Crushit Book Review by Dr. Horowitz

I emailed Gary Vaynerchuk a little while back asking him if I could have a copy of his book Crushit to consider using in my Introduction to Marketing class for Fall 09 since I was going to be teaching students contemporary marketing skills and using WineLibraryTV.com and GaryVaynerhcuk.com as examples in my class that I shamelessly promoted as A Really Good Class (class page, post category).  I also asked Gary if he would do a Skype session with my class.  Last semester my Introduction to Marketing class read Buying In and Rob Walker did a Skpye session with my class.  Well, now I’m 6 weeks into my Introduction to Marketing class–A Really Goode Class ;)–and I need to decide whether or not to use Crushit in my Promotions class in Spring 2010.

Crushit was fun to read.  If you are looking for some motivation to start learning how to use the Internet for marketing purposes then the $19.99 is a great deal.  If you are a Gary Vaynerchuk fan like me who owns the first three or four WLTV wristbands, an Oakmonster tee shirt, and bought two bottles of Vayniac Cab, then the $19.99 is a good deal.  But, if you were a Sonoma State undergraduate Business major in a promotions class in Spring 2010 would a copy of Crushit for $19.99 and a month talking about Gary Vaynerchuk in class be worthwhile?  I think most people would answer the question no, but since I’m obviously drinking Vayner-Kool-Aid, I just might have to play with this idea.

Crushit does a good job bringing to light interesting contemporary topics like being an Internet entrepreneur, personal branding, and social media.  Crushit identifies websites that are useful for Internet marketing like tumblr, twitter, and tubemogul.   Crushit also tells Gary’s entrepreneurial story, which is a good one.  But, the book doesn’t delve into these contemporary topics in a very critical manner, the book doesn’t teach the reader the details about how to use the useful websites, and the book mentions gary@vaynermedia.com too many times.

Congrats Gary for getting your book out quickly!  The Peep Diaries doesn’t come out until May 2009 (I hope this book will address peep culture in more detail), The Smashing Book is still on preorder, Chris Coyier’s book Digging Into Wordpress hasn’t been officially announced, and MTV has not yet started the show Pimp My Blog (but someone did buy the domain name).  I hope this blog post helps spread the word about Crushit–whether it’s kiteboarding to Cuba (read Buying In) or eating dirt and washing it down with Cristal, “getting people to talk is the whole point” (p 36)!

I can’t imagine what my discovery of wine country and the wine world would have been like if I hadn’t heard this podcast while on a jog in Tallahassee, FL!

I would hire Vaynermedia to do Web design if I was a business, organization, or self-promoter (with deep pockets), but should undergraduate business students in a promotions class read Crushit and talk about Gary Vaynerchuk for a month?