Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook

Jab Jab Jab Right Hook is the second book I read/listened to by Gary Vaynerchuk. The first was Ask Gary Vee. That first book was a big impetus for me creating this website and starting my blog. My review of that book can be found right back at the beginning of my blog. http://www.drchrisharper.co.uk/blog/book-review-ask-gary-vee


So I was excited to consume more of his content and see what I could learn or be inspired by. In JJJRH Gary Vaynerchuk aims to explain how the major social media platforms work and how businesses can get best use of them to help build their brand.

Although I do not own a practice I expect that one day I will and it feels obvious that as time goes on it is going to become even more important that all businesses keep up to date with the various opportunities that the ever evolving digital world can offer both to our clinical work and the business overall.


If you have not read or heard anything by Gary Vaynerchuk before, then the title may not really make sense. A big drive of this book is to help businesses realise they can't just throw out obvious "Right Hook" content (BUY THIS NOW etc). Instead they will be better served by "Jabbing" with their customer base, giving them content that isn't really motivated by selling, but rather providing the customer with something useful or interesting or entertaining. The aim is to provide value to that customer so that when you do throw the right hook further down the line they will be more receptive to it.


The vast majority of this book is dedicated to how to use Facebook properly seeing as it is the biggest platform. Then it also covers Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Google+ and Pinterest. It explains the big differences in how the platforms work, the "feel" of each platform and how your content should fit in with that. Each platform is explained and then dozens of real life examples are analysed highlighting how to avoid the pitfalls that many businesses fall into and how to emulate those that do it well. I found a lot of useful information in it and it has inspired me to carefully consider how I should be approaching these platforms in their current form. Having read JJJRH I have decided to sign up to Instagram to test it out and learn how to make the best use of it. Although the marketing value of Instagram is not huge, the very act of learning to get to grips with a new platform will hopefully stand me in good stead for the future. And as Instagram is predominantly about arty photos it will give me extra motivation to improve my photography and enjoy my photography a bit more, which is something that used to be quite a big hobby of mine but recently I have been using my camera purely for documentation and almost no artistry. If you wish to follow me on Instagram look here:
https://www.instagram.com/chris.harper.dentist/


JJJRH was written in 2012/13 which may not be that long ago for most business books, however in the social media world it is an age. A lot has changed in that time including some platforms becoming a lot less significant (such as Tumblr and google+) and others that are barely mentioned becoming huge (such as Snapchat). So while there is a lot of useful advice it is also worth keeping that fact in mind while reading it. I didn't find this book as motivational as Ask Gary Vee but it has definitely helped increase my understanding of how good social media content can help a business.