From my perspective, Gary Vaynerchuk—the boy from Belarus who grew his family’s liquor store in New Jersey into a multimillion-dollar business, and who is now teaching others to use customer service (especially via social media) to grow their businesses—has set a new standard for all authors supporting their books.

I’m piecing together a write-up of his efforts—and maybe a college course—but check out GaryVaynerchuk.com and his Twitter account to see how he spent several months engaging his audience and building anticipation for the October 2009 release of his book, Crush It!, which as Gary announced should hit #2 this Sunday in The New York Times.

For an example of Gary’s promotional efforts, consider his “experience” bundles, offered through his site: http://crushitbook.com/crush-it-the-experience/. If you buy 35, you get a personalized video; if you buy 150, you get an hour on Skype; and so on. This sets an expectation for bulk sales—which I think motivates single-copy sales—and demonstrates the way premium/ancillary offerings will help authors sell books in a world in which content is expected to be (nearly) free. [Authors: What experiences or ancillary offerings can you share?]

In line with his belief in contact and word-of-mouth promotions, Gary hosted a launch party last night at The Bell House in Brooklyn—very cool bar and performance space—exposed brick and rafters, cement floor, set in a warehouse. Gary went through the crowd, thanking everyone.

On stage, Gary said he sees himself benefiting from the “thank-you economy,” in which the people who have received his free videos and advice are purchasing his book out of gratitude. He said that his success comes from actually caring about his audience—by giving, he is getting. [Authors: How can you give to, care for, and support your audience?]

He showed a video preview of the “vook” edition of his book. The vook combines text, animation, music, voiceovers, and still photos. Then, with help from the crowd and verification from the yellow-blazered judges from the Universal Record Database—Gary set the universal record for most glasses clinked in one minute! Closing out the night, Clabo performed the “Crush It!” rap for charity—each $.99 download will feed six in Haiti. See below.

Let me round out this post—a sort of long thank-you to Gary, actually—by embedding two other videos: His powerful presentation at MediaBistro’s Circus in August 2009, and his adventurous Wine Library tasting of the best pairings for breakfast cereal.

See the full-sized version here: http://tv.winelibrary.com/2009/09/08/what-wine-pairs-with-cereal-episode-734/

Entrepreneur and inventor Jay Walker gave the following talk in February 2009 at TED (see below or here).

According to Walker, two billion people are learning English, worldwide, and China is poised to become the largest English-speaking nation—this year. In China, children start to learn English in the third grade.

Whether or not we follow Walker’s portrayal of ESL training as a sort of mania—shouting one’s language lessons en masse may just be fun—we can agree with Walker’s assertion that the standardization of English as the language of business should make it easier to solve the world’s big problems. English may seem like the standard now, but Walker’s saying that’s just the beginning.

For businesses in countries that are predominantly English-speaking, this could simplify overseas marketing, sales, and service. Conversely, as the Tom Friedmans of the world point out, international businesses will find it easier to invade those English-speaking countries.

Is your company marketing in English in countries that are adopting English? Does the propagation of English expand your international opportunities?

In “Marketing Small Businesses with Twitter” [NYT, 7/23/09], Claire Cain Miller profiles some small businesses that are using Twitter’s free platform to communicate with customers and peers. See the New York Times site: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/23/business/smallbusiness/23twitter.html.

When we strip away the hype around Twitter (hype that is already normalizing a bit), we can see Twitter as a platform that is

1. simple: Twitter is constrained in a good way. The focus is on message, not format—the character limit brings focus.
2. open: Through search, hashtags, @ replies, and visible follow lists, Twitter is built for discovery. The network effects are almost strong enough to let you sit back and succeed.

Twitter deserves a place in most companies’ communication portfolio. It’s a limited user set, and there are dangers in diluting a brand’s voice, but the benefits are strong.

Are you using Twitter for business? Have customers found you through Twitter?