The downside of a public Out of office video: private replies

Written on 19th January 2009 1 COMMENT
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur

Gary Vaynerchuk is a busy guy. He is so busy that he has a hard time answering all of his email. So he came up with a brilliant idea: the out of office video. If you email him there is a good chance you will get this highly personal, but automated, message:

The downside of having a public out of office video is that some of the more private replies are becoming public too. Watch this right to the end and just to warn you, it might get a little NSFW:

Is she for real? Is it a hoax? Who cares! Funny as hell.

Gary Vaynerchuk, garyvaynerchuk, nsfw, out of office, vibrator, Video Interview

1 Comment »

Vlogger Gary Vaynerchuk calls me an idiot, I guess he’s right

Written on 14th October 2008 23 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

If you’re doing something with technology and you’re not leaving comments on Techcrunch, using Seesmic, you’re an idiot. An idiot!

Seesmic Gary Vaynerchuk is a vlogger with a good story. He transformed an ordinary New Jersey-based wine store into a world famous online media company (that still sells wines). As you can imagine, Vaynerchuk is recognized as an expert on personal branding. Hence the invites for conferences like Web 2.0 Expo New York and Blogworld Expo. During the latter he said the words I started this post with.

So I’m an idiot. I guess he’s right. The Seesmic comments on TechCrunch really stand out. Everybody can put a name to the face and after a while, people probably start recognizing these video commenters at conferences.

It worked for Loren Feldman, the infamous vlogger from 1938media.com who made fun of tons of A-listers with an army of puppets. I’ve the pleasure of welcoming him at BLOG08 in Amsterdam next week. When I tell people about his BLOG08 keynote, most of them say: “I know him! He’s the cursing guy from the Techcrunch comments” (yes he curses and swears a lot to make his points).

Will I stop being a non-vlogging idiot? And will you?

Since I know Vaynerchuk is right, I’ll have to get started with vlogging. I got the i-sight thing going on, a Seesmic account, and.., tons of excuses not to start. I’m in an office full of people, where do I record the videos? I don’t have time for it. It’s just plain scary. I could go on for a while.

Obviously I’m not the only idiot. You probably are as well. Why aren’t you vlogging? Why aren’t you leaving comments on Seesmic? And is it really the future of blogging?

I hope these questions will be answered during BLOG08, where not only Feldman will speak, but also vlogger and Mobuzz host GabeMac will make an appearance. But I also hope we can start a discussion here. Do you agree with Seesmic founder Loic le Meur, who told me during an interview that my blog conference should be about vlogging, as that’s the future? Let’s figure that out together.

1938 Media, garyvaynerchuk, Loren Feldman, seesmic, vlogging, web 2.0

23 Comments »

Gary Vaynerchuk (WineLibrary TV) about personal brand building

Written on 21st September 2008 9 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

After a rather spectacular week in New York – some of the Next Web 2008 speakers showed me around -, I’m waiting for my plane to Paris. My energy level is exactly zero, so don’t expect some great work from me now. Instead of that, I’ll show you some great work of somebody else, namely Gary Vaynerchuk – the energetic Internet celebrity from WineLibraryTV. He turned an average New Jersey-based wine store into a world famous basis of a wine revolution.

His keynote at Web 2.0 Expo was like nothing I’d seen before. Therefore I’m glad I can share it with you thanks to the video taping efforts of O’Reilly Media. Enjoy this uberinspiring hurricane of hussling, working after hours, and monetizing shit.