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How do you arrive at the conclusion that his follower list is "mostly organic?" It's true that having over 500k followers puts you in the top 700 Twitter users

How do you arrive at the conclusion that his follower list is "mostly organic?" It's true that having over 500k followers puts you in the top 700 Twitter users. It's equally true that having over 500k followers does not automatically make someone a "social media expert" (Donald Trump, Lindsay Lohan, & Nicole Richie are in that list - I don't think I'd hire them for social media strategy). Is it also true that you can't be a social media expert with <500k followers? I don't know the answer to that one, probably not. It's definitely true that Gary V's follower count alone does not confer expert status, nor deny it from anyone else.

garyvee 15y ago
my follow count has no merit,the most I have is that I help build a 60 million dollar a year business ect.. again I didn't want to come at this from a bad place, I was trying to start a conversation that should be had
- jaysonelliot 15y ago
  Well put.
petercooper 15y ago
Is it also true that you can't be a social media expert with <500k followers? I don't know the answer to that one, probably not. It depends on the niche and market size. I know someone who runs a social media consultancy in the rural area I live who does well out of training people on this stuff and she only has about 800 followers. She's an expert to them, although she's obviously not Gary Vaynerchuk or whatever.
bennesvig 15y ago
It seems like you're not very familiar with Gary. I've been following him online since mid 2008 back when he had maybe 13,000 followers. He relentlessly hustled online to get where is today as an "internet celebrity." By putting out videos on a regular basis, responding to an insane amount of tweets, doing live video streams, TV, and keynotes, each of those built him up to a credible social media voice. It's also not fair to compare him to celebrities like Trump or Lohan. They were already famous when they joined Twitter. Gary started at the bottom. I have no idea what he's done for clients with social media, but in terms of his own personal brand, he has crushed it (pun intended).

garyvee 15y ago

my follow count has no merit,the most I have is that I help build a 60 million dollar a year business ect.. again I didn't want to come at this from a bad place, I was trying to start a conversation that should be had

jaysonelliot 15y ago
Well put.

petercooper 15y ago

Is it also true that you can't be a social media expert with <500k followers? I don't know the answer to that one, probably not. It depends on the niche and market size. I know someone who runs a social media consultancy in the rural area I live who does well out of training people on this stuff and she only has about 800 followers. She's an expert to them, although she's obviously not Gary Vaynerchuk or whatever.

bennesvig 15y ago

It seems like you're not very familiar with Gary. I've been following him online since mid 2008 back when he had maybe 13,000 followers. He relentlessly hustled online to get where is today as an "internet celebrity." By putting out videos on a regular basis, responding to an insane amount of tweets, doing live video streams, TV, and keynotes, each of those built him up to a credible social media voice. It's also not fair to compare him to celebrities like Trump or Lohan. They were already famous when they joined Twitter. Gary started at the bottom. I have no idea what he's done for clients with social media, but in terms of his own personal brand, he has crushed it (pun intended).