Gary Vaynerchuk is a one of a kind entrepreneur and keynote presenter. I’ve seen him present four times (4!), and never get sick of hearing his lofty vision for how companies should interact with their publics.

Gary has a notorious potty mouth, and those sitting around me had a running bet how long he could go without dropping an f-bomb. He made it just over two minutes.

Below are some key quotes and takeaways from Gary Vaynerchuk’s keynote address (expletives edited out for your SFW reading pleasure):

  • It’s my firm belief as a business person that genuine context with consumers will inform success.
  • Companies need a grasp on the problems they’re trying to solve.
  • Companies must focus efforts on the end user.
  • Zappos and Comcast’s CRM business models are innovative and bleeding edge. But that’s today. What’s next? By this time next year, I want us to look back and say, “Wow, look how far we’ve come. Can you believe companies had business models like that?” They must and will evolve.
  • Mass media is irrelevant. Moms aren’t listening to the radio ads or looking at billboards when driving to the grocery store. They’re on the phone — and hopefully just talking on it.
  • You know why brands don’t get social media? It’s because of the word “media”. When traditional marketers hear the word “media” in “social media,” they immediately think of “push” mediums.
  • The reason people love their parents is because they loved you first. Brands should consider the metaphor and give to their customers before asking things from them.
  • Everybody in social marketing today acts like a 19 year-old dude and tries to close too fast. Couponing, two for ones, buy-one-get-ones — none of these provide lasting value.
  • Our world has become a cocktail party, and our social street cred is all that matters.
  • There is no such thing as a social media campaign. A campaign is a one night stand. We need to focus on relationship building. Old Spice’s campaign was lauded as a social media success, but if you look on their brand channels, all they do is push. They are not engaged in the conversation. They built up a ton of friends and did nothing with them. This campaign is the perfect example of what not to do in the Thank You Economy.
  • When people bait followers and friends, it’s wrong. Someone tweeting “If I get 100 followers in the next 10 minutes I’ll donate $100 to Japan,” certainly seems disengenous. Brands do the same thing with their link-bait strategies on their brand channels.
  • Content calendars are like going to a cocktail party with a script.
  • Putting a Twitter and Facebook logo at the end of commercials is like putting up a picture of a telephone.
  • We’re moving into a small town economy. Your great grandparents are more prepared for 2012 than you are. It’s all about relationships. Think back to the butcher who asked how your farm was doing or the florist who asks about little Sally. They knew what was important: relationships.
  • Counting cars that drive by billboards and circulation impressions don’t inform anything about consumption. We’re in a two-way communication era, so if you’re focusing on push, you will lose.
  • In the next few years this is going to be a bad time for social media. There is so much money being pumped into it.  It reminds me of 2002-2003 where people were saying the internet was a fad, you can’t measure it and it doesn’t have ROI.
  • Social media isn’t a fad because it is inherently human. Lots of companies are going to fail because they want to monetize first and offer value second.
  • Caring is scalable now.
  • If big brands out-care their customers — reply to every single social message possible — they will beat their competitors hands-down. You can’t buy friends, and they’re out there now just waiting for you to talk to them.
  • Soon the data will be here to support these theories, but until then, don’t wait. Just don’t waiver when you hit the hurdles. Be on the right side of history. Your boss may not agree, but be sure to get on the record.
  • You know how we tell our kids not to go on FormSpring and send pictures of their bra straps and that everything they put online will be there forever? It’s the same thing for us professionally. Get on the record now. Care more.

Gary ended his presentation by announcing he would no longer be hosting his popular WineLibrary.tv program and would be focusing on a new project, Daily Grape. Then he gave everyone in the audience a two-cent case of wine as a thank you. Classic Gary!

You can hear him explain the decision to retire and  his new project for yourself: