Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk is the latest in the line of books designed to equip readers with the knowledge and tools to start their own home-based business on the internet.  Tim Ferriss captured this market roughly 3 years ago, with case studies and data to back up his studies on creating a virtually automated, metrics driven, “muse”.  Ferriss also advocated  social engineering techniques as a way to maximize impact with less effort.  Crush It, on the other hand, advocates finding the subject that you are most passionate about and working as much as possible to create valuable content around the subject in an effort to brand yourself as an expert in that industry.

The book is largely based off of Gary’s personal experience in creating content around wine.  As is the case with most authors who write books of this nature, Gary was among the first movers in the social media engagement and marketing industry as has drawn quite a bit of success from it.  From working as a liquor store clerk to leveraging his business development prowess into a brand building media company, Gary certainly has the chops to be writing a “how I did, and how you can” book like Crush It.

The book reads quickly and like a conversation.  I was able to finish it in just less than 2 hours.  It’s style is somewhat high energy, yet extremely matter of fact.  For the person interested in learning about how to establish themselves and engage with others through social media, the book is an excellent start.  It offers many resources, techniques, and exemplified suggestions.  If a person is completely new to the online content creation and brand building game, then Crush It makes for an excellent 101 course.  The content creation, distribution, and brand leveraging techniques are laid out simply, and with plenty of helpful and illustrative hypothetical examples.

While I will certainly not be as harsh as some of the book’s critics have been, there really is no real reason for the harshness, I will lay out a few minor issues I had with the book.  It would have been nice to see a bit more hard data/citations backing Gary’s claims of “billions of advertising dollars in play”.  We all know this is true, but it wouldn’t hurt to have a cited source to back this up.  I probably wouldn’t have minded seeing a bit more hard data scattered throughout other parts of the book as well – not that Gary needed to prove his success, but it just adds another lay of credibility for those who may be unsure and completely skeptical.  It would have also been helpful if Gary would have relayed a few thoughts on community size, and how large to build the community before going out and shaking down some companies for sponsorships.  I realize that an answer to that would be based on niche/subject matter, but I am sure a generalization could have been made.  Finally, it would have interesting to see a few suggestions on how to leverage a brand beyond further content creation (conferences, shows, etc.) into something tangible (products, retail, etc.).

Crush It is certainly worth reading, whether you are already building a brand for yourself in your industry, or if you are looking to take the leap and jump in head first.  The book is by no means a one-shot-make-it-big-miracle-system that will take you from the bottom to the top.  Gary is careful to mention, more than once, that it takes quite a bit of sweat and hard work – but those that are willing to do the work, will have all of the fun (because it is your passion) and the success will follow.  Regardless of whether or not you think the guy is too high on life, he obviously knows what he is talking about – and can back it up with real life success, and anyone who can do that is to be commended.  All in all, Crush It provides an excellent source of energy, drive, resources, and techniques for beginners to establish themselves online and build a worthwhile community and brand around the activities and things they love most in life.