自拍時代的自我推銷之道

In 2006, self-proclaimed hustler Gary Vaynerchuk decided it was time to try something new. Over the previous 10 years, Vaynerchuk had expanded his father’s liquor store into a successful wine business called Wine Library. However, for the ambitious young man, this was only the beginning. He had always had a nose for trends, and he could sense a real shift in how customers were making buying decisions. He wanted to capitalize on it.

2006年，自稱是小商販的加里·沃伊涅爾查克決定，是時候嘗試新東西了。過去10年中，沃伊涅爾查克已經把他父親的酒鋪擴大成了一家名叫“葡萄酒圖書館”(Wine Library)的成功酒企。然而，對於這位雄心勃勃的年輕人來說，這僅僅是個開始。他一直很善於發現潮流所向，能夠感覺到客戶作出購買決策的方式正在發生切實的轉變。他打算利用這種變化賺一筆。

Vaynerchuk set up a camera and had a colleague shoot him talking about wine. He was direct, brash, funny, and above all, informative. But what really set him apart was his sheer work.ethic. He posted a new episode of his “video blog,” which he dubbed Wine Library TV, five days a week and relentlessly supported the content by tweeting in every spare moment, until three in the morning and beyond.

沃伊涅爾查克架設了一個攝像頭，讓一位同事拍攝他聊葡萄酒的畫面。他的評論直截了當，尖銳犀利，風趣幽默，最重要的是，信息量非常大。但不知疲倦的工作態度纔是他真正與衆不同的地方。他每週有5天會都發布一段全新的“視頻博客”（他把它戲稱爲“葡萄酒圖書館電視”），而且一有空就發微博，堅持不懈地爲視頻內容提供支持，一直到凌晨三點，甚至更晚。

Vaynerchuk’s methods paid off. Not only did his wine selling business grow to unparalleled heights, he became a bestselling author with books like Crush It!and Jab, Jab, Jab Right Hook. He was featured on the covers of top business magazines and received invitations to speak in front of massive audiences of entrepreneurs and executives. His fans even began calling themselves Vayniacs.

沃伊涅爾查克的方法得到了回報。不僅葡萄酒銷售生意增長到了空前的高度，他本人也成了一位暢銷書作家，代表作包括《粉碎它！》(Crush It!)和《右鉤拳》( Jab, Jab, Jab Right Hook)。此外，他頻頻登上頂級商業雜誌的封面，而且還經常受邀在大批企業家和高管面前發表演講。他的擁躉甚至開始以“沃伊腦殘粉”自稱。

Gary Vaynerchuk’s ascent to online stardom and real world riches typifies a powerful trend in business today. The idea, written about in countless articles and business books, is that the only way to make it in the digital age is to relentlessly promote your “personal brand,” especially though social media.

加里o沃伊涅爾查克崛起爲網絡明星、同時在現實世界贏得萬貫身家的經歷代表了當今工商界的一個強大趨勢。這種理念已經被無數文章和商業書籍探討過，它就是：在數字時代收穫成功的唯一途徑是，不遺餘力地推廣你的“個人品牌”，特別是通過社交媒體。

The intensity of this process can be daunting. As such, a cottage industry of inspirational business advice has sprouted online, full of aphorisms that combine self-help and tough love. In fact, Vaynerchuk put it best during an interview on Mashable, where he looked into the camera and stated with his characteristic confidence, “If I’m more successful than you, there’s one reason for it—it’s because I outworked you.” And by work, he means spending a huge number of hours building fans of his Internet persona.

這個進程的強度可能令人膽寒。正因爲如此，一個致力於提供勵志商業建議的作坊式產業已經在網上破土而出，它充滿了集自助和嚴厲之愛於一身的格言警句。事實上，還是沃伊涅爾查說得最清楚不過。他在接受社交媒體博客Mashable採訪時盯着攝像頭，帶着他特有的自信，言之鑿鑿地說：“如果我比你更成功，那只有一個原因——因爲我比你工作得更努力。”他所說的工作指的是，花費大量時間爲他的網絡形象打造粉絲羣。

It is a recipe for success that is attractive, intuitive, and appealing to our fundamentally American belief if you hustle long and hard enough to get yourself in front of people, you can make all your dreams come true. There’s only one problem—for many of us, it doesn’t work.

這是一種極具吸引力、非常直觀的成功祕訣，非常符合美國人秉持的一項基本理念：如果你比其他人更加持久、更加努力地拼搏，你所有的夢想都可以變爲現實。這裏只有一個問題——對於許多人來說，這樣做根本行不通。

The soaring popularity of “self branding” is just one of the topics addressed in David Zweig’s new bookInvisibles: The Power of Anonymous Work in an Age of Relentless Self-Promotion (Portfolio/Penguin), which is slated for release later this month. Named as a Top Business Book to Read in 2014 by Adam Grant, a Wharton professor and bestselling author in his own right, Zweig challenges the pervasive notion that the people who spend the most time getting others to pay attention to them win. He accomplishes this by conducting in-depth profiles of individuals who are at the zenith of professional success in their fields and who actively shun the spotlight.

“自我品牌營銷”不斷飆升的人氣僅僅是大衛o茲威格的新書《隱形：在自我推銷時代中匿名工作的力量》(Invisibles: The Power of Anonymous Work in an Age of Relentless Self-Promotion)探討的主題之一。這部定於本月末發行的著作被沃頓商學院(Wharton)教授、暢銷書作家亞當o格蘭特譽爲2014年最值得期待的商業書籍。茲威格試圖挑戰一個普遍認同的觀點：花費最多時間爭奪其他人眼球的那個人終將獲勝。爲了達到這個目的，他深入剖析了一些正處於各自職業生涯頂峯，同時主動避開聚光燈的成功人士。

Some of those Zweig examines in his book include one of the world’s leading perfume developers, the structural engineer of the largest building on earth, and the guitar technician for the multiplatinum rock band Radiohead. All of the highly successful (and well-paid) masters featured in Invisibles work long hours, in some cases as long or even longer than what the self-branding Maharishis prescribe. But instead of spending these hours on promotional hustle, they dedicate time to working on and refining their actual craft.

這本著作審視的成功人士包括一位全球頂級香水開發商，全球最大建築物的結構工程師，以及發行過多張白金唱片的搖滾樂隊電臺司令(Radiohead)的吉他手。在《隱形》一書中，所有大獲成功（而且收入不菲）的大師級人物都在長時間工作，其中一些人的工作時間跟自我營銷的精神領袖所指示的時間一樣長，甚至還要更長。但他們並沒有利用這些時間叫賣，而是全身心地工作，打磨自己的技藝。

Zweig’s argument is not that marketing is evil or useless. “I’m not suggesting that some types of professionals don’t need to self-promote,” he writes, “Many of us do.”

茨威格並不是要說，營銷是邪惡的，也不是要論證營銷是無用的。“我並不是說某些類型的專業人才不需要自我推銷，”他寫道。“很多人都需要。”

There’s no denying that people like Gary Vaynerchuk have built empires by working into the wee hours of the morning to draw attention to themselves and their brands. In an age where doing an Internet search is the first step in virtually every buying decision, those who don’t maintain an online presence have a tough road ahead of them—no matter how well-crafted their work. The author’s overriding point is simply that a culture that favors around-the-clock hustle at the expense of all else holds back as many businesses as it helps.

不可否認，以加里o沃伊涅爾查克爲代表的自我推銷一族往往工作到凌晨時分，爲自己和自己的品牌贏得了關注，最終建立起了自己的商業帝國。在如今這個時代，上網搜索已經成爲幾乎每一項購買決策的第一步，那些沒有在網絡上安營紮寨的人往往要面臨一段坎坷的前程——無論他們的產品工藝多麼精良。茲威格最重要的觀點很簡單：如果一種文化青睞的是不計代價、24小時全天候的吆喝叫賣，那麼它能推動多少企業，就一樣也能拖累多少企業。

So the question remains: How do you compete if your particular business requires you to be up until three in the morning making wine instead of selling the wine that someone else has made?

因此，問題仍然是：如果你經營的那門生意需要你直至凌晨三點還在釀酒，而不是叫賣其他人已經做好的酒，你怎麼去競爭？

One option is to eschew personal brand building in favor of building a community. Instead of personally writing every blog post, answering every comment, and crafting every tweet, you might instead build a network of people in your industry willing to share in content creation duties. By positioning yourself as the lynchpin of that community, you often gain as much visibility as you would otherwise.

一種選擇是，不要建設個人品牌，轉而建設一個社區。不是親自撰寫每篇博客文章，回答每一個評論，構思每條微博，你或許應該在你的產業內打造一個人際網絡，讓其他人分擔內容創作任務。如果你擺正位置，設法成爲這個社區的軸心，你往往可以獲得同樣多的曝光度。

Another approach is to arm your employees with the tools, training, and encouragement to each contribute a small amount of content over an extended period of time. While it may feel good to take a solo in the spotlight, letting everyone on your team chip in can multiply the effect while still leaving plenty of time for you to do the work that really matters.

另一種方法是，用工具和培訓武裝你的員工，鼓勵每個人在一段較長期間內貢獻少量內容。雖然一個人獨佔聚光燈的感覺或許很好，但讓團隊中每個人都參與進來，往往能夠成倍放大推銷效果，這樣做還可以給你留出足夠多的時間，讓你從事真正重要的工作。

Whatever promotional strategy you ultimately choose, there’s one thing that’s clear—for many of us, shifting the focus from “me” to “we” is the secret to building, marketing, and selling something truly great.

無論你最終選擇何種推銷戰略，有一件事情非常明顯——對於我們許多人來說，把重心從“我”轉移到“我們”，是構建、營銷和銷售真正偉大的產品的祕訣所在。

Michael Schein is the founder and principal of Michael Schein Communications, a digital marketing firm that has created or facilitated content creation for companies including eBay, LinkedIn, Avectra.

本文作者邁克爾·施恩是邁克爾o施恩通信公司創始人兼負責人。這家數字營銷公司已經爲包括eBay、LinkedIn和Avectra等公司創造了許多營銷內容。