtension to your Agricultural or Environmental Extension program.

If not enjoy Gary Vaynerchuk or maybe even a glass of wine.

Tags: Extension, InnovativeExtension, Engagement, SocialMedia, eExtension