Awhile back, Benjamin met an interesting chap at an Esquire event: CJ Chivers, a former Marine Infantry officer and current senior reporter/war correspondent for the New York Times.

He had a book coming out, but wasn’t well versed in the Internet and the dark arts of social media marketing. Instead he spends his days “kicking dictators in the teeth,” rooting out corruption, and generally being awesome. So, we proposed a trade. TBG would help him get his Internet sorted out, and in exchange he would take us night fishing!

Over a sushi lunch at TBG HQ, we set up with some basic stuff: A Tumblr, a Facebook page and a Twitter feed to distribute the content. We thought the Tumblr should be a reporter’s notebook of sorts, telling the stories behind his new book, “The Gun,” a history of the AK-47.

After getting up and running, CJ really took to the new mediums, posting a lot of background context, videos and back stories that make for really compelling reads. This all goes to show that you don’t need to be fancy, as long as the stories and content are great.

So far the initial reviews have been stellar. Expect a follow-up post from our nightfishing adventure to come. If you want to check out The Gun, here it is.