When I buy wine at retail stores, I often ask the opinion of someone I know, whose opinion I trust and who knows my tastes. This can be copied by extending this to social media.

The trick would be finding someone who fits those criteria. For example, Robert Parker asigns points to wines according to his palate. I pay no attention to them for many reasons but the main one being that his tastes and mine do not align very well. So it would make no sense for me to join in any social media site that he sets up. For many others who follow his opinions, it would work.

But it will be no panacea. I think that the ‘relationship’ nature of social media would make the effects very distributed over many different wines. I believe that social media will become yet another tool for wineries, retail stores, distributors, regional organizations, etc. But it wont really ’save the day’ for too many. It may save the day for a few who already have a good product that will appeal to enough people but is simply lacking the connection to consumers.

Social Media is the tip of the iceberg…We have to understand that coming consumers are modelling a different global social conscience, rising new values, conceiving a new world hierarchy, embracing the Gaia Hypothesis.

Such an unprecedent and exponential global synapsis through the escalating use of virtual tech plataforms forming infinit virtual communities which final mission is the clear empowerment of human share of voice.

This is the “future present world” which is redefyning and challenging the business management and marketing pilars. At this point, when human voice is already aligning to embrace further technologies (Web 3.0, Web 4.0!!), the discussion shouldn´t be if Social Media use is relevant or not, IT IS!!!

The undermined discussion should be: Are we authentic?, Do we have a fundamental committed cause?, Do we deliver social value?, We have genuine products? We share values with identified communities? IF WE DO…the strategy HOW, WHEN, WHERE to engage is already responded. It is our mindset what is challenged.

Marina Miro
Marketing Manager for Argentina
Trivento Wines & Vineyards
Concha y Toro

2. Were I the wineries involved, I’d first stop creating sites with Flash. Pages created with Flash, for all their eye-candy, can’t be linked to–you can’t send a friend or fellow writer, or oenophile a link to a specific page, most of the time, and because of the way text is used, Google doesn’t spider Flash.

3. Use a Web site, and print ads, and communication with wine writers on and off the net for actual news, content, information, and announcements.

4. Use FaceBook and Twitter for short, very brief statements and questions that have a link *to the Website*.

5. Remember that a community of wine drinkers will convince each other to try your wines. Foster community, and your PR will improve as imbibers convince each other to try your wines, come to your events, and participate. Good customers can equal or beat good marketing.

Margaret Ryan
Olson Ogden Wines

Great article to get some chatter going about social media/marketing!

I definitely think wineries need to be present in the social media landscape to keep their finger on the pulse of younger consumers and how they are absorbing information before purchasing products. However, they need to put the work into their accounts and not look stale on the Web. If they are realistic and formulate a routine presence on Twitter and promote interaction on Facebook in conjunction with discounts and offers for participation…they should see direct sales more frequently.

In addition, some wineries are warming up to mobile solutions for Point of Sale issues. We’re actually trying to tackle this area and assist the overwhelmed consumer through Hello Vino (www.hellovino.com) if you’d like to check it out. We love hearing ideas and thoughts…trying to make it the best it can be.

Cheers!
Hello Vino Jim

But if a winery is looking to increase their direct to consumer sales, and therefore their own profit margins, then yes, having a social media strategy is beneficial.
And no, social media cannot survive in a vacuum. The winery must also have a strong ecommerce platform and website, as well as an engaging wine club and tasting room outreach program
Cheers, Amy.

That side of things is a work in progress. One thing I do know is that once you go down this path, content is king, and just putting any old drivel up isn’t going to do anything to build a brand or win over consumers. As mentioned by a number of people on this topic, this applies to Facebook, Twitter and your blog alike.

That said, for a small producer this type of communication is essential for building brand recognition. You don’t have the budget of the big guys and with the number of avenues to market and publicity in the trad media decreasing all the time I think if you fail to take advantage of this resource then you are missing out on a valuable opportunity.

Cheers

But first,let’s go back to the beginning.

Think of the people who are on a winery’s mailing list. How did they get there? They probably (assuming a greater than 50% chance) at some point visited that winery, tasted with someone who gave them insight and intimate details about the wine, drank enough to feel good all over and then purchased the wine – and probably joined the wine club.

While you can’t replace that intimate experience via the internet (frankly I’d rather share a glass in person anytime) it’s getting harder and harder for the consumer to find that experience in their own backyard. While there are a proliferation of wine shops, internet sites selling wine, etc. the likelihood of a consumer feeling loyalty to a brand – like they would if they visited and enjoyed the experience – is not there. And in most cases, tastings are with a sales rep or distributor not the winemaker so they really seem to blend into sameness.

So what to do next? Use these communication “tools” (yes, that’s what they are)to give your fans and followers a more intimate experience. Invite them to visit and offer them special things. Create bonuses that your readers will want to share with their friends. Or content or video.

Share the intimate details of your winery and the winemaking experiences with your consumer will serve to remind them of why they enjoyed your wine or make them want to visit you or buy the wine to have a more enhanced experience when they’re drinking it.

And yes, give them some kind of discount (you are afterall by-passing any intermediary so this is really to your advantage) and hope that you can make the site or tweets interesting enough that your followers and fans will respond with purchases. The most difficult thing will be how to overcome the lack of availability in the local area where they reside so there should be someplace on your page where it links to where they can also buy the wine locally (most people aren’t doing this) or where it is served in restaurants. Otherwise, it’s meaningless.

Where it all breaks down is ‘will your site make it into their fave 5?’

Most likely not.

And while someone like GaryV might inspire the wineries or regions to think they can also get to almost 1 million followers (he’s at 600K and counting) he’s been working at it for over 5 years now and presents a sense of immediacy to his viewers.

At W&W we opened our platform in January to permit anyone to post their own content to inspire, entertain and educate consumers about their brand, their passion, and to share their stories, photos and videos. I think that there will be consolidated platforms for this in the future. Right now the social media aspect of this industry is expanding – so there’s a lot of noise out there. Don’t just ‘join the noise’ -make some music.

The example of a really good recent effort was announced yesterday by the Napa Valley Vintners Association. They realized all of the traffic they were getting and have now offered a place for people to see all member winery events in one place. There are very sophisticated tools on the new site so it looks like a great place for wineries who belong to invest their effort in keeping it current.

Wineries like everyone else on facebook and twitter need to find as many outlets as they can to tell/sell their story.

Whether all of this effort will result in the support of more people purchasing premium wines will only be determined by two things:

1) are people who previously bought premium wines going to miss that experience by now randomly buy/drink lower priced wines that might be less satisfying as their way of trading down and step back up (assuming they don’t already have enough in their cellar to last a lifetime) and

2) is premium wine, like expensive hair cuts, designer handbags, jewelry sales, etc. going to be permanently put into a category of ’special occasion purchases’

I know that I would personally rather not drink a bottle of a wine of highly suspect origin bought through the grocery store or elsewhere just because the price looks appealing – to me it’s a waste of money.

But the prices of premium wines are constantly being “marked down” on sites like WineSpies and others then the consumer will have good reason to wait to find these wines at a more affordable price if and when they want them.

And as the owner of a wine store Wine Valet at Two Rodeo Drive – we only have 85 wines on the shelves at one time – and support the website price of the winery in our store. And no, it’s not because we have high rent (we don’t).

Yes, our biz is way off but we believe that it is our job and obligation to give the consumer a hands-on selling experience, to try to meet every winemaker whose wine is on our shelves and to support the wineries with our efforts. But even our most loyal clients are “cutting back” or “drinking what they have” so it’s a tough market to say the least.

And while we’ve been recently shown a lot of “second labels” from wineries recently, we always buy with price and taste in mind meaning you don’t have to buy the most expensive wine to drink beautifully made wine.

What will help the market for premium wines is for restaurants to declare National BYOB days where consumers will want to buy a premium wine for the purpose of drinking where they know the corkage will be waived and do it on a consistent basis.

Yes, I do still believe in the tooth fairy.

You can reach me at julie@womenwine.com