Introduction

Can social media help producers expand their market, and extend their brand?  Is social media a fad or does it represent a siesmic sales-channel shift?

As you have undoubtedly heard by now, social media purports to change the customer-communication model; in many ways social media is like a cocktail party, making it possible for like-minded people to find one another and communicate.   Wine enthusiasts, for example, have a multitude of options for sharing their likes, questions and stories (more on this later), and since wine is inherently social, wine producers + (appropriately harnessed) social media should equal a perfect pairing.   What aspects of social media should a producer harness, and just as importantly, how?

Social Media Components

Decanting the panoply of relevant social media components can seem daunting, however, there really are a handful of useful tools that can get you started.  I’ve broken them out by category:

Networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter offer ways of connecting with customers: better than in the old broadcast (advertising, promotion) model — networking tools allow producers to start a two-way conversation with wine enthusiasts. In its most simplistic state, networking helps build brand awareness, and more importantly, listen to potential customers. Video and blogs help with brand identity and brand awareness (think: search).

Does Social Media Really Change Anything?

Using social media networking tools is a great way for producers to communicate directly with their current customers.  But in addition, the use of video and blogging tools helps build brand identity and market penetration — especially with younger enthusiasts.  

A couple of examples: Facebook has more than 175 million users (and there are more users ages 26-44 than 18-25 — insidefacebook.com).   Creating a Facebook community can help keep the brand fresh in enthusiasts minds.  In the same vein, Twitter allows a producer to present personality and a spirit of caring to current and potential customers.  

With youtube.com in the top 3 Internet sites, a video indexed by Google helps lift a brand in a related search. Video + blogging tools help increase a site’s (and associated product’s) search scores, and thus results (when used as part of a sensible overall SEO strategy). Combined, these tools represent a systemic shift in the ways a producer can open/create and keep new dialogs with enthusiasts. 

What Is the Community Saying? 

Customers are talking.  A producer should choose to listen. An easy example, here are a couple of Twitter posts representing customer opinions expressed during recent weekend tasting excursions:  

“Featherstone, ’03 vineyard of the yr. Beautiful resto on the veranda. Amazing 07 cab franc and sauv b credit card gonna suffer today #wine”

Outstanding!  Let’s share this with the world! Somms listen up!  Wouldn’t it be great to capture the feedback and begin an on-going conversation with this customer?  Perhaps he/she could be introduced to other varietals/vintages or perhaps more could be learned regarding value-added services (for instance wine club membership) that would interest them.

Here is a slightly different post:

“Can’t believe [XXX Winery] closed their picnic area to visitors. #Wine Club members only now. I guess they have enough business. Shame”

Even established brands can benefit from having a social media cognizance.  Can a producer capture or reply to every relevant post? Probably not. Should they try? Hell yes.

How To Harness The Tools

Harnessing the power of social media is an on-going effort, and one that will take time.  Start simply, and plan on it taking time to find the right “voice” for your brand, and to begin building a social media rapport with your customers.  Some brands have already recognized social media’s potential and are moving quickly to get their conversations going.  One well known example is Murphy-Goode Winery – hiring a “Lifestyle Correspondent” who will “report on the cool lifestyle of Sonoma County Wine Country, and of course, tell people what you’re learning about winemaking”.   

Murphy-Goode’s approach may be all-out, but here’s an example of a common-sense approach to harnessing social media: V. Sattui Winery .  Check them out!  They have a direct-link to their Facebook account, and are using embedded YouTube video (“The Wine Guys”) to promote their brand. 

Pick the Low-Hanging Social Media Fruit

Can social media help producers expand their market, and extend their brand? Absolutely. As we’ve discussed, the thoughtful use of networking, video and blogging tools can help a producer better hear the enthusiast’s voice, and increase brand awareness.

jeff moore Social Media, Wine