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Breaux Vineyards, Keswick Vineyards, Monticello, Mountfair, Social Media, VaWine, Virginia Wine, WBC11, Wooloomooloo
Virginia Wineries – What are your social media expectations, really?
Back in March I wrote an article entitled ‘Social Media: Do Virginia Wineries Get It?‘ that started the discussion of how Virginia wineries are/are not using social media to connect with customers and to build their brand. The response from the post was overwhelming and unexpected, resulting in a couple dozen comments from Virginia wine consumers, bloggers and Virginia wineries.
Given the response to the article, I subsequently posted a four-part series that featured Virginia wineries actively engaged in social media, in varying degrees, to connect with consumers. The four-part series featured Breaux Vineyards, Corcoran Winery, Doukenie Winery, and Bluemont Vineyards:
- The original post – ‘Social Media: Do Virginia Wineries Get It?’
- The Social Media Interviews – Part I: Breaux Vineyards
- The Social Media Interviews – Part II: Doukenie Winery
- The Social Media Interviews – Part III: Corcoran Winery
After a recent conversation with a winemaker about social media expectations, I felt the need to revisit this subject to solicit opinions from other Virginia wineries – What do you want from your social media efforts. What is your expected return for time invested?
During our conversation, my winemaker friend told me that he/she had no clue as to why their winery was engaged in social media (Facebook, Twitter) other than the fact that other local wineries were engaged. Needless to say, this response surprised and confused me. Are wineries seriously devoting considerable time to Facebook and Twitter with no clearly defined expectations, or solely because other wineries are ‘doing it?’ Are there other Virginia wineries engaging in social media for similar reasons?
Virginia wineries – What do you want from your social media efforts. What is your expected return for time invested?
Despite this one person’s lack of direction 
, it’s interesting to observe how opinions, level of engagement, and approaches to social media have changed in recent months. I suspect the level of engagement has increased for many reasons, including – increase in overall social media awareness, realization that social media provides a low-cost way to connect with consumers, more blogger engagement (maybe), and perhaps the 2011 Wine Bloggers Conference as well.
Wineries like Mountfair Vineyards, Gadino Cellars, and Keswick Vineyards have really stepped up their social media engagement – rarely a day goes by that each of these wineries are not engaged in Virginia wine conversation on Twitter. As an adjunct to taking an active role on Twitter, each of these wineries, along with many others, have been very supportive of Twitter tastings and other Virginia wine tastings.
A great example of this new level of engagement is Mountfair – the very first Virginia winery to host a live tasting event via Twitter. Regardless of how subsequent tastings are labeled – taste live, twitter taste live, taste Va Wine online, or whatever – Mountfair lays claim to being THE first! Big props to Jacqueline, Fritz and the team at Mountfair for taking this initial big step! (read recaps of the event at Swirl, Sip, Snark, My Vine Spot, and The Other 46). Other wineries like Keswick and Tarara are embracing social media in others ways like blogging as well.
Editorial Note: Rather than giving away wine for all of these online tastings, the key is to have an online tasting wherein Tweeters/bloggers ‘purchase‘ the wine in special discount packs (This experiment is coming… stay tuned… . To the best of my knowledge, Lenn Thompson at NY Cork Report is the first to try this.
All of this Twitter activity and willingness to support online tastings is great, but I still wonder – What exactly are the wineries expecting from Social Media? I ask this question purely through the lens of a curiosity seeker. I ‘think’ I know what wineries want, but am curious to hear directly from the wineries.
Coming Friday: Recap of ‘Introduction to Virginia Wine‘ tasting in Sonoma, CA.
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Great Article Frank. I am in the process of sending something similar out to out the Colorado Wineries and Vineyard.
I have engulfed with Social Media, Blogging and Inbound Marketing for about 2 years now. I still get that confused look on my face when a client or business says to me “Why would I want to do that” or “I don’t have time”. My response is “you can’t afford not to have time”! Today’s marketing is much different than it was even about 5 years ago. Money is tight and companies big and small need to look for ways to maximize their dollar. Social Media is Free in the sense that you don’t have to shell out any cash…
The cost of Social Media is the time and effort you give it… Hence the more time and effort the bigger the pay off…With wineries the effort would pay back in spades. I am friends with a few of the wineries here in Colorado.. I follow them on whatever avenue they are using and all if they use them all. The interaction is getting there. People need to feel engaged. Bonacquisti is doing a great job at this. Stoney Mesa is videoing their crush right now which is way awesome because it gives their followers the sense that they are there with them.. These are huge steps!
Thanks for making me feel like I am not going insane!
Hi Kim: Thanks for stopping by to comment. This is certainly applicable to all wineries, especially those wineries in states like Virginia, Colorado, Texas, Michigan (those in the other 46) as they can leverage social media to compete with larger wine industries in terms of connecting with consumers. I look forward to hearing comments from Colorado wineries. Cheers!
Hi Frank!
I have stuck with it, despite the fact that it does take up most of my “free” time these days, because I think we do gain a lot from it, more than I expected actually. We have seen a good increase in attendance at our events with social media- for example our barrel tasting coming up was almost completely filled up in the first few days of mentioning it! We’ve also had record attendance at our 4th of July and Valentine’s Day events, and our Yappy Hours have really taken off too! Our main (sometimes only) advertising for these events is through social media.
I love meeting people on Twitter and seeing pictures or comments people post to our Facebook page, and it’s always a lot of fun when a customer comes in and is talking about a video or something that I posted on Facebook.
It’s a good question really. I started doing Facebook for Keswick because it seemed like fun and an easy way to share pictures with our wine club members and other people who came to events. I got on Twitter because I kept hearing people talk about it and wanted to see what it was all about. So I guess we kind of just stumbled into it initially
We’ve also been able to develop great relationships through social media- with other wineries, with our incredibly supportive local wine bloggers, with local B&B’s, and directly with customers and wine club members. All of these are important for increasing brand recognition and customer loyalty, which ultimately increase business.
And, of course, it’s still just lots of fun
One of the things in the tasting room that really made me smile is when 2 girls came in and one of them started telling me about the video she saw on our Facebook page and her friend said “yeah, she totally stalks you on Facebook”- I love it!!!
That is Awesome!
Frank, as always thanks for posing the great questions. I owe the loss of all my spare time to you and your encouragement to engage social media ; ) Of course, I am kidding with just a dash of truth.
I, too, echo Kim’s words above. I have recieved nothing but positive feedback and new customers from my social media efforts. I further believe that we have more return traffic through the my social media efforts. Quite simply, it is the best way to grow relationships on a day to day basis. People want to be heard, want to play, want to engage each other, want to be serious and joke around. This to me is what social media is, a digital extension of your personality. I always try to engage a wide variety of people via twitter and facebook on an hourly/daily basis, if only for a quick minute. From a pure marketing perspective, it quite simply is the most effective way to consistently put your brand in front of your customers.
Cross promoting is huge as well. I’ve seen growth in our wholesale simply by promoting those shops and restaurants that have our wines. People discover that the place down the street carries our wine. They tell and tweet/post their friends and before you know it another wholesale order goes out. I tweet/post the new orders and we repeat the cycle. It’s the most enjoyable, down to earth marketing experience I have ever had.
To answer your question directly, I expect to develop respectul and friendly relationships through honorable and sometimes humorous social media efforts. I expect to see, and have seen, growth to our bottom line, more traffic, more orders, more revenue, less marketing cost. In a larger worldview, I expect my and other VA winery efforts to put VA wines front and center in the world of wine. (A rising tide raises all boats)
The next level for me is a push on more media, video particularly, more blogging, adding more social media avenues, i.e. foursquare and other redemption sites plus a big push to make sure we are visually mobile; meaning that we are visible on a variety of mobile device maps. Oh yeah, our website needs a tune up too. Anyone looking for a little extra work?
It does keep me busy, and I can understand why people would say I don’t have time. I said that. However, engaging in social media can be manageable to your schedule and it’s keeps me more energized in my own business. I’ve stepped away from the Tasting Room, but now engage via social media.
I will bet there is a law of social media that exists and it’s something like this, the more you resist social media the more you need it. So, get to it, there’s no time like the present.
Cheers,
Derek
Derek: I really appreciate your comments on this subject. You, along with a handful of others in Va Wine, are setting an excellent example of ‘how’ social media can work! Just think, if it wasn’t for all this social media stuff… there’s no telling what other hobbies you could have gotten in to… and you know the ‘Cost Benefit Analysis’ never works out for them darn hobbies!
Cheers my friend.