Social Media and the Wine Business

As a lover of both wine and social media it only seemed logical to start trying to bring those two things together some years ago. I initially did this by starting a wine and lifestyle blog with my wife and eventually turned that into also consulting wineries (and other hospitality related businesses) on what social media is and how to use it.

One thing to understand is that the world of wine, at least in my experience with the wine area that I live in, is very slow to adopt “new fangled technology”. Some of the most common statements against the usage of social media that I have heard are:

~We don’t have the time

~We don’t have the money

~We don’t know what to say

~Our customers don’t use social media

None of these statements make any sense to me and this is often my response:

~We don’t have the time – You don’t have the time to engage with your customers and potential customers?

~We don’t have the money – Start reallocating some of the funds you spend on other advertising/ marketing methods to social media usage.

~We don’t know what to say – Well, do you know what to say when customers are in your tasting room face to face?

~Our customers don’t use social media – Really? In fact they do (and then I can show them tweets that people have sent out with the winery name in it).

You see, social media is not a fad and it most certainly is not going away. It will however, morph and evolve over time and possibly look different than it does right now but that’s to be expected. The point is to get involved and be part of that evolution rather than cast it off as something that is not an important part of your marketing toolbox. There is no better tool in my mind, for any business in the hospitality industry (and all business to some degree in my opinion) than social media and from here I will speak specifically from a winery point of view but much of this can be used in any business.

Wine is social, meaning wine is consumed in very social environments from weddings to Holiday parties to Friday night gatherings with friends. For a winery to tap into the virtual conversation that is going on around wine, and potentially their brand, is one of the most significant changes in the wine business in my lifetime. You mean you can go online and listen to what is being said by wine lovers around the country and around the world? Do you mean I can than start conversations with these wine lovers and create a community online revolving around wine? Are you saying I can follow and track what is being said about my brand online?

Yes, yes, and yes. Why in the world would you NOT jump all over this medium?

The best advice I can give any winery that wants to promote their brand, increase brand awareness, increase sales, connect with new markets, sell wine online, or get more people in their tasting room is to find a way to be consistently active online. This is what I tell anyone that will listen. If you can jump in and be consistent while being a good, ethical online community member…it will, without a doubt, pay off.

Twitter and Facebook are still the dominant sites in my opinion. I encourage every winery to be active on these two at least. I do think Pinterest and GooglePlus can be good for business so I would encourage those as well if you have the time and money to be consistent over time. Remember, each social site has a different culture or vibe just as each restaurant you go to has its own culture or vibe. Learn the culture of the social site you are using and start learning the unwritten rules. This will help you be accepted into the community because people will notice the effort you’ve put in.

You also need to take note of sites like Yelp and Foursquare where people can check in and make comments about the service they have received. Monitor these and put out fires as they come up, do not ignore bad reviews. You can’t please everyone but you can show everyone that you are there and you are listening…that goes a long way in the world of customer service.

I think following analytics and metrics is important but it can’t always be the only thing you look at. I’m in the camp that believes the ROI of using social media is long term not short term. This is about building long term brand awareness, not selling 4 or 400 cases of wine the first day you send a tweet. Be in it for the long haul but monitor things so you can change things as you need to. You can use tools like Google Analytics, Twentyfeet, Hootsuite, Facebook Insights, SocialMention, SocialBro, and/ or Crowdbooster. There is an endless list of sites like these, find the ones that work for you. Some are free and some have upgrades you can pay for.

As for what to do once you’re online and you’ve started listening, the next step is to find content and also create your own. For wineries I will typically find wine business news to post on Twitter and the other social sites as well as food recipes, wine and food pairings, events happening at your winery, events happening in your town (always important to promote and highlight the area you are in), news about local restaurants, talk about your wines, the seasons in the vineyard, farming practices, and so on.

These things can be told via photos, video, written word, or links to articles you find. There is a never ending amount of material out there but it is indeed important to create some of your own. A blog on the winery website would be a crucial tool as well. I think posting once per week on the same day is a good place to start, more than twice a week isn’t really necessary from what I have seen.

I could dive into all of these things in a much more detailed way but these are a few things I really emphasize when I first meet with a potential client. I really cannot express it enough, social media is a culture and each site has its own unique culture. Learn the culture and dive in. The wine business is the perfect business for this…what are you waiting for?